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Online platforms are the main form of mediation in the housing market. While their importance has grown significantly in recent decades, that growth has been uneven throughout various territories and social groups. The role of online platforms goes beyond intermediation; the ease of access they provide stimulates market activity, while the concentration of listings on the same web portals homogenizes and raises prices. This article uses a unique database on housing supply for rentals and sales by census tract from Spain’s primary online housing portal between 2012 and 2021. Using data from this portal as a case study, we analyse how the gradual growth of the digital housing supply (in both space and time) is connected to changes in the distribution and characteristics of the housing units. Rental and sales markets show spatial differences, with opposing dynamics in rural and urban areas, highlighting a digital divide. Middle‐class urban areas, which also attract tourists, are the most active markets, while rural areas remain less dynamic. Housing in more active markets, in turn, appreciates, increasing territorial inequality. Rising prices benefit existing owners but are a disadvantage to potential buyers, especially lower‐income households. In that respect, our case study points to the conclusion that the digital divide in the use of online intermediation tools amplifies territorial and social inequalities.

Housing in shrinking cities may be evaluated ambiguously: While it is often affordable and available, which encourages real estate investment, it may also be associated with specific financial and personal risks. A central determinant of who invests in housing and where may be perceptions and evaluations of homeownership, particularly in contexts of urban shrinkage. In this article, we investigate the perceptions of housing in shaping homeownership in shrinking cities and how these may transform patterns of real estate investment. Based on semi‐structured interviews in six case cities in the Baltic Sea Region—Alytus and Šiauliai (Lithuania), Salo and Kouvola (Finland), Neubrandenburg and Frankfurt (Oder) (Germany)—this research examines evaluations of the housing market in terms of risk, uncertainty, and opportunity for different actor groups and considers the role of spatial and economic characteristics and institutional settings. The findings illustrate that housing markets in shrinking cities are characterised by substantial heterogeneity, implying that submarkets may be profitable in certain locations and for certain investors. Moreover, property investment decisions of owner‐occupiers and investors may be affected by different types of risk and uncertainty. Experiences of urban decline and its effect on the perceived security of housing may thus reduce the expectation of wealth accumulation via homeownership. These issues hold implications for (spatial) inequalities and illustrate that the relevance of housing policy for shrinking cities goes far beyond providing adequate shelter but rather relates to broader questions of economic welfare and regional disparities.

This article examines the concepts of “housing risk” and “responsibilisation,” and their impact on housing inclusion for refugees in a northern Swedish municipality. The interviews reveal that local policies often fail to recognize the welfare state’s responsibility to ensure housing for refugees, instead shifting this burden to social workers, individuals, and informal networks. Social workers face ethical dilemmas in balancing their roles as defenders of housing rights and extensions of the welfare state. The findings suggest that the discursive framing of refugees as “risky objects” reflects an ideology that discourages their long‐term settlement and silences housing inequality. Consequently, managing refugees’ housing risks through responsibilisation practices, rather than addressing systemic inequalities and national political failures, risks backfiring. The study calls for a reevaluation of housing policies by acknowledging housing inequalities and incorporating social workers’ insights and local conditions outside metropolitan areas.

The provision of housing plays a decisive role in segregation processes. In a European context increasingly influenced by variegated neo-liberal housing policies, Vienna’s approach is characterised by generous access to social housing. This inclusive strategy aims at actively preventing segregation and the isolation of certain groups. Over the last 30 years, however, reconfigured multi-level arrangements and wider contextual changes have transformed Vienna’s housing governance. This article explores how. In particular, it aims at disentangling the relationship between housing policy reforms at multiple policy levels and the changes of the mechanisms shaping the access to tenure segments and residential segregation in Vienna. Through the use of process tracing, we identify critical junctures of housing governance and relate them to housing segmentation and segregation measures over a period of approximately 30 years. Our findings show that reforms on multiple levels produce an increasingly deregulated private rental market and an increasingly fragmented access to a diversified provision of social housing. From a spatial point of view, persistent patterns of segregation blend with new ones, leading to decreasing segregation characterised by a more even spatial distribution of low and high-status groups. At the same time, both groups show very low, but slightly increased levels of isolation. Tenant profiles in social housing are, however, generally still very mixed. Balancing the trade-off between a social mix and social targeting without excluding residents in need will remain the main challenge for Vienna’s social housing model.

Space standards are envisioned as a powerful means to regulate dwelling design, ensuring the quality, functionality, and safety of homes. Their ultimate objective is to guarantee a minimum level of design quality that can accommodate a wide range of domestic activities. While space standards primarily focus on isolated quantitative aspects such as overall size, room dimensions, and occupancy limits, they also make assumptions about activities to be performed by ideal “users” and specific lifestyles to be accommodated within a home. However, these assumptions are being challenged by the increasing demands and diverse activities taking place in the dwelling realm, which call into question the validity of existing space standards. In response to these challenges, this article conducts a critical review of the theoretical basis and various interpretations of space standards, particularly in the context of England. It explores their fundamental concepts and historical approaches, as well as examines specific examples of their application and their correlation with design strategies. By delving into the concepts of “the normal” and “the minimum dwelling,” the article discusses the three main dimensions of space standards: program, user, and size. Consequently, it argues for a more comprehensive understanding of the general application of space standards, which requires incorporating architectural design problems, particularly from the perspective of flexibility. This approach takes into account the evolving needs and diversity of households, as well as the creation of inclusive and adaptable living spaces.

This research focuses on examining how the pursuit of economic growth can contribute to urban shrinkage. In contrast to the prevalent definition of urban shrinkage that links population loss to insufficient levels of economic growth, this study examines the case of Coimbra, Portugal, where something different is happening. We hypothesise that Coimbra experiences population loss due to urban policies that promote economic growth through housing speculation. We conclude that the hypothesis is valid using semi-structured interviews and document analysis as data collection methods. The identified phenomenon disproportionately affects younger and vulnerable residents, forcing them to relocate due to unaffordable housing options. However, it benefits the local authority and national government, which collaborate with global economic powers that invest in real estate to accumulate capital. The conformist and legalistic-bureaucratic nature of the Portuguese planning system, evident in Coimbra’s local authority, exacerbates the problem. We emphasise the potentially transformative impact of economic degrowth thinking on housing policy. The implications of this research question the validity of mainstream economic theory as commonly applied to urban planning.

The way housing affordability evolved since WW2 in Greece—and in its capital city in particular—is an example of how the South European welfare system managed, for several decades, to provide socially inclusive housing solutions without developing the services of a sizeable welfare state until global forces and related policies brought it to an end. The increased role of the market in housing provision since the 1980s, the rapid growth of mortgage lending in the 1990s, the neoliberal policy recipes imposed during the crisis of the 2010s and the unleashed demand for housing in the aftermath of the crisis have led to increased housing inequalities and converged the outcome of this South European path with the outcome of undoing socially inclusive housing solutions provided by the welfare state in other contexts. The article follows longstanding and recent developments concerning the housing model in Greece and especially in the city of Athens, focusing on mechanisms that have allowed access to affordable housing for broad parts of the population during different historical periods, and examines the extent to which the current housing model remains inclusive or not. The aim here is to discuss the most important challenges concerning access to decent housing and highlight the need for inclusive housing policies to be introduced into the current social and political agenda.

The legacy passed on from one generation to another has deep connections to a shared identity, a sense of belonging, and cultural heritage. Different types of architecture reflect cultural and societal changes, especially housing. In the UAE, housing has played an important role in nation-building efforts, with the Emirati villa, a space filled with intangible practices through which domestic cultural production and national identity can be read. Therefore, the transformation of domesticity has been instrumental in the process of rapid Emiratisation and nation-building. This article discusses the tangible and intangible aspects of domesticity and hospitality found in the Emirati villa using conventional architectural analysis and live experience studies. By presenting what guides and informs domestic practices, one can read the interior space as a series of spatial qualities. It asks: How have Emirati homes become a means to create and preserve shared social practices? This aims to reveal how social practices, such as hospitality, are spatialised in Emirati homes, capturing everyday life and social norms. The article argues for the recognition of domestic cultural transformations as a valuable contribution to Emirati national identity over the last 50 years of nation-building.

In response to an everlasting housing crisis, cities worldwide have witnessed a surge in alternative housing initiatives (AHIs) driven by third‐sector organisations. In Brussels, a network of third‐sector organisations has been developing strategies with each other and local authorities, resulting in a plethora of initiatives focusing on various critical situations. Drawing on ethnographic research in a Brussels AHI, this article investigates how its complex multi‐actor structure affects the daily life of its inhabitants both within their dwellings and the wider neighbourhood. By capturing the tactics employed by third‐sector actors on the ground, which often deviate from their initial strategy for reclaiming the right to housing, as well as the homing practices of the inhabitants, the article focuses on tracing how and why such a housing configuration does or does not address its inhabitants’ interplaying vulnerabilities related with the housing crisis as well as their relationship with the local urban fabric.