ABSTRACT
Urban planning remained a local activity (Faludi & Van der Valk, 1994). As a result of the
late industrialization the Dutch were in a position to learn lessons about urban develop-
ment from elsewhere. In 1889, Belgium created its first national housing laws, more
than a decade before the Netherlands (although the latter did include instruments for
town planning). Unlike the Belgian housing legislation, the Dutch laws created the oppor-
tunity for housing associations to receive government subsidies, which promoted the con-
struction of so-called “housing-law houses”.
