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Land and the housing affordability crisis: landowner and developer strategies in Luxembourg’s facilitative planning context

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  • Paccoud, Antoine
  • Hesse, Markus
  • Becker, Tom
  • Górczyńska, Magdalena

Abstract

The issue of land and its ownership remains under-explored in relation to the housing affordability crisis. We argue that the concentrated ownership of residential land affects housing production in Luxembourg through the interplay of landowner and developer wealth accumulation strategies. Drawing on expert interviews, we first show that the country’s growth-centred ecology has produced a negotiated planning regime that does little to manage the pace of residential development. Through an investigation of the development of 71 large-scale residential projects since 2007, we then identify the private land-based wealth accumulation strategies this facilitative planning regime enables. This analysis of land registry data identifies land hoarding, land banking and the strategic use of the planning system. The Luxembourg case – with its extremes of land concentration, low taxes and public disengagement from land – provides a glimpse at the influence of landowner and property developer strategies on housing affordability free of the usual mediating impact of the planning system.

Suggested Citation

  • Paccoud, Antoine & Hesse, Markus & Becker, Tom & Górczyńska, Magdalena, 2022. "Land and the housing affordability crisis: landowner and developer strategies in Luxembourg’s facilitative planning context," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 111497, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:111497
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    1. Antoine Paccoud, 2020. "The top tail of the property wealth distribution and the production of the residential environment," International Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 100-119, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Mădălina Mezaroş & Antoine Paccoud, 2024. "Accelerating housing inequality: property investors and the changing structure of property ownership in Luxembourg," International Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 23-43, January.
    2. Eichhorn, Sebastian & Ehrhardt, Denise & Münter, Angelika & Behnisch, Martin & Jehling, Mathias, 2024. "Understanding land take by low-density residential areas: An institutionalist perspective on local planning authorities, developers and households," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    3. Quintin Bradley, 2022. "The accountancy of marketisation: Fictional markets in housing land supply," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(3), pages 493-507, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    land; housing; affordability; political economy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General

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