International Tenant´s Day theme 2013: Tenure neutrality
In 2013, the International Tenant´s Day, together with the UN Habitat Day, falls on October 7 – always the first Monday in October.
Tenure neutrality is the situation in which the consumer is financially indifferent between owning and renting a dwelling.
Tenure neutrality is about people being able to move across tenure according to their circumstances – giving people choice. Tenure neutrality means that modes of finance do not distort consumer choices between renting and owning, which can be instrumentalised through assisted finance, market organization like rent setting rules, tax policies, etc. Subsidies should be tenure neutral. Tenure neutrality presupposes integrated housing markets where pro-viders of any kind can compete and attract consumers.
Tenure neutrality fosters consumer sovereignty by widening the scope of choice; permits diffusion process between tenures over life-course and mitigates poverty traps.
A neutral policy includes legal measures to make tenures alike in terms of freedom of disposal and security of tenure.
More tenure neutrality stimulates more rental housing, which has posi-tive effects for the stability of the housing market, and counteracts housing bubbles.
Where in the world is ‘tenure neutrality’ effected? Not really any-where. Tax incentives have stimulated homeownership in all countries. But we can assume that countries where households chose to rent, rather than buy, have a higher degree of ‘tenure neutrality’ than in countries where homeownership is the predominant tenure, like in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands.
More information:
IUT Secretariat in Stockholm
IUT head office
P.O. Box 7514
SE-103 92 Stockholm
Sweden
tel. +46 8 791 02 25
fax: +46 8 20 43 44
info@iut.nu
Source: International Union of Tenants
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