ABSTRACT
The final chapter of the volume summarizes the findings reported in the theoretical part of the book and in the empirical second part. Affordable housing policies seem difficult to establish and to enforce, despite housing welfare and housing security being stated policy goals in many welfare states. The chapter introduces the concepts of rights and policy goals proposed by Ronald Dworkin to better examine how policymakers face the challenge to make difficult choices between subsidizing housing extensively at the expense of other policy goals. Given that norms regarding fairness and justice may be difficult to align with market pricing and transactions, subsidizing housing may inevitably be associated with market interferences and thus with costs. To what extent such additional costs would presumably raise the housing welfare and security among disadvantaged groups (low-net-worth households, younger people, and unemployed residents) is a political question that demands that some trade-offs need to be recognized and certain priorities need to be made on the basis of social norms and political objectives. As the empirical section of the book indicates, it is possible to produce affordable housing on the basis of commercial interests, but the profit margins are small and the business activities are vulnerable against macroeconomic changes and finance industry turbulence.
