Rental sector liberalization and the housing outcomes for young urban adults

Young adults increasingly rely on precarious and costly rental housing, particularly in major cities and liberalized housing markets. Amsterdam has a more regulated housing system, but increasing market-liberal logic in policy-making has led to considerable loosening of rent regulations in the last decade. One outcome has been the significant growth, and transformation, of liberalized rental housing. Drawing on city of Amsterdam survey data from 2005 to 2019, our analysis considers how recent policy and housing market shifts have generated and shaped housing inequalities for young adults. Where private rental growth was stimulated to fill the middle segment, our findings reveal that it has largely catered to affluent young adults. Households with less resources struggle to gain access, and pay more when they do. Our findings demonstrate that this variation of ‘generation rent” is not simply an outcome of market-liberal agendas, but is also shaped on a city-scale, partly through rental market restructuring.