Governing regional affordability: rethinking the production of affordable spaces across the Metropolitan Region Amsterdam (MRA)

ABSTRACT

The Covid-19 pandemic has coincided with increased residential property investment outside the Amsterdam urban core and the ongoing departure of residents into its surrounding, more affordable metropolitan area. Underlying these developments, we have found increased regulatory efforts scattered across diverse public administration scales to improve housing delivery and access throughout the metropolitan region. Within these increasingly complex landscapes, we argue there is an urgent need to develop coordinated regional governance mechanisms to respond to fragmented regulatory efforts and dynamic residential investment landscapes to ensure long-term affordability and accessibility to housing across the region. We introduce an approach to affordability that centres on regional governance, moving away from popularized urban-centric interventions to affordable housing delivery and investment.