The area-based planning process of Dutch housing associations

Dutch housing associations are important actors in the field of urban planning. They are independent social enterprises, which take their own decisions on this stock. Many housing associations work with asset management plans to secure that their portfolio meets company goals and market demand. However, in practice decisions of housing associations are often not a direct result of these plans, but of incidents at the neighbourhood level, or of emerged opportunities. Next to that, housing associations nowadays do not only focus on the quality of their own housing stock, but also on the physical, economical and social quality of the whole neighbourhood, which implies cooperation with a wide variety of local actors. As a result housing associations in the Netherlands are increasingly employing an area-based approach towards asset management. In order to analyse the different ways housing associations implement this area-based approach, the concept of planning is used. Five planning types are identified (rational, incremental, collaborative, political and advocacy planning) and transformed into propositions that are tested in a survey among housing managers. From this survey a diffuse picture arises. Housing associations use different elements from different planning types. However, emphasis is on the elements of the rational and collaborative types