Although the primary goals of post war housing policy in The
Netherlands have been accomplished, the Dutch housing market remains highly
regulated. This paper develops a static partial equilibrium model to
investigate the effects of deregulation on the free market prices and the
allocation of houses among households. We focus on three policy measures:
individual rent support, social housing projects and the fiscal rules for owner
occupied houses. We conclude that abolishing fiscal rules for owner occupant do
not affect net yearly expenses on housing. Decreasing individual rent support
increases prices on the whole housing market. Finally, less social housing
hardly affects market prices, but lowers the inefficiency of the distribution
of the stock of houses among households.