ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on some determinants of new housing output. The private sector is characterised by volume house builders operating speculatively. Private households can take advantage of the flexibilities within the system to supply housing for a number of different tenures across the private and rented sectors: for owner-occupation, for investment and for social housing purposes. The term ‘profitability’ can be used as a premise for explaining the level of house building in the private sector. Consumer price indices are used to calculate real house prices as well as land and building costs in real terms. House prices in the Netherlands are sourced from the Nederlandse Vereiniging van Makelaars, which is the Dutch umbrella organisation of Makelaars. The relationship between social housing production and unemployment in Germany is more similar to that in the United Kingdom than in the Netherlands.
