Varieties of urban housing regimes: Comparing housing provision and tenure shift in Athens, Belgrade, and Vienna

In this paper, we intend to apply the concept of urban housing regime (UHR) as an analytical framework that enables us to trace the formation of a “welfarist” regime and its transition toward a “neoliberal” regime. For this purpose, we conceptualize UHR as diverse regulative and power constellations, comprising a political-regulative, an institutional/actor and a housing-stock dimension. Our analysis focuses on the comparison of three variegated urban housing markets in Europe: those of Athens, Belgrade, and Vienna. Here, we investigate the extent to which variations in local UHRs strengthen, weaken or distort global trends, such as the financialization of housing. Tenure structures are a key indicator for analyzing the varieties of UHRs and the shifts between these regimes. The comparative roster shows that, beyond a global trend of commodification, the UHR can explain existing divergences in urban housing provision.