Asset management strategies and sustainability in Dutch social housing

With 35% of the total housing stock in the Netherlands (Ministry of VROM, 2004), the social rented sector plays an important role in Dutch housing, and its management can be of great importance to the success or failure of sustainability programs. Although sustainable building has been high on the national political agenda, and although this was in a period of intensive policy developments in the Dutch social sector, there are indications that sustainability plays only a minor role in housing management decisions (Sunikka and Boon, 2002 and 2003). This paper is about recent strategic innovations in housing stock policy and investment decisions of social landlords, and the role of sustainability in these innovations. The paper deals with several case studies on this subject, and also goes into a recent survey among social landlords on investment policy and technical management, which gives a more comprehensive picture of the sector. We compare the results with those of an earlier, similar survey, held in 1997 (Straub, 1997). We conclude this paper with some recommendations for enlarging the role of sustainability in housing management.