IUT Brussels Special Report housing related impacts of the pandemic ENHR FEBRUARY 2021

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

2

INDEX:

- European Network for housing research (ENHR) seminars “Housing

related impacts of the pandemic” – Opening Session ........................ 3

- Effects of Covid-19 on metropolitan housing and land markets ...... 7

- Multiple-property investment in times of Covid-19 ....................... 13

- Changing spatial preferences through Covid-19 ............................ 16

- The Covid-19 pandemic effects on housing and policy & research

responses ......................................................................................... 21

- The consequences of Covid-19 for sustainable communities and

housing ............................................................................................. 25

- How Covid-19 has affected older adults and their housing

conditions ......................................................................................... 30

- COVID-19 and Housing in Southern Europe ................................... 35

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12

th

of February 2021

♦♦♦ ENHR seminars “Housing related impacts of the pandemic” ♦♦♦ The importance of

the EP resolution on decent and affordable housing for all ♦♦♦ The pandemic and

housing precarity in the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean ♦♦♦The community

question in post-pandemic cities♦♦♦

European Network for housing

research (ENHR) seminars “Housing

related impacts of the pandemic”

1

–

Opening Session

On the 12

th

of February 2021, ENHR held the

opening seminar of a series of webinar under

the title “Housing related impacts of the

pandemic”, which took place online from the

12

th

until the 26

th

of February.

The seminar was divided into two roundtables,

one between ENHR housing experts –

moderated by Iván Tosics (Metropolitan

Research Institute, Budapest, ENHR vice-chair)

– and the other one between ENHR-related

networks, moderated by Montserrat Pareja-

Eastaway (University of Barcelona, ENHR vice-

chair).

Covid-19 as a game

changer for national

housing systems?

Prof. Peter Boelhouwer,

Technical university of Delft

(NL) and chair of ENHR, opened

the roundtable with a

presentation about the

possible effects of the

pandemic on the housing

market. Some of the short-term consequences

of Covid-19 are already visible: increase in

domestic violence, health issues (including

psychic problems), conflicts in public space,

drop in school performances, growing

unemployment rates, lower incomes and

1

https://enhr.net/online-seminars/

decrease in investments in multiple properties.

Indeed, there has been more awareness over

the need of adequate accommodation, and the

demand for social and affordable housing has

significantly risen.

In the long run, the consequences may include

additional difficulties in obtaining a mortgage

lending, more willingness of people to spend a

larger part of their income on housing,

attempts to create better working conditions

at home (since houses may be used as offices

even after the pandemic), arrears in education

affecting unprivileged children, further

economic difficulties for vulnerable categories.

Thus, a higher need of social and affordable

housing supply is expected.

A related question is whether cities are

becoming more or less popular because of the

pandemic, and the patterns indicate that it is

still unclear. On the one hand, figures show

that people are looking for housing with more

outdoor spaces and, since they no longer need

to live close to the office, they may prefer

moving outside of the city. On the other hand,

the need for contact, amenities and services

will grow, boosting the popularity of cities.

Professor Boelhouwer finally showed that in

the Netherlands, people in cities are less

satisfied since the spread of Covid-19 and the

trend of less citizens moving to the biggest

cities, preferring other parts of the Country,

outside of the Randstad area.

Peter Boelhouwer, Delft

University of Technology and

chair of ENHR

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The importance of the

European Parliament

resolution on decent and

affordable housing for all

The roundtable continued with

the speech of MEP Kim van

Sparrentak, who highlighted

the relevance of the EP

resolution “Access of decent

and affordable housing”

2

,

approved on the 21st of January 2021. In fact,

there is an increasing number of people who

are struggling for the rising costs of housing

and it has been estimated that one in ten

Europeans spends 40% of their income on

housing. The level of homelessness has

doubled in the last decade and this crisis is

affecting every category. Even if housing is not

a European competence, the EU has

unconsciously approved many regulations

which negatively affect the housing market

and its affordability. The report gave signal that

EU needs to develop a social and affordable

housing strategy, to tackle homlessness, to

have equal access to housing markets and to

have climate-friendly houses. Indeed, the

European Parliament expects the Commission

to implement soon an integrated strategy on

this.

The report underlines the need of tenant

protection by security of tenure and by long

term rental contracts as default option instead

of gentrification and displacement as well as

rent price stabilization where required and

clear national rental regulations instead of

skyrocketing rent hikes and rack-rents by

further market liberalisation.

3

It calls to end homelessness by 2030, which is

becoming a crucial social problem. It will be

2

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/docume

nt/TA-9-2021-0020_EN.html

3

https://www.iut.nu/eu/ep-vote-on-affordable-

addressed in the Commission’s Action Plan on

the European Pillar on Social Rights and in the

Social summit taking place in Porto on the 7

th

of May 2021.

4

Furthermore, the report calls for increasing

investment in affordable housing - both from

Member States and the EU – and for more

housing renovation towards a green transition.

In this regard, energy plans should be

implemented immediately, in order to

ameliorate the living conditions, reduce the

energy bills and tackle both the climate and

housing crisis.

The report also raises the issue of illegal short-

term rental and the consequent lack of housing

availability for citizens in touristic areas.

Finally, it states that housing should be treated

as a fundamental right, while it is mostly seen

as a commodity. It is important to research

more on EU rules on transparency in real

estate transactions to avoid tax evasion and

money laundering and to have more clarity on

who actually owns the properties- the

beneficial owner.

A journalist’s

perspective: can we

collaborate on housing

from the transnational

perspective?

The first roundtable was closed

with the presentation of the

journalist José Calatayud, who

explained that the pandemic

has increased the media coverage on housing,

highlighting problems such as the lack of

internet, water, space, etc. He urged a tighter

collaboration on housing issues from the

transnational and interdisciplinary

perspective, which is possible thanks to the

housing-wins-the-day/

4

https://www.2021portugal.eu/en/porto-social-

summit/

José Miguel Calatayud,

journalist and Housing

Project director

Kim van Sparrentak,

Member of the European

Parliament

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increasing availability of data. In fact, data are

crucial because they allow to cooperate across

borders and to compare the same situation in

different Countries.

José Calatayud is the director of Housing

Project at Arena for Journalism in Europe

which is an open network for journalists and

researchers working on housing issues. It

offers a newsletter and covers different topics

through policy papers, data, reports, etc. It is

collecting data and mapping them accordingly,

showing the potential and the challenges of

cooperating on these issues.

The pandemic and

housing precarity in the

U.S.

The second roundtable of this

opening webinar wanted to

give a perspective from outside

Europe, notably from the US,

Asia, and Latin America. Ed

Goetz was the first to take the

floor in this second part of the

seminar, explaining that US was facing a

housing crisis and precarity even before the

pandemic, which, of course, is worsening the

situation. Poverty is indeed increasing, and

more people are forced to move in with others,

using spare rooms or couches, thus affecting

the quality of life.

In the US, housing precarity is largely defined

by race, ethnicity, and gender. Black and

Hispanic people in particular suffer from higher

eviction rates, risk of displacement,

discrimination, instability, and poverty. The

pandemic has widened these gaps, and, in fact,

it has been demonstrated that especially

vulnerable groups are facing higher risks of

infection and mortality, job loss, instability and

eviction. Inequalities and discriminations are

strongly growing, while the US real estate

market is booming.

The policy responses have been uneven and

include:

- eviction/foreclosure moratoria: temporary

attempts to keep people in their homes

enacted by the federal and local governments,

which just postpones evictions, since it does

not provide financial support to people unable

to pay their rents.

- emergency rental assistance: subsidies to

people in difficulties, but really limited in its

implementation.

- transitional/emergency housing: different US

governments have purchased old hotels in

order to convert them into transitional

accommodation or social houses.

- utility payment assistance/shut off moratoria.

Usually these policies are local-based, rather

than state-driven.

The community question

in post-pandemic cities

The second speech was held by

professor He, who explained

that the four major challenges

to face in the replanning and

governing of the post-

pandemic cities will be:

mobility, livability, security and

sociability. All of these aspects

are connected with socio-spatial relations and

processes at multiple scales. She asserted that

a more comprehensive planning and

governance considerations going beyond the

modernist approaches are needed. Thus it is

important to take action on the four key

challenges stated above. Mobility tends to be

a privilaged asset, which, when poorly

developed, leads to the retreat to the

neighbourhood and home space. Mobility

should be accessible for all and should be

further advanced in post-pandemic cities.

Moreover, since home and neighbourhood are

now central nodes of the urban life, planning

should create 15-minute cities, where all the

Ed Goetz, Humphrey School of

Public Affairs, University of

Minnesota and chair of Urban

Affairs Association

Shenjing He, University of

Hong Kong, and vice-

chairman of APNHR

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daily needs can be reached by the citizens

within a short walk or bicycle ride from home –

thus increasing livability. From the security

point of view, instead, it would be optimal to

have “pandemic-proof” key infrastructure and

communities, using smart technology for

surveillance purposes. This, however, rises

privacy issues that cannot be ignored. Thus, in

the post-pandemic cities, a new and better

balance should be found. Finally, sociability will

be a crucial aspect in the cities, which will have

to find a way to compromise between social

proximity and social distancing, providing

social support to families, workplaces and

communities.

The residential community will thus regain its

centrality in the post-pandemic city, being

crucial for providing mobility, livability,

security and sociability. Covid-19 is causing

complex outcomes at the community level,

often leading to a trade-off between security

and sociability, livability or mobility. For these

reasons, we need long-term recovery plans to

reduce inequality and segregation at the

community level. An increase in investment in

community-based organizations and facilities

is necessary, especially for providing

affordable housing and socio-economic

opportunities for the unprivilaged categories.

Housing policies and

informal settlements in

Latin America and the

Caribbean

The second roundtable was

finalized by Anaclaudia

Rossbach, who opened her

speech explaining that Latin

America is the most unequal and violent region

in the world, where Covid-19 affected millions

of people and where the migration scenario is

very dynamic. In fact, many migrants are

moving within the region, increasing the

pressure for housing. Moreover, the GDP

decrease – which started before the pandemic

– is accelerating and now more than 20% of the

population lives in precariousness.

In terms of housing, homelessness and poverty

visibly increased during the pandemic and

informal settings expanded. Empty buildings

are now informally occupied by thousands of

people no longer able to pay their rent. The

Forum for housing in Latin America tried to

facilitate a political dialogue in Colombia in this

regard, obtaining a moratorium in evictions –

also for informal settlements – and some cash

transfer programs. In Chile, instead, rental

voucher programs were reviewed, and

subsidies were expanded. In Mexico, a new

land policy was launched, stating the right to

not be evicted and increasing the budget for

the upgrade of informal settlements and for

the construction of social houses. In Central

America, instead, the focus has been on the

furniture of water and basic services.

In a final exchange of views between the

participants, it emerged that all around the

globe the main actions in the housing sector

have been taken by the communities and the

cities, rather than by States. But since the local

governments face several budget constraints,

States should be more present in providing

fiscal resources, subsidies, and good

legislation.

It seems like Covid-19 has not really created a

new crisis, but it has exacerbated the existing

ones, creating higher urgency to tackle them.

New policies are now being implemented and

need monitoring. It is thus important to

continue fighting for equality and dignity of

communities and for an open, accessible and

affordable housing sector.

Anacláudia Rossbach, Cities

Alliance – Latin America

and Caribbean

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15

th

of February 2021

♦♦♦ Effects of Covid-19 on metropolitan housing and land markets ♦♦♦

Research ideas and reflections from the attendees ♦♦♦ Is there a new urban

model needed? ♦♦♦

Effects of Covid-19 on metropolitan

housing and land markets

On the 15th of February 2021, two ENHR

Working Groups (WG Metropolitan Dynamics:

Urban Change, Markets and Governance

5

; and

WG Land Markets and Housing Policy

6

) held a

joint online workshop as part of the ongoing

ENHR seminar series, with the following aims:

 to explore the spatial effects of the

COVID-19 crisis regarding land and

housing markets, connected to

changes in mobility forms, workplace

locations and home office tendencies.

 to analyse the potential tools for the

public sector to steer the future

development of metropolitan areas.

The WG Metropolitan Dynamics: Urban

Change, Markets and Governance was

established in 2005 on the belief that the

spatial dimension of housing never stops at the

city borders but affects all the urban and

metropolitan areas. Here, housing can be

considered as a means to develop solutions to

urban (densification, suburbanization, urban

sprawl), social (affordability, homelessness,

segregation) and environmental (energy

provision, green areas) problems. This WG is

5

https://enhr.net/metropolitan-dynamics-urban-

change-markets-and-governance/

thus interested in the operation of local

housing markets in the functional urban area,

notably in the territories around the core city.

The objective of this WG is strengthening the

metropolitan aspect, whose relevance has

increased during the current pandemic.

The WG Land Markets and Housing Policy,

instead, is almost 10 years-old and it has

widened its scope during the years. It now

focuses on the consequences of planning and

policymaking on the supply of land for

different types of housing.

Covid-19 is certainly affecting the metropolitan

housing and land market, among many other

sectors of human life. Many urban residents

are looking for bigger houses with some

open/green areas (balcony, terrace or garden).

A trend to a new suburban wave is expected in

many cities and, since people may

permanently work from home, they may

prefer to live outside of the city centre and

travel longer distances the few times they

need to reach the office.

It is also possible that people will prefer to

move by car, rather than by public transports,

changing the urban landscape.

Finally, the pandemic is increasing the social

awareness on the value of urban greens,

agriculture, bicycle lines and other measures

for safe and inclusive urban outdoor spaces.

The participants of the seminar had the

possibility to present their research ideas,

6

https://enhr.net/land-markets-and-housing-policy/

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aiming to discuss potential topics in view of a

possible joint Workshop in the next ENHR

Conference in Nicosia

7

, taking place from the

30

th

of August until the 2

nd

of September 2021.

Effects of Covid-19 in the

Metropolitan Area of

Tirana-Durres

Artan Kacani and Valerio

Perna (both from Polis

University, Tirana) were the first ones to

present their research ideas, which focused on

the Metropolitan area of Tirana-Durres. Here,

during the last 30 years, the urban system has

expanded from 3% of the Regional surface, to

9%, but 2/3 of the urban land has no land

tenure.

The municipality of Tirana has adopted a

Master Plan for the city, which, since the

lockdown, has led to mass evictions and police

brutality, aiming at eliminating all forms of

informal dwellings from the development

sites. Moreover, building permission has been

centralized in the hands of the government

with a “e-permission” platform, against the

European Charter of Local Self-Government

8

.

In Albania, Covid-19 has led to a decrease in

employment, GDP, investments, and net

exports. The housing market is dominated by

foreigners, since many people (especially from

Italy, Spain, and US) come to Albania to enjoy

their pension, forcing native people to move to

the suburban areas, where there is a lack of

basic services. Covid-19 has worsened the

situation and the process of gentrification.

Furthermore, during the lockdown, mobility

was reduced, and many workplaces were

inaccessible and now that urban transports

fully work, there are no anti-Covid rules

applied, causing increases in infection rates.

The challenge now is avoiding urban sprawl

while maintaining less densely populated

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8

https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list/-

areas. Planners should focus on the

inhabitants’ needs and on the peripheric areas

as resources for the city rather than a

hindering factor.

All these issues will be addressed during the

Tirana Design Week

9

, taking place from the

27th of September until the 10th of October

2021.

Covid-19 impact on

housing construction

activity: the case of

Łódź (Poland)

Magdalena Zaleczna (University of Łódź)

researched whether a shift in construction

from inside to outside of the city or a shift in

the city border is already visible or not.

The macro situation in Poland is not too bad

and the trends suggest that housing prices are

rising, while rent prices are decreasing.

Housing construction is increasing, suggesting

that people are optimistic about the future. In

Poland there are two main groups in housing

construction: individuals and developers. The

latter are more active now and create new

supplies in big cities, where, however, the

permissions to build are decreasing.

Magdalena Zaleczna showed that there is not

a shift from big cities to small cities when

comparing permissions to build and that there

are no big differences in construction actions

before and after the pandemic.

Her research concluded that:

- the activity of individuals preparing for

housing construction in Łódź increased in 2020

- the activity of developers reduced in Łódź;

- there was no significant change in the new

housing projects issued by individuals in Łódź;

- developers significantly reduced the number

of started investments in Łódź;

- in all the above-mentioned trends, the data

/conventions/treaty/122

9

https://tiranadesignweek.com/

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collected in the neighbouring counties show

both increases and decreases.

Probably people in Poland have started buying

land instead of dwellings, but this trend still

needs to be confirmed.

Post pandemic

planning for UK

housing market

Glen Bramley (professor

of Urban Studies at

Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh) explained

that Covid-19 caused a deep economic and

sanitary impact on UK. Government

incompetence and corruption have worsened

the situation, although some issues – such as

vaccines – were handled well. Moreover,

Brexit is likely to exacerbate the economic

problems. However, the pandemic also

showed that governments spend far more than

they usually admit to.

The increase in homeworking and the concerns

about crowded environments and public

transports may lead to a collapse of the

strategies based on city centre intensification

and a consequent boom in counter-

urbanization strategies, pressuring rural

markets and promoting more car-dependence.

The shifts towards the online retail may cause

a conversion of the shops into houses or

opportunities for local and small businesses.

Moreover, many buildings are still made of

unsafe materials and the legacy of Grenfell

Tower fire is still unsolved.

The UK government is trying to reform its

planning system towards a zoning strategy,

increasing housing supply through the

imposition of housing number targets.

However, there are no commitments for new

social housing.

Strategic planning in London city

region – the impacts of Covid-19

The research idea of Duncan Bowie (professor

at Westminster University) was focused on the

impacts of the pandemic on the London city

Region and the Wider South East.

London’s Strategic Planning started five years

ago, and the New London Plan is about to be

published, after major disputes between the

mayor and the central government. However,

there is no strategic planning for the wider

London Region. The planning network tends to

argue for a polycentric approach, suburbs

intensification, more residential and

employment growth in the cities around

London, but insufficient family houses have

been built.

The three new factors to keep in mind are

Brexit, Covid-19, and the cladding scandal that

followed the Grenfell Tower fire. All these

aspects have worsened the situation of the

regional housing market and economy. In

particular, the pandemic has highlighted the

importance of internal and external spaces

and, because of homeworking, many offices

could be converted into residential houses.

Covid-19 has also caused a decline of central

London cultural facilities, making it a less

attractive place to live in. There may also be a

change in high streets, replaced by online

shopping, and public transports will need to be

subsidized more.

Duncan Bowie concluded that it is necessary to

rethink the approach to spatial planning and

focus more on family-sized homes and open

spaces. The case for suburban intensification

and a more polycentric approach to planning

and development is now evident. Moreover,

the assumptions about population and

employment growth should be revisited

according to the less certain future. Finally,

there is the need for a more effective

governance and strategic planning for the

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London City Region, also focusing on the wider

South East.

Post-Covid housing supply

Constance Uyttebrouck (from University of

Liège) presented her research idea on the

housing supply after the pandemic, studying

changes in residential preferences, new forms

of live-work housing and adapted built

environments in Brussels.

The relationship with houses has indeed

changed during the last months, since people

are willing to adapt their houses for

homeworking. Her research will be based on

four hypotheses:

1. forced telework will lead to changes in

working conditions, residential preferences

and cities ‘attractiveness;

2. changes in preferences and needs will cause

a reconfiguration of housing;

3. the new sanitary context will lead to an

adaptation of working amenities;

4. Covid-19 crisis will cause a faster response

from the market than the one from the

governments, especially in liberal housing

regimes like in Brussels.

Her research goals are: understanding changes

in residential preferences and housing needs,

exploring possible responses from the supply

side, elaborating explorative scenarios and

providing policy recommendations.

The research will be implemented in three

phases and should last three to four years,

depending on the available financing, and the

expected outcome is the delivery of policy

recommendations.

The Pandemic Wild Card

in Planning – the case of

Iceland

Sigríður Kristjánsdóttir (from

Agricultural University of

Iceland) presented her

research on the housing

market in Iceland, which has not been too

much affected by the pandemic. The interest

rates for housing have been lowered, which

convinced many people to buy apartments.

Most of the dwellings are available downtown

in old buildings, where the demand is low, and

the price is lower in the city centre than in the

suburban areas. Many apartments previously

rented through Airbnb are for sale and most of

the new buildings are thought for hotels.

Many people are buying houses outside of

Reykjavik because with the same price they get

a bigger and fancier house.

Iceland needs to rethink its planning and its

mobility strategies. A new rapid transport

system in Reykjavik has just been launched,

but it is a bad timing, since people are moving

outside of the city and travel more by car.

The post-Covid 19 city: Reawakening

urban communities?

Berit Irene Nordahl (from Norwegian

University of Life Sciences) did not present a

research, but some reflections on the ongoing

situation in Norway. The final outcome of the

pandemic is still to experience, but so far Oslo

was poorly affected by it. Here, the real estate

market prices are growing. There has been an

elaborated and widely shared policy of

compact growth both in metropolitan cities

and in regional centres. Even with

homeworking, there is still strong support for

urban living, also in regional towns.

With the lockdown, from one day to another,

the city became empty: no cars, tourists, or

spending. People could enjoy urban outdoors

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

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as if they were in their own gardens. Citizens

refused to let commercial interests take over

their spaces and insisted on urban outdoors.

Moreover, since it was not possible to travel

abroad, people started to enjoy more their city

and to take better care of their urban

community. Urban planning should thus focus

on delivering good everyday life environment

to citizens.

She is optimistic about the future and does not

expect people to move away from the city

centre after the pandemic. Possible research

questions might be how to bring new

experience onboard in urban maintenance,

upgrading and care, urban transformation and

cities ‘attractiveness.

The case of Budapest

metropolitan area

Janos Balazs Kocsis (from

Corvinus University of

Budapest) shortly presented

the situation in the Budapest

metropolitan area, which was changing also

before the pandemic. According to him it is too

premature to state something solid on the

consequences of the pandemic and he is

sceptical about possible general changes.

Surely there will be some sort of changes,

especially related to white collar jobs that

could be carried out at home. However, many

other activities require special proximity to the

offices.

He expected more shifts in terms of activities

towards the periphery of the city of Budapest.

The impact of COVID19 on the

dream futures of the youth

Willem Korthals (from TU Delft)

presented the RURALIZATION

10

theory, according to which, facilitating

rural newcomers and providing access

to land can create more opportunities for new

10

https://ruralization.eu/

generations. More young people would move

in and less would move out of the Country,

creating a relative younger and renewed

population, thus allowing more economic

activities.

RURALIZATION held different workshops with

young people in different European Countries,

asking them about their livelihood recipe,

accommodation and lifestyle recipe and the

obstacles they face. Then they asked them

about their dream place of residence and data

show that the majority of participants would

like to live in rural areas close to the city (30%),

in an area outside of the city centre (21%) or in

a rural village (17%). Only 10% would like to

live in the city centre, 13% in a suburb in a city

area and 9% in a remote rural area.

30% of the respondents reported that the

pandemic changed their future dreams, and

this was especially true for young people

wishing to live in urban areas. However,

obstacles in realizing a specific dream were

more common than changes in the contents of

the dream itself.

The theory shows that the pandemic has led to

a re-evaluation of personal values and

preferences towards a rural-based

perspective.

The next step of this project led by

RURALIZATION will be a discussion with

stakeholders in 20 regions.

At the end of Korthals’ speech, however, Ivan

Tosics (ENHR vice chair) argued that there are

always less rural areas close to the cities and

that the closer the area to a city, the less it is

rural.

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Instant shifts in the

metropolitan area in the

pandemic centre vs

periphery – the case of

Thessaloniki

The last presentation was held by Charikleia

Christodoulou (from the Research Unit for

South European cities). There was a research

program on social housing in Thessaloniki, but

the pandemic obstructed it.

In this area there is a lack of metropolitan

planning and deregulation after the successive

“Economic Adjustment Programs” of the

European Commission, The European Central

Bank and the International Monetary Fund and

impositions by the Greek governments since

2010.

The housing market demand was

characterized by high rents and with a shift of

the residential market from rented housing to

short-term tourist accommodation and

gentrification of central areas. Thus, there has

been an intersection of policies that came from

top-down governmental directives in the

sector of tourism, housing, and small-medium

enterprises retail & services. During the

pandemic they assisted to waves of change

and to sudden shifts in small-scale property

management in relation to these three sectors.

In fact, there has been an immediate and

spontaneous shift from short-term/Airbnb

solutions to rental housing.

Moreover, during the second wave of Covid 19

many students were sent back home, leaving

many dwellings empty.

Now the issue of long-term planning in Greek

cities arises again because new urban routines

and public regulations emerged, changing the

structure of the metropolitan area function.

Is there a new urban model needed?

Ivan Tosics (ENHR vice chair) closed the

seminar with a final remark, quoting the OECD,

which stated that “It is not density alone that

makes cities vulnerable to COVID-19, but the

structural economic and social conditions that

make it possible or difficult for cities to take

suitable measures against the spread of the

virus. Cities that are characterized by

inequality, poor living conditions and the

spatial concentration of poor sections of the

population are far more vulnerable than the

wealthy”.

In a potential paper for the ENHR Nicosia

Conference, he would like to find out what

local governments can do in this situation and

how the public sector in general can react.

Urban areas should not be already written off

and it would also be good to research the

effect of outmoving, since rural areas are likely

to become urban areas.

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

13

15

th

of February 2021

♦♦♦ Multiple-property investment in times of Covid-19♦♦♦ The total return and risk

to residential real estate ♦♦♦ Housing crisis and the future of Residential real Estate

Investment Trusts (REITs) ♦♦♦ Inside the world of middle-class Hong Kong

transnational property investors ♦♦♦ Resurgent Landlordism in a Student City

♦♦♦ Airbnb in Berlin and Amsterdam, before and during the Covid-19 pandemic

♦♦♦ Short-term Rentals, Housing markets and Covid-19♦♦♦

Multiple-property investment in

times of Covid-19

On the 15

th

of February, Christian Lennartz

(PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment

Agency), Justin Kadi (Assistant professor,

Faculty of Spatial Planning, Vienna University

of Technology) and Cody Hochstenbach

(Postdoctoral researcher, Urban

Geography, Universiteit van Amsterdam)

moderated the workshop ”Multiple-property

investment in times of Covid-19”, which was

part of the ENHR seminars on the housing

related impacts of the pandemic. However, it

has not been organized by a specific ENHR

working group.

The workshop included six presentations and

counted 20 participants.

The focus of this seminar was on landlordism

11

in the private rental and housing sector,

investments into tourist accommodation and

second homes and how they were (or will be)

affected by the pandemic.

11

the practice under which privately owned

property is leased or rented to others for

occupancy or cultivation.

There is a lot of evidence that Covid-19 has a

negative impact on landlordism and returns of

investment in landlordism. In fact, rents’ prices

are going down in San Francisco, London, New

York, Amsterdam, Munich, and other big

European cities, since demand went down

during the pandemic.

The total return and risk to

Residential Real estate –

Matthijs Korevaar

Matthijs Korevaar (Erasmus

School of Economics) recently

published a paper

12

on “The

Total Return and Risk to Residential Real

Estate”, analysing how much return landlords

make out of their investments in the rental

market.

In his presentation, he also made a connection

to Covid-19, looking at pandemics in the past

and how landlords behaved. He found out that

throughout the history of the private rental

sector, pandemics did not have strong impacts

on rents, but had short impacts on house

prices. Right now, he sees a reverse trend:

rents are going down while houses’ prices are

stable.

12

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_

id=3549278

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

14

In Real estate we trust? Covid-

19, Housing crisis and the future

of Residential Real Estate

Investment Trusts (REITs) – Zac

Taylor

In his presentation, Zac Taylor (KU Leuven)

focused on how Residential Real Estate

Investment Trusts (REITs) became a bigger

player in the European and American rental

market context and how they behaved during

the pandemic.

After a short period of hesitation, it may be

expected that investors will pick up the assets

they had before the pandemic because they

have long term investments horizons, so they

would not like to change their investment

plans. However, now there is a shifting away

from prime urban housing market of investors

focusing on suburban housing markets. The

trends seem to shift from multifamily

apartment buildings in the city centre, to single

family apartments in suburban environments.

Inside the world of middle-

class Hong Kong

transnational property

investors – Hang Kei Ho

Hang Kei Ho (University of Helsinki) focused on

international investments’ behaviour in Hong

Kong, in particular towards the London

housing market. He presented his paper Inside

the world of middle-class Hong Kong

transnational property investors: ‘5980 miles

to my second home’

13

and also stressed the

importance of not concentrating only on the

13

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19

491247.2019.1611364

pandemic. In fact, there also other turbulent

events happening, especially in Hong Kong,

where the Chinese authority is increasing. This

is leading many citizens in Hong Kong to

increase their international investments since

they perceive their assets to be more unsafe

due to the political context.

Resurgent Landlordism in

a Student City – Cody

Hochstenbach

Cody Hochstenbach

(University of Amsterdam)

presented his paper Resurgent

landlordism in a student city: urban dynamics

of private rental growth

14

. In his research, he

studied different types of landlords and how

they invested in Groningen (The Netherlands),

which is a medium-sized university city. Small-

scale private landlords still dominate the

market, but there is a trend shifting towards

property concentration. It is also important to

understand the different categories of

landlords, since they show different

investment strategies.

14

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02

723638.2020.1741974

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

15

Airbnb in Berlin and

Amsterdam, before and

during the Covid-19

pandemic – Jelke Bosma

Jelke Bosma (University of

Amsterdam) shortly presented

his PhD research on Airbnb investments in

Berlin and Amsterdam and how behaviours are

changing due to Covid-19. In fact, the

pandemic has severely affected the tourism

sector and Airbnb Rentals have sharply

decreased in the last years. Hosts are thus

looking for other ways to rent out their

properties, especially those who rely and

depend on this income.

He also published an article on this topic

15

.

Short-term Rentals, Housing

markets and Covid-19 –

Justin Kadi

Justin Kadi (Vienna University of

Technology) had a short

presentation on the Short-Term

Rental Market and Covid-19, witnessing the

case of Vienna (Austria). Here, many Airbnb

properties were taken out for the Short-Term

Rental Market (since there was almost no

demand in 2020) and were offered in the

Common Rental market, without affecting

rental prices yet. However, since the

timeframe of his research might be not long

enough, this trend still has to be confirmed.

15

https://platformlabor.net/blog/airbnb-and-covid- 19-capturing-the-value-of-the-crisis

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

16

17th of February 2021

♦♦♦ Changing spatial preferences through Covid-19, ♦♦♦ Covid-19 effects in the

Netherlands ♦♦♦ The UK context ♦♦♦ Changes in housing preferences and group

communication practices ♦♦♦ Danish survey on housing ♦♦♦ Sharing a home

during lockdown ♦♦♦

Changing spatial preferences

through Covid-19

Covid-19 is deeply affecting our lives and our

economies. People are changing preferences

very rapidly and the housing market seems to

adapt to them. This seminar was organized

with the aim of researching the change in

people’s spatial preferences. Will working from

home remain the standard? Will the already

migration flows towards the sub-urban areas

continue? Or will the city centre regain its

attractivity? Participants tried to answer these

questions showing facts and figures about

their national housing market.

Covid-19 effects in the

Netherlands

Prof. Peter Boelhouwer (ENHR

chair) presented the situation in

the Dutch housing market,

explaining that the impact on

trust indicators after the 2008

financial crisis was much higher than today’s.

However, the housing market is clearly

unbalanced now. Prices in the rental market,

after constantly increasing since 2012, slightly

decreased in the last quarter, possibly because

of the pandemic that forced many expats to

return to their home Countries. Building

permits started decreasing sharply two years

ago, leading to an important shortage of

dwellings. Even before Covid-19, people

16

https://www4.shu.ac.uk/research/cresr/

showed preferences for living in sub-urban

areas and every year more people are moving

away from the four biggest cities (The Hague,

Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Rotterdam),

probably because of the lack of social and

affordable houses there. Nowadays, this trend

seems increasing, since people living in cities

are less satisfied with their home than people

living outside of the cities. 10% of home

seekers stipulate that the pandemic changed

their housing demand. In fact, the demand for

houses with gardens increased by 19% and

with outdoor spaces by 18%. There is now

more demand for houses (8%), and less for

apartments (-12%).

It is still early to state if cities are becoming less

or more popular. On the one hand, people are

now showing their strong preferences for

houses with outdoor spaces and gardens in

sub-urban areas and would like to have

separate zones for working and living at home.

On the other hand, the need for social contact,

amenities and services will grow, perhaps

making cities more popular again.

The UK context

Ed Ferrari (Centre for

Regional Economic and

Social Research

16

)

explained that the place

policy ‘landscape’ in the

UK before Covid-19 was defined by Brexit, the

climate emergency (need to find a more

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

17

sustainable urban model), the Productivity

Puzzle (need to close big regional productivity

gaps) and widening social and health

inequalities.

The problems of stimulating housing supply

and dealing with market failures in the private

rental sectors are now broadly accepted and

understood after the pandemic. In particular,

Covid-19 caused profound economic changes

and unemployment, brought new risk factors,

and led to the reconfiguration of social

relations and capital. All of these aspects have

explicit housing market impacts.

The number of people asking for social support

has increased, especially in Birmingham and

London, less significantly in smaller cities. In

fact, Covid-19 has turned the map of “city

centre vitality” inside-out: larger cities are now

the ones with the lowest footfall (number of

people entering a shop) and spending rates,

compared to smaller towns. This might be a

portent of the model of spatial structure to

come.

On the social relations and capital side,

through the pandemic digital divide,

neighbourliness, and the use of local facilities

increased significantly, making clear that the

“15-minute city” can be enjoyed only by

people that can really afford it.

In conclusion, after the pandemic, the location

will matter more than ever. The incipient trend

of “north shoring”

17

could be accelerated.

Finally, the post-Covid recovery will accentuate

differences between neighbourhoods, leading

to a widening of intra-urban inequalities.

17

the process of business and entrepreneurs moving

to northern cities in the UK in order to save

Urban housing markets in UK after the

pandemic

Nick Bailey (from the Urban Big Data Centre

18

)

presented an initial assessment of the short-

term impacts of Covid-19 on the private rental

sector, focusing on three city-regions:

Birmingham, Bristol, and Manchester.

The UK context is characterized by high

inequalities, a deregulated labour market and

a dualist rental system divided into a

substantial decommodified social rented

sector and a deregulated private rental sector.

He focused on the latter, which rapidly grew in

the last 30 years and houses a greater

proportion of younger and poorer households.

The rental market is dominated by the cities

and there is no evidence of downward shifts in

the urban hierarchy. As for the rent levels, the

upward trend has not stopped with the

pandemic. There is an increased demand for

more spacious houses and a higher willingness

to pay more than before the lockdown to

achieve it. However, this is observed only in

Birmingham and Bristol and not in Manchester.

Another interesting trend in these three cities,

is an increased willingness to pay more for

central living, meaning that people are not

willing to move outside of the city.

Even in the short term, the picture is really

complex and uneven between and within

cities. Further analysis is thus needed, notably

to explore local variations across city-regions,

changes in density, greenspace, etc. and to

money.

18

https://www.ubdc.ac.uk/

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

18

compare these trends with the house sales and

rental markets.

Changes in housing

preferences and group

communication practices

Pablo Garcia de Paredes (PhD at

Laval University, Quebec) is

researching on how the pandemic

is affecting our relationships to

digital tools, our home preferences, and our

group communication practices.

He is going to study two different types of

population: those with digital adaptation and

anthropological relation with digital tools, and

those who do not have access to digitalisation.

His study will include communication and

spatial variables and the home concept will be

treated both as a dependent and independent

variable. The study will also be based on two

categories: workers working from home and

workers who kept going to their workplaces,

focusing on changes in work environments

before and after Covid-19.

In his preliminary survey it emerged that

almost half of the people managed to adapt

their houses as their offices with medium

investment, trying to assign different areas of

the house to each person. More than half of

the participants stated that their home stress

level has gone up, but that they have

maintained their lifestyle despite the

Pandemic.

He concluded his presentation explaining that,

according to him, many ongoing changes will

not last, but different skillsets were born out of

the pandemic and they will remain.

Danish survey on housing

during the pandemic

Michael Harboe (Senior Analyst

at The Knowledge Centre for

Housing Economics) shortly

presented a survey conducted in

association with Statistics

Denmark, submitted to

approximately 1.000 Danish people during the

pandemic. The survey highlights the

expectations for house prices, considerations

around moving, the share of potential first-

time buyers, the share of young homeowners

considering an upgrade and considerations on

Covid-19.

The results show that spatial preferences are

shifting in Denmark in response to Covid-19.

Suburbs and towns seem to be more sought

after the pandemic. Many people are

interested in moving within five years,

especially apartment dwellers looking for

larger houses.

In Copenhagen there are little developments

and the percentage of people moving away

from the city is small. This is probably because,

according to the survey, the pandemic is

expected to be temporary, so people are not

taking purchasing decisions based on Covid-19.

Finally, the results show that real estate capital

gains are still expected to be larger in and

around Copenhagen.

Sharing a home during

lockdown

Kath Scanlon (from London School of

Economics) explained that sharing

with others or living with parents is the

norm for young Londoners and that

the number of single-person

households in younger age groups has fallen

for decades. These trends are driven by the

cost of market housing and the shortage of

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

19

social/affordable housing. Her research

focused on how shared homes perform

physically and as social spaces under lockdown

and the effect on housing aspirations of this

age cohort. The project was led in

collaboration with Pocket Living

19

, which is a

specialist provider of affordable homes for

London workers. They first submitted to

individuals on the Pocket homes registration

list an online survey in May-June 2020,

following the first strict lockdown. The

eligibility criteria for the survey were: live or

work in London, be non-homeowners and have

a household income lower than £90,000/year.

44% of the respondents shared their home

with unrelated people, 31% with partners, 17%

with parents and 62% rented from private

landlords. 70% were working full-time when

they completed the survey, 83% were working

from home and 69% said that some/all others

in the household were also working from

home.

Participants working from home rated the

shortage of suitable work surfaces as the

biggest challenge to overcome (46%), followed

by shortage of space (42%), inadequate Wi-Fi

(26%) and challenges presenting professionally

to colleagues or clients (21%). Moreover,

participants working at home while sharing,

stated that the biggest difficulties: noise (44%),

lack of privacy (43%), needing to use the same

room for work (37%), or the same work surface

(26%), incompatible daily routines/working

hours (24%) or interpersonal conflicts (18%). In

fact, tensions between frontline workers and

housemates working from home emerged

because of the fear of getting infected or

because of different working shifts.

The survey shows that lockdown has changed

housing aspiration. Participants stated to be

more motivated to save for home ownership

(22%), to be willing to prioritise outdoors space

in their next home (22%), to leave shared

19

https://www.pocketliving.com/

accommodation (20%), to leave London as

soon as possible (8%) and to prioritise living in

house rather in in a flat (8%). Participants also

showed their fear of having to share an

accommodation for longer (13%), of not

becoming homeowner (10%) and to not be

able to leave a shared accommodation (8%).

Recent projections say that the pandemic may

cause population to fall by 300,000 in London

and actual trends show that rents are falling

sharply for flats without garden in inner

London and are rising for houses with green

space.

Scanlon stated it would be interesting to see

how the questions and responses would differ

now, after one year of pandemic.

Final remarks

Christian Lennartz (PBL

Netherlands Environmental

Assessment Agency)

wrapped-up the session,

clarifying that the trust in

housing market is not shaking

as expected and that data point in different

directions across and within cities. Future

research will also have to focus on the Covid-

19 effects on specific economic sectors and its

consequences on the housing market.

The seminar was closed by a Q&A session,

during which Barbara Steenbergen (Head of

IUT Brussels office) raised awareness over the

conversion of offices into residential flats and

the importance of research on that topic.

Speakers from the UK explained that the

conversion of offices to residential dwellings

has been very problematic so far because of

difficult compliance with planning law and

space standards. Pablo Garcia de Paredes

instead, witnessed that many empty offices in

Panama, especially from the American

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

20

managed land, were given to people in

economic difficulties during the pandemic.

Finally, another participant brought the Finnish

perspective, describing that in terms of general

migration patterns the situation is similar to

Denmark and the Netherlands. Purchasing

prices are still increasing in both in cities (flats)

and mid-sized cities (single family-housing).

Yet, the decreasing price trend of summer

houses (second homes) reversed, see the

article “Housing and the corona crises in

Finland. Diverging or converging city-

countryside relationship?”

20

http://oes.tuwien.ac.at/article/id/578/

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

21

18th of February 2021

♦♦♦ The Covid-19 effects on housing and policy & research responses♦♦♦ The

impact of Covid-19 on the Housing Markets of Germany, the Netherlands and

Ireland ♦♦♦ English housing policy responses to Covid-19♦♦♦ The context of

developing Countries

The Covid-19 pandemic effects on

housing and policy & research

responses

On the 18

th

of February 2021, the ENHR WG

“Policy and Research” held a workshop on the

current Covid-19 situation and its effects on

housing. Now it is even more clear how

housing is vital for our wellbeing. The

pandemic has reshaped our housing needs and

expectations, leading many to look for wider

spaces, private gardens, or nearby green

spaces. In many cities the Covid-19 situation

has increased demand for larger dwellings, and

this has led to increasing prices, which,

combined with higher unemployment rates

and Covid-19 -related financial problems, has

made home ownership an even further-away

dream for many. In some countries social

security and housing allowance systems have

offered a buffer against rent arrears caused by

financial problems or unemployment and

possible housing evictions, but we also can

assume large numbers of evictions will happen

in the near future, when eviction bans and

allowances will end. At the same time there

have been many households without the

21

https://www.iwkoeln.de/en.html

possibility to have a larger dwelling and had to

live without the necessary social distances.

It seems clear that the pandemic is (re)shaping

the future of housing in many ways. Even in big

cities housing cannot be seen as ‘human

storage’ anymore but must offer space for

work life and different related activities. This

changing situation clearly underlines the need

for and the necessity of affordable, adequate,

and accessible housing. It also emphasizes the

importance of sustainable and long-term

policy responses to existing housing challenges

and the need for an evidence-based policy, as

well as research and policy collaboration.

The impact of Covid

on the German

Housing Market

Prof. Michael

Voigtländer (German

Economic Institute

21

)

opened the first session of this seminar stating

that, in a nutshell, nothing really happened yet

in the German Housing market. By the end of

2021 GDP should go back to pre-pandemic

levels. Only in Munich prices decreased a little

bit, but it is the most expensive city in

Germany, so prices were not sustainable even

before Covid-19. In fact, rents and house prices

increased between 1 and 3% in all the other

cities. In Berlin house prices increased by 3.4%

and rents decreased by 1.5% as result of the

rent freeze.

The reasons behind the stability of the housing

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

22

market are that incomes have been stabilised

by state aid (short time working allowances,

stopgap assistance), and in fact large housing

companies currently report a loss of rent of

only 1-2%. There is a housing shortage in most

of the metropolitan areas, while the

appreciation for spacious housing and the

willingness to pay more on the house are

increasing.

Although Germany experienced surging prices,

according to Voigländer there is no speculative

bubble and there is still excess in demand. The

mortgage dropped and compensated the rise

in prices.

Finally, regarding the migration flows, even

before the pandemic people were moving

from big cities to neighbouring municipalities,

but the trend is not clear yet and data is still

lacking.

In conclusion, the German housing market

seems to be relatively resilient, as during the

financial crisis. Finally, new preferences for

terraced housing in addition to more remote

working might shift housing demand to the

urban hinterland.

Covid-19 impacts on Dutch housing

market trends

Dr. Marietta Haffner (TU Delft) showed that

the Dutch situation is similar to the German

one, where the rental sector is declining but it

is very relevant. In the Netherlands, during the

last years, the average rent increase and the

inflation rate fluctuated. The highest housing

prices were reached in November 2020, but

now they are decreasing. The urban

affordability crisis instead, is still going on.

The economic impacts of Covid-19 have been

mitigated by the government, like in Germany,

and the housing market still dominates over

the economic crisis. However, there are not

enough new constructions according to

forecasted need, thus the housing shortage is

expected to become more relevant.

During the pandemic, the housing policies

were aimed at countering this shortage.

Municipalities aim to increase the affordable

housing stock and to help younger first-time

buyer through the coverage of some

transactions’ costs, thanks to a revolving fund

financed by many layers.

Standard safety net instruments are still

present, like a monthly rent allowance (almost

50% of tenants receive it). There is also the

possibility to ask for a lower rent if the income

reduced in the aftermath of 2019.

All the previously mentioned actions started

before the pandemic. New measures were also

taken, such as an extension of the temporary

rental contract of 3 months until 1 November

2020, and a rent increase freeze was proposed

by the Dutch parliament. Moreover, an

eviction ban was introduced.

There are divergent trends for the future: new

construction in cities will temper price rises.

However, a slower population growth is

expected in big cities (because of lower

immigration); the rent increase of already

extremely high rents in Amsterdam is smaller

than rent increase in Rotterdam and The

Hague and the unregulated rents have,

according to Haffner, decreased in

Amsterdam.

Will changes be structural? Will economic and

health concerns change spatial preferences in

the housing market? Will this lead to a

decrease in urban demand or a decrease in

housing investment?

Dr. Haffner concluded that it is too early to

answer these questions and that the future of

housing market remains uncertain.

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

23

The impacts of COVID-19 on the Irish

property market

Dr. Conor M. O’Toole (Trinity College Dublin),

witnessed the Irish situation, given that Ireland

has a different economic structure compared

to the other EU States. In fact, it has a

dichotomous economy: the international

sector, dominated by digital economy and

pharmaceutical companies (not affected by

Covid) and the domestic sector (deeply

affected by the pandemic). In this context, the

housing market is extremely volatile.

There was a sharp moderation of house prices

before the pandemic, but recently house

prices increased again. That is surprising

because the economic shock has been severe

due to the strict lockdown. At the same time,

there has been a sharp increase in rents and a

drop in the rental price inflation. A rent freeze

was introduced in March 2020 and has been

kept through summer, together with direct

support to tenants.

Many Airbnb houses went back to the private

rental sector, which seemed to have a

stabilizing effect on the market. In the long run

an impact on the structural demand for

housing is expected due to changing migration

patterns. An impact on housing type

preferences and location choice is expected as

well, since working from home and internal

migration will increase. On the supply side,

instead, the uncertainty will possibly decrease

the investment in housing, reducing the supply

in the future. It remains to be seen how

unemployment will affect the house supply,

what is the appropriate policy mix to

implement and what will be the permanent

effects of the pandemic.

English housing

policy responses to

the Covid pandemic

Kath Scanlon (London

School of Economics)

explained that there are different housing

policies across the UK, where usually local

authorities and mayors have few policy levers

but control some budget. Since the pandemic,

a Furlough scheme was established, through

which government pays 80% of wages for

hours not worked due to Covid-19 and,

together with self-employment income

support scheme (government pays 80% of

average monthly trading profits for self-

employed), many people suffering from the

pandemic have been helped.

The government implemented policies to help

homeless people as well, offering them

accommodation or shelters, but now there is a

steady flow of new rough sleepers that must

be tackled.

Many restrictions on evictions were also

implemented, together with the extension of

eviction notice period from one or three

months to six. However, except from Scotland,

no public loans were given to tenants.

The Local Housing Allowance has been

increased and tenants and landlords were

invited to come to an agreement over the

reduction or deferral of rent payments, but

without any obligation to do so. Recent

research shows that only 3% of private tenants

and 2% of social tenants reported successful

discussions.

For what concerns policies targeting owner

occupiers, a ban on repossessions was

implemented and will be in place until April

and mortgage holidays can now be requested.

However, taking a holiday may affect the

ability to secure a new loan in the future and

may increase debts’ risks when it ends. As for

owner-occupiers, lenders must offer mortgage

payment holidays for up to 3 months and only

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

24

in Scotland grants were given to landlords.

There is thus a clear gap in protection for

private tenants, which led to predict a surge in

court cases, evictions, and homelessness.

Instead, a recent reduction in the use of

mortgage holidays may suggest that

mortgagors are generally coping well.

These policies were quickly introduced in

response to the evolving pandemic situation

and involved different levels of government,

arising the coordination challenge. Major

differences can be seen between England and

Scotland. The big question according to

Scanlon now is how, when, and even whether

to unwind these measures.

The context of

developing Countries

Gyorgy Sumeghy (Habitat

for Humanity

International,) closed this

session bringing the point

of view of Habitat for Humanity International,

whose key initiatives are: building houses,

housing microfinance, market development,

rebuilding after natural disasters, residential

energy efficiency, awareness raising and

advocacy. In Europe it is mainly based in

Bulgaria, Hungary, North Macedonia, Poland,

Romania and it has fundraising offices in

Western Europe.

He showed some figures before and after

Covd-19. Before the pandemic 1.6 billion

people lived without adequate shelter, 50% of

the urban population lived in informal

settlements and 2 billion people lived without

safe water supply. The pandemic has of course

increased the systemic weaknesses of the

informal settlements, which already had

health issues and inadequate living conditions.

The health and economic crisis brought by

22

https://www.habitat.org/sites/default/files/docume

nts/Policy-brief_housing-in-the-time-of-

Covid-19 thus exacerbated the difficulties of

the most vulnerable categories.

“Housing has become the front line

defense against the Coronavirus. Home

has rarely been more of a life-or-death

situation”.

(cit. Leilani Farha, former UN Special

Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing).

Habitat for Humanity published a Policy Brief

22

in May 2020 with some recommendations and

how to achieve them:

1. protect the adequacy, affordability,

accessibility, and stability of housing.

2. address the immediate financial needs of

individuals and ensure the sustainability of

housing construction markets.

3. address the specific housing needs of

informal settlements.

4. Ensure inclusion and representation of

communities in Covid-19 responses and plans.

5. Recovering from crisis: building a more

secure future through housing.

COVID-19-and-beyond.pdf

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

25

22

nd

of February 2021

♦♦♦ The consequences of Covid-19 for sustainable communities and housing,

ENHR seminars♦♦♦ Post-Covid cities ♦♦♦ Morphological periods and territorial

cycles ♦♦♦ The use of second homes and hot tap water ♦♦♦ Habitability

conditions in vulnerable communities ♦♦♦ The role of NGOs ♦♦♦ Food

accessibility♦♦♦

The

consequences of

Covid-19 for

sustainable

communities and

housing

On the 22

nd

of February 2021, the WG

“Towards Sustainable Communities and

Housing: actors, interventions and solutions”

23

and the WG “Energy Efficiency and

Environmental Sustainability of Housing”

24

,

held a joint workshop on the consequences of

the pandemic on the sustainable communities

and housing.

25

.

Sustainable communities and Covid-19

Nessa Winston (University College Dublin,

Ireland) opened the seminar with a

presentation on sustainable communities,

defined as “places which meet the basic human

needs of the present so they can participate in

society, while also protecting Earth’s life-

support system, on which the welfare of

current and future generations depends”.

These communities are safe and inclusive, well

planned, built, and managed. Their core aim is

providing high quality of life with equality of

access to services for all. They touch upon

23

https://enhr.net/towards-sustainable-

communities-and-housing-actors-interventions-

and-solutions/

24

https://enhr.net/energy-efficiency-and-

environmental-sustainability-of-housing/

different dimensions, but in her presentation,

Nessa Winston focused especially on the

environmental and social aspects.

The pandemic is certainly affecting people’s

preferences over the housing location and built

form. The first question is thus what the

positive and negative environmental and social

impacts of these changes are, in terms of

affordability, integration, quality of life, etc.

The second question is whether the pressure

for public green and blue infrastructure will

increase and how to collect community

resources for all. Finally, the third question

regards transports: will transport poverty

increase? Will public transport use decline and

private transport increase?

For each of the issues Covid arises, social

inequalities will probably be exacerbated, and

the possible outcomes might be higher

criminalization, social disorder, and climate

change deniers.

In her paper “Sustainable communities? A

comparative perspective on urban housing in

the EU”

26

, these issues are further analysed.

25

https://enhr.net/online-seminars/

26

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/

09654313.2013.788612

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

26

Post-Covid cities: an international

survey

Piero Perulli (University of Eastern Piedmont

and FEEM, Italy) presented a qualitative survey

made last year in the framework of FEEM

foundation

27

, addressing 20 big cities in the

world through an elaborated questionnaire. In

the second phase they looked for convergence

of the scholars on a number of common topics.

They found five kinds of convergence:

1. importance of local perspective for cities,

which will be more local in nature: more

localized production functions, supply chains.

On the other side, globality will remain in

terms of global online interactions, office

works, education.

2. non-motorized individual transport: mobility

will change in a striking way according to their

survey.

3. local governance and decentralized

governance will become more important.

4. trend of decentralization of urbanization

processes will take place.

5. fear that tourism will not go back to pre-

pandemic levels.

In conclusion, according to their survey, we are

going to a new historical age of gloacality and

glocal cities (local + global).

Covid-19 and Sustainability

Annagret Haase (UFZ Helmholtz, Germany)

presented to the audience her research

experiences and reflections over the pandemic

and sustainability.

According to her, Covid-19 showed what is not

functioning from the social and justice point of

view. It reinforces inequalities, exacerbates

gaps and has the potential to amplify

persistent social differences, leading to more

inequality in the long run.

The problem is that both the pandemic itself

and the political response to it were

27

https://www.feem.it/en/

inequitable, making vulnerable categories

even more vulnerable. In fact, the

interdependence between factors makes the

situation even more dramatic for people with

low income or in a marginalized position.

Therefore, the question is how to build urban

resilience also from a social point of view: we

have to create more inclusive and sustainable

policies.

Morphological periods and territorial

cycles

Alessandro Camiz (Özyeğin

University, Turkey) made a

comparison between the end

of the Roman Empire and

Covid-19 in terms of the

effects on the morphological

periods or territorial cycles.

The Italian school of Urban morphology, based

in the School of Architecture, is looking at the

transformation of the territorial structure,

while the Geographical School is looking at

changing patterns of urban areas, which are

different sides of the same phenomenon.

A territorial cycle is characterized by specific

architectural composition and building

typology.

As in the case of the end of the Roman Empire,

Covid-19 can end the actual morphological

period and territorial cycle. In fact, when the

Roman Empire collapsed, big cities and main

roads were abandoned, retail patterns

changed and new buildings types emerged,

leading to a new territorial cycle and

morphological period. Covid-19 is expected to

cause similar patterns and the one already

visible is the change in the retail sector. There

is also an existing trend of people moving away

from big cities to close-by rural areas or sub-

urbs.

Finally, he promoted the International

conference on Pandemics and urban form

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

27

which they are organizing for the fall 2021

28

in

Istanbul, for which they are looking for

partners and co-organizers.

Use of second homes in

Turkey

Ebru Ergoz (Özyeğin University,

Turkey), briefly explained the

use of second homes during the pandemic in

Turkey and its impact on household energy

use.

In Turkey, second homes are located in rural,

coastal or mountain areas. They are usually

smaller than the main house, but with bigger

open areas, which is why many people moved

there during the pandemic. Since usually there

is no proper heating or thermal insulation in

second homes, people started to buy stoves

and need to use energy sources to heat the

house or install solar panels.

These issues should be further explored

through empirical evidence in the months

ahead. Potential research questions could be:

- how the household’s energy behaviour and

use changed in the second homes?

- if society is likely to experience other

pandemics, what would be the impacts of

adaptation of the second homes to primary

homes?

- what are the impacts on different household

groups?

- what will be the impact of migration from big

cities to small cities in terms of sustainability

and energy use?

Second homes in

Denmark

Jesper Ole Jensen (BUILD,

Aalborg University),

presented the development

of the Danish market of second homes during

Covid-19 lockdown. In Denmark, 4,5% of the

population owns a second home and the sales

28

https://www.ozyegin.edu.tr/en/events/13176

of second homes exploded during the

lockdown, registering a 90% increase in sales,

while sales-prices have increased by 12%. The

first housing market, instead, has not yet been

too much affected.

Those 4,5% of the Danish population tend to

have second homes on the coast and already

own a big first house, so this is a trend which

applies only for privileged people.

His research team is looking at different

hypothesis:

- Have the increased sales changed the pattern

of ownership? Before the pandemic, the

owners of second homes were mainly 60+ or

families, while now there are more buyers in

the 30+ segment.

- Has second homes access or ownership

provided a free-space during the lockdown?

Usually, second homes are used during

holidays or weekends, but with the pandemic

their use seems increasing.

- Does the pandemic emphasize existing social

and housing inequalities? The answer is

affirmative, but long-term data are still lacking.

- Are there regional consequences of this new

pattern? Many peripherical regions, where

most second homes are located, might benefit

from more visitors, but the sustainability

implications remain to be seen.

Finally, regarding the research methods, they

are making register-based analysis, surveys

amongst second homeowners and studies in

geographical locations.

Improving habitability

conditions in vulnerable

communities

Sara Vima Grau (Universitat

Politècnica de

Catalunya, Spain) underlined

the urgency of improving the habitability

conditions in vulnerable communities.

She started this research before the Covid

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

28

pandemic, but now the pressure on this issue

has significantly increased. Before the

pandemic, her research team was doing some

field working in the centre of Barcelona, where

there is high pressure on the urban space, also

due to tourism and the densification in the

streets. This has changed drastically with

Covid-19.

They are now focused on housing conditions

and opinions in the community, and they

found out that the importance of common

spaces increased (entry ways to the dwelling,

rooftops, etc.). Possible overcrowding is

another crucial issue, together with the

different use of balconies, which varies

according to the urban environment (noise,

pedestrians, etc.).

The last issue they are researching is the type

of dwellings. For example, ground floor

dwellings are often poor in light or come with

humidity and ventilation problems, but they

are highly appreciated by people with low

mobility or disabilities.

Covid-19 effects on the role of NGOs

Hanna Szemzo (Metropolitan Research

Institute, Hungary) is researching the changing

role of public funding and NGOs after the

Covid-19 pandemic. Her project is named

“Open Heritage”

29

, focuses on the re-use of

marginalized areas and works closely with

NGOs.

NGOs are very important for this project

because they are locally based, have a strong

relationship with the communities of these

marginalizes and small-scale areas, have a

heritage value and allow an effective bottom-

up approach in the project.

NGOs tend to be very fragile, so they have to

diversify as much as possible and to have

various income sources (crowdfunding,

volunteering, etc.), but Covid-19 made clear

29

https://openheritage.eu/

that public funding is essential for NGOs. In

fact, alternative funding is only able to cover a

fraction of the costs and it is scarce in Covid

and post-Covid times. NGOs could now adopt

different strategies: adapt their activities

(downscale, focus on only one core activity),

diversify their activities (but this needs long-

term planning) and create wider networks

(which is also a long-term strategy).

Cluster housing in Zurich

Maryam Khatibi (Politecnico di Milano) is

studying whether the cluster housing in Zurich

could be a sustainable approach to blend living

space with working space. It is a new typology

of housing, first created in Zurich in 2011 and it

is based on smaller houses with more common

areas and outdoor common spaces (kitchen,

dining rooms, etc.). With the pandemic, the

access to these housing is restricted in Zurich,

but it is important that they keep up their

resilience.

She created a “Building Occupants User

Survey” using descriptive words game,

providing participants with images of different

spaces of the house and descriptive adjectives

that they have to match. Her survey will be

published soon.

Food access of

vulnerable groups in

London, Sydney and

Wuhan

Catalina Turcu (University

College London) studied the local/community

responses to Covid-19 in terms of food

accessibility (both physically and economically)

for vulnerable categories in three big cities:

London, Sydney and Wuhan. Her paper will

soon be published in Urban Studies

30

and the

research was conducted together with UCL,

the North South Wales University and the

30

https://www.urbanstudiesonline.com/journal/

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

29

Huazhong University of Science and

Technology, using desktop reviews, policy

analysis, community works and 30 interviews

with stakeholders in the three cities.

In all cities food insecurity at the community

level was experienced, despite good food

availability at the national level; existing

vulnerabilities are now worse off and new

vulnerabilities emerged. With regard to the

local solutions and the governance

implemented, in Wuhan, an interventionist

approach was chosen (state-led community-

based quarantining facilities were created and

food was delivered door to door). In London, a

laissez-faire approach was predominant: civil

society was the one leading food initiatives and

state-led initiatives came only in later stages.

Finally, in Sydney, a partnership approach was

established, and responses were led by the

state, businesses, and civil society.

The role of the urban form and housing was

found as relevant in the food accessibility. In

fact, food drop- off was easier in Wuhan,

where many gated residential areas exist. On

the contrary, it was more difficult in London or

Sydney where there is compared to Wuhan

medium-low density living.

Finally, the role of technology is also

important, notably in the contact tracing

systems, which raise privacy and ethical issues,

and online platforms providing food (available

in all the three cities). These platforms,

however, offer food at a higher price, raise

issues around health and hygiene standards

and need to be regulated.

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

30

23

rd

of February 2021

♦♦♦ How Covid-19 has affected older adults and their housing conditions♦♦♦

♦♦♦ The case of: New Zealand, Japan, Finland, Sweden, and Spain ♦♦♦

How Covid-19 has affected older

adults and their housing conditions

On the 23

rd

of February 2021, the ENHR

working group “Housing and living conditions

of ageing populations”

31

, held a three-hour-

seminar under the title “How Covid-19 has

affected older adults and their housing

conditions”. Marianne Abramsson and Bianca

Deusdad, the coordinators of this working

group, opened the seminar providing an

overview of the topic, the speakers, and the

presentations.

The case of New Zealand

Bev James (Public Policy and Research Ltd,

Wellington, New Zealand) witnessed the

situation in New Zealand, where the peak of

Covid-19 cases was reached between March

and April 2020, four levels of restrictions were

put in place and a contract tracing app is still

used by the population.

Many housing and income-related support

measures were introduced starting from

March 2020, such as: rent increase freeze (until

September 2020), no tenancy terminations

(until June 2020), mortgage repayment

deferral (until March 2021), relocation of

31

https://enhr.net/housing-and-living-conditions-

of-ageing-populations/

32

https://www.buildingbetter.nz/publications/homes

homeless people in temporary housing, double

winter energy payment for seniors and

beneficiaries (from May to October 2020),

income relief for those who lost their jobs

because of the pandemic, benefit increases

and business support measures.

He presented a research paper

32

about older

people’s lived experiences of their housing

during the pandemic and what we can learn

about the protective role of housing and the

support to seniors. His research is based on

interviews completed with 15 community

organizations and housing providers

supporting older people in 8 locations. He is

currently conducting more interviews with

people aged 60+ living independently.

The themes that emerged from the interviews

are:

- food security: little food in reserve, seniors

unable to buy food online, rely on shopping

done or food prepared by carers or relatives.

- accessing home-based care: few carers

available during the pandemic, some care

services were suspended in the course of

restrictions, some seniors chose not to have

carers due to fear of infection.

- accessing information in the digital world:

seniors are less digitalized than younger

people, they lack digital access to information

and rely on community newspapers, which

were suspended.

- seniors’ diverse lockdown living

environments: some stayed at home, others

moved to stay with family, in other cases the

family moved in, others became homeless. The

_spaces/James_2020_housing_as_a_base_for_

care_and_support_covid19.pdf

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

31

main issues were crowding, stress, loneliness,

disconnection, and boredom.

Organizations were key contacts and

information sources for seniors. They

improved the communication and

coordination and addressed newly identified

seniors’ needs, re-designing existing practices

and introducing new practices to cope with the

pandemic.

Some preliminary conclusions of his research

show that: longstanding problems in the

housing systems are worse in the pandemic;

staying in familiar surroundings is important

for independence and for coping with

uncertainty; tenure security is crucial and

house size, design, location, and performance

can be barriers or enablers to resilience

(closeness to essential services, adequate

space, energy efficiency, access to outdoor

spaces).

The case of Japan

Yoko Matsuoko (Tokyo

Kasei University, Japan)

presented the Japanese

situation. Japan

experienced three waves of Covid-19 and its

national infection control measures have been

quite loose.

Her research team focuses on a social housing

development, Toyama Heights, with 57%

ageing rate in Shinjuku Ward: one of the most

convenient and exciting areas in Tokyo. The

target of the research is older people who are

participating in the community activity “Café

AUNET” and volunteers who are helping these

activities in the social housing development.

“AUNET” means “meeting and network” in

Japanese and “Café AUNET” is held every

Saturday, offering exercises, quizzes, singing,

chattering and leisure activities. Café AUNET

started in May 2018, commissioned by

Shinkuku Ward as a program under the long-

term care insurance scheme, but activities

were suspended with the pandemic. AUNET

then started to develop community-based

activities under the motto “Stay connected

even when we are apart”. For example, they

are writing and distributing the Group’s

newsletter and medical face masks and they

are planning a phone-call program.

In June 2020, her research team conducted

semi-structured interviews with participants

and volunteers of the program during the

suspension, trying to understand how social

housing residents coped with the situation, to

compare how responses differed between

participants and volunteers and to examine

relationships between their responses and the

characteristics of social housing.

Results show that participants before Covid-19

had an active life, but then no activities,

interaction or excursions were longer possible.

They started watching more TV, gain weight,

got ill, but eventually were able to learn from

Covid and build resilience. Volunteers, instead,

reported that their life completely changed

with the pandemic. They developed new ways

of enjoying life (exercises, cooking activities,

etc.) and built stronger connections with the

community members via internet.

“The restrictions have reminded me

how precious the ordinary life is”.

The research showed some common

responses by both users and volunteers

regarding resilience and the realization of

experiencing the pandemic (importance of the

community and value of life). Instead,

participants reported fear of death and

physical deterioration, while only volunteers

reported that they started using more Zoom or

other apps to strengthen relationships.

In conclusion, while older adults have been

severely affected by the pandemic, the study

showed their resilience in their community and

their ability to maintain their well-being. Since

many social housing complexes in Japan are

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

32

extremely old, they are mostly occupied by

long-term residents, which seems to facilitate

the development of strong community ties in

the social housing, such as AUNET’s activities.

The social housing estate, with spacious

premises and nature surroundings, provided

the environment for the residents to maintain

their well-being through walking and other

outdoor activities in a later stage of the

pandemic. Finally, the use of ICT benefited only

younger groups (up to 70 years-old).

However, the study refers to the first wave of

Covid-19 and was conducted only with

participants in one apartment complex, so

results cannot be too generalized.

How the lives of the elderly have

changed

Hiroko Mizumura (Tokyo University, Japan)

concluded the Japanese picture presenting her

research on the change in elderly lives amid

the Covid-19 pandemic. Her research team

interviewed some staff of elderly housing, day

service centres and home visit care facilities in

Tokyo.

In the Elderly housing, residents changed their

behaviours: spent more time watching TV,

stayed longer in their room, had fewer baths or

clothes’ changes, tried to avoid touching the

things in the housing, etc. The interpersonal

situation changed as well: conversations

between residents have increased and

communication with family members

happened through remote devices.

In day service centres some avoided

conversations, became more violent, critical,

and pessimistic. Many complained the stress of

not being able to meet their families and

experienced loneliness.

In home visit care facilities, many suspected

caregiver infections and avoided conversations

with them.

In all the three facilities changes in physical and

mental conditions were experienced: bad

sleep, weight loss, frustration, stress, anger,

depression, etc.

In conclusion, it is important to keep strong

interpersonal and health status checks and to

reconsider care plans towards elderly people.

The case of Finland

The Finnish situation was

presented by Outi Jolanki

(CoEAgeCare, Tampere

University & Jyväskylä

University, Finland).

There were many regional spikes, contained

quickly also in care homes. In spring people 70+

were recommended to avoid meetings, public

spaces, shops, etc. and care homes residents

were not allowed to receive visitors until

autumn. This caused suffering and decline in

mental and physical health and it was deemed

illegal after family members’ complaints.

In Finland most older people (93%) live in

ordinary, private (usually old) dwellings,

mostly in rural or semi-rural areas. Residential

care services (with shared facilities, support

staff but individual premises) and care homes

(with 24/7 care staff) are also offered.

Her research team conducted several

interviews with elderly people and found out

that few of them were hospitalized or infected

with the virus and that the most important

consequences of the pandemic are linked to

social and mental aspects, while the overall

quality of life has not declined. For some of

them there was little or no change in daily life,

while others experienced profound declines in

social contacts, mental and physical health.

Finally, the perception of sheltered housing

was different among participants, who

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

33

described them both as “safe heaven”, “social

void” and “social hub”.

The lessons to be learnt for future crises are:

- importance of personalities, lifestyles, and

resources: some cope better than others with

isolation, notably the wealthier ones that could

enjoy living in detached homes or summer

cottages.

- places matter: accessible houses, access to

green spaces, parks, nature, etc. provide

support to physical and mental well-being of

the elderly.

- technology offered partial solutions to social

needs.

- diversity of older people’s lifestyles and

resources, as well as their social needs, have

to be taken seriously in preparing for future

crises.

The case of Sweden

Maria Brendén (Linköping

and Stockholm University)

presented her paper

33

on

the residential context and

Covid-19 mortality among adults 70+ in

Stockholm.

Older individuals are overrepresented among

deaths due to Covid-19 and both researchers

and media emphasize the importance of living

arrangements or household composition in

this trend.

Her research team studied individual-level

population data to examine how living

arrangements and neighbourhood

characteristics are independently associated

with Covid-19 mortality among the elderly.

This allowed them to test the importance of

crowded housing, multigenerational

households, and neighbourhood population

density on Covid-19 mortality.

33

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanhl/article/PII

S2666-7568(20)30016-7/fulltext

34

statistical method for investigating the effect of

several variables upon the time a specified

event happens

They took a sample of 70+ individuals living in

Stockholm and made separate Cox regression

34

analysis for dying from Covid-19 and from all

other causes between March 12 and May 8.

They found out that individuals living in

spacious houses risk less to be infected, while

individuals living with people below 66 have

higher risks of getting the virus, while there is

no increase of dying from other causes. Living

in a single household, or in care homes,

instead, brings a higher risk of dying of Covid-

19 or of other causes. Surprisingly, no

difference between multifamily houses and

single-family housing was found.

Regarding neighbourhoods: the denser, the

higher the risk of dying of Covid-19, which

increases in neighbourhoods with high spread

of the virus.

In conclusion, strategies to protect individuals

in care homes, in densely populated areas and

in families with multigenerational living

arrangements may increase survival among

the older population.

The case of SällBo collaborative

housing, Sweden

Ivette Aroyo (Lund University, Sweden),

referring to a recently published paper

35

,

witnessed the SällBo collaborative housing

experience, which links together

companionship and living. It is a new way to

address the housing needs of older adults, but

also refugees and young locals. Residents live

in private small apartments and share large

common spaces (lobby, dining and living

room). At the moment all the apartments are

occupied, mostly by older people.

35

https://portal.research.lu.se/portal/en/publications/social

-integration-through-social-connection-in-everyday-

life-residents-experiences-during-the-covid19-

pandemic-in-sallbo-collaborative-housing-

sweden(757ac0b7-0270-4c7e-97a4-

de85a054564e).html

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

34

The aim of the research she presented was

exploring the housing integration nexus in

SällBo before and during the pandemic.

They found out that SällBo combines safe

housing for older adults and municipal public

housing, making affordable housing more

accessible. During the pandemic, all organized

activities were stopped, and social distancing

was recommended. Residents continued to

look for alternative ways to continue social

interaction, sharing and helping each other in

a safe way.

SällBo thus keeps offering opportunities to

interact, socialize, integrate, and bring about

social change. Social integration happens

through encounters in everyday life in

common spaces and enhances the well-being

of residents. Finally, no relevant Covid-19

infections were found in these housings

because residents were able to contain and

isolate infected people.

In conclusion, studying coping responses with

the Covid-19 pandemic in everyday life in

different types of housing will contribute to

rethinking post-pandemic housing and to

fostering a more integrated community.

The case of Spain

Bianca Deusdad (Rovira i Virgili

University, Tarragona, Spain),

presented the Covid-19 and

Nursing Homes’ crisis in Spain.

The causes of the high mortality and

contagious in Spanish nursing homes are the

scarcity of resources, the housing conditions,

the age and health condition of the residents

and the lack of protection equipment for

professionals, who thus easily spread the virus

in these facilities.

The system was precarious even before the

pandemic, also because of the insufficient

development of Integrated Care Electronic

Health records. Spanish Nursing homes are

now run by the Health Department and

Primary Care and there is an urgent need for

more coordination between Health and social

services. The digitalization of this sector should

increase and the housing conditions in nursing

homes should be improved, allowing for less

institutionalized patterns (e.g., more single

rooms, no segregation by floors, etc.).

The Covid-19 crisis should be taken as an

opportunity to reform this sector and

implement specific laws for protecting older

adults ‘rights and wellbeing.

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

35

26

th

of February 2021

♦♦♦ COVID-19 and Housing in Southern Europe♦♦♦ The Rental housing and

policy responses in Barcelona Metropolitan area ♦♦♦ Covid-19 and short-term

rentals in Portugal ♦♦♦ Pandemic-induced transformations in the landscape of

digitally mediated rentals in Greece ♦♦♦ Southern European housing in

pandemic and post-pandemic times

COVID-19 and Housing in Southern

Europe

On the 26

th

of February, the ENHR working

group “Southern European Housing”

36

organized and hosted a workshop on the

effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the

housing markets in Southern Europe and its

consequences in the long term.

The Rental housing in Barcelona

Metropolitan area and policy

responses

City of Barcelona, Spain

Jordi Bosch and Carles Donat (Metropolitan

Housing Observatory of Barcelona

37

)

witnessed the effects of Covid-19 on the rental

housing market in the Metropolitan Area of

Barcelona and the consequent housing policy

measures adopted to support vulnerable

tenants.

In this area, the housing bubble evolved until

2007 and the economy started recovering from

the financial crisis only in 2014. From 2015

there has been an increase in housing prices

36

https://enhr.net/southern-european-housing/

37

https://www.ohb.cat/?lang=en#page-top

much more rapid than the increase in

households’ income. The imbalance between

demand and supply is the cause of these high

prices.

Spain is one of the countries where households

spend a larger share of their income on

housing, so the pandemic deeply affected their

lives. Through the Royal Decree-law 11/2020

of 31

st

of March, the government adopted

additional urgent measures in the social and

economic areas to deal with the pandemic.

Some of these measures were meant to

support tenants and include: the suspension of

the eviction proceedings, the extension of

residential rental agreements, a moratorium

on rental debt and financial support for

vulnerable tenants (micro-credit schemes or

housing benefits).

The extraordinary extension of residential

rental agreements can last for 6 months and

must be accepted by the landlord. The

moratorium on rental debt, instead, is applied

automatically in the case of large companies or

public housing entities.

Between May and July 2020, the Metropolitan

Housing Observatory of Barcelona carried out

a survey on the negotiations between

landlords and tenants during the pandemic

38

.

26% of households negotiated their rental

status. 34% requested an extension of

residential rental agreements; 23% a

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https://www.ohb.cat/wp-

content/uploads/2021/01/LAB-Enquesta-OHB-

Covid-19_Demandahabitatge.pdf

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

36

moratorium; 39% a rental reduction and 25%

received a rental reduction/moratorium

proposal from the owners.

Even if the extension of residential rental

agreement must be always accepted, it was

denied in 32% of cases, breaking the law.

68% reached an agreement on the rental

extension, while 55,2% succesfully obained a

payment postponement or rent reduction.

Results indicate that the success of the

negotiations is not inked to which part took the

lead, whether tenants or households.

At the beginning of the pandemic the rental

housing market of the Metropolitan Area of

Barcelona saw a sharp decrease in supply and

demand. Then, the supply side increased while

the demand remained stable. Right now, the

demand is decreasing, waiting for a price

adjustment. The demand average price has

been kept constant, while the supply average

price is declining slowly.

They finally drew six conclusions:

1- The Catalan and Spanish housing policies are

structurally weaker than most European

Countries.

2- there are increasing barriers to accessing

and maintaining housing stability, especially

among tenants.

3- need to adopt extraordinary measures in the

pandemic crisis.

4- the housing policy for tenants are based on

a short-term approach, limited, and focussed

on large landlords and extremely vulnerable

tenants.

5- Only a limited number of renegotiations of

rental agreement conditions were successful.

6- The evolution of the rental housing market

in Barcelona Metropolitan Area shows

adjustments between demand and supply.

However, affordability issues are increasing

among tenants.

39

https://www.dinamiacet.iscte-iul.pt/

Covid-19 and short-term rentals in

Portugal

Sandra Marques Pereira (DINÂMIA’CET-

ISCTE

39

, University Institute of Lisbon)

explained that the pandemic is such a

transforming event that can “emotionalize”

research. They held an online survey between

July and October in Portugal, which was sent

by emails to short term rental title holders and

managers. It was a phase of emotional

relaxation (in summer measures were eased,

cases decreased, etc.). They chose a high

qualified sample, with high economic and

occupational dependence.

A territorial diversification of data depending

on the housing market, the tourism profile, the

economic structure, etc, emerged from the

survey. There is also an uneven geography of

loss: cities like Lisbon or Porto experience

extremely high losses in short term rental

market, while rural areas experienced a much

smaller loss.

Results show a short-term rental

predominance also in the future and a higher

relevance of mid-term renting. However, in the

cities, midterm and long-term private renting

are preferred.

People that reject long term rental do so

mainly because of their income reduction, fear

of tax disadvantages, loss confidence in the

state, unsuitability of the property for long

term use (e.g., too small). Instead, some

reasons to prefer long term rental are the

compensation of losses of short-term rental,

less unpredictability, less expenditure, and

more stability. Finally, the survey highlighted

good expectations of return to normal before

the end of 2021.This optimism is more evident

City of Lisbon, Portugal

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

37

in Lisbon and Porto.

In conclusion, Perreira stated it is wiser to

identify the factors and risks that may

condition the different directions and the most

solid trends in the short-term rental market,

rather than trying to anticipate prospective

views.

Pandemic-induced transformations in

the landscape of digitally mediated

rentals in Greece

Dimitris Pettas (Marie Curie Postdoctoral

Researcher of Technical University Berlin)

explained that before the pandemic, the short-

term rental increased a lot in Greece,

especially in Athens and in touristic areas. In

fact, Airbnb listings in Greek regions almost

doubled every year constantly from 2013. In

2019, the growth rate of Airbnb listing was

reversed due to increasing professionalization

(amateur renters could no longer compete

with the prices of professionals), economies of

scale, stabilization of high rent prices in

conventional rent market and stabilization of

demand.

The pandemic severely hit the short-term

rental (STR) market. Restrictive measures

concerning international travels were

introduced, leading to an 80% reduction in

Airbnb Bookings in Europe during the first

week of March 2020. When travel restrictions

were relaxed, bookings started to increase

again, especially in new popular destinations,

such as Larissa, South Kynouria or Parga, while

country-wide there was a decrease of bookings

by 45,61%.

3000 dwellings were withdrawn from the STR

market in Athens, but not in affordable prices.

The STR market proved to be resilient and

seems to have the capacity and flexibility to

accommodate newly-emerged demands and

preferences on the tourists‘end. Some

qualitative shifts will probably endure, such as

the decentralization from urban to rural areas,

the increased demand for domestic

destinations and limited demand for

traditional touristic and overcrowded ones.

Greece is now trying to attract digital workers

providing digital visa, investing in digital

infrastructures, and offering low taxes and

costs of life. The target is to attract 100.000

“digital tourists” (high income remote

workers) that could contribute 1.6 billion euros

to the Greek economy. Mid-term rentals

addressed to high-earning remote workers can

become an appealing alternative for former or

current STR hosts, especially in Athens. The

infrastructure is already in place: fully-

equipped dwellings, hosts ‘skills and

experience. Dwellings can be easily reallocated

from short-term to mid-term rentals.

Finally, some open research questions for the

future could be:

- could these trends pave the way for the

unfolding of processes of transnational

gentrification?

- How the high levels of mobility among skilful

workers will affect income inequalities?

- How cities can respond to these new

challenges, while dealing with the multileveled

consequences of the pandemic?

- what will happen with former office spaces?

City of Athens, Greece

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

38

Southern European housing in

pandemic and post-pandemic times

In the second part of the webinar Jesús Leal

(Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the

Complutense University of Madrid) and

Thomas Maloutas (Emeritus professor of

Social Geography at the Harokopion University

of Athens) reacted on the issues of the

discussion.

They both stated that after the pandemic, the

society will change in many aspects.

Inequalities are likely to increase, and people

will probably look more for peripherical cities,

in order to spend less. Moreover, the increase

of online retail and teleworking have been

enormous, causing deep societal changes.

Also, during the pandemic the demand for rent

decreased because of students and workers

that went back home, no longer needing to live

close to their Universities or offices.

The long-term impact of the pandemic will

depend on its duration and on the size and

quality of policies to regulate its consequences.

In southern Europe housing systems are

similar, for example in homeownership, which

is protecting the tenure of low-income groups

but at the same time it is marginalizing those

who depend on rents. Access to housing has

been increasingly class-divided and the

consistent immigration flows have aggravated

the situation.

After the pandemic, policies enabling the

boosting of economy will prevail on policies

guaranteeing affordability of housing and

support of vulnerable groups, deteriorating

40

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/

A-9-2020-0247_EN.html

the conditions of the most in need. In fact,

targeted emergency measures were taken

during the pandemic, but they are expensive,

and they will be withdrawn as soon as the

situation normalizes: they are not structural

measures and do not tackle social issues in the

long run. Addressing the housing affordability

issue at EU level is important and it will

especially help countries with limited welfare

provisions, like the Southern European ones.

Thomas Maloutas finally commented the EP

“Report on access to decent and affordable

housing for all

40

”, on the one hand it addresses

housing issues as emergency issues, focusing

especially on deep poverty and homelessness

and how they were increased by the pandemic.

On the other hand, it addresses long lasting

issues politically accepted by wider audiences,

such as energy sustainable housing, and it

mentions core issues on Housing affordability.

All these items coexist in this report and need

to be implemented, which is a political

challenge for the states.

In the afternoon, ENHR held the closing session

of this series of seminars, in which the main

points of each workshop were summarized and

discussed. Ivan Tosics (ENHR vice chair) drew

conclusions explaining that there are currently

more questions than answers. At the moment

we can just raise hypothesis and research

further on their developments. The seminars

were a great starting point for further

discussions on post-pandemic housing issues.

The ENHR Conference in Nicosia

41

(30 August-

2 September 2021) will be the perfect occasion

to address some of these questions and to

follow-up on all the research and research

ideas that were presented in the different

webinars.

41

https://cyprusconferences.org/enhr2021/

IUT BRUSSELS;ENHR SEMINARS ”HOUSING RELATED IMPACTS OF

THE PANDEMIC”

39

Chiara Massarotto

More info:

Barbara Steenbergen

Head of IUT liaison office to the EU, B-1200 Brussels

barbara.steenbergen@iut.nu