Public housing in Aotearoa and Austria

A utopian comparison

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7153223
AutoresSebastiaan Bierema (0000-0002-1646-4948, University of Otago, autor de correspondencia), Lydia Le Gros (0009-0004-2891-7301, University of Otago)
Año2026
Volumen44
Número1
Páginas159-175
Fecha de publicación2026-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEnvironment and Planning C Politics and Space (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2399-6544 • E-ISSN: 2399-6552
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/23996544251355597
OpenAlexW4411574631
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas43

Aotearoa is commonly understood to be undergoing a housing crisis, with some of the least affordable housing in the OECD. However, determining a crisis is not an objective diagnosis – it is an ideological construction, which makes assumptions about how a housing system ought to function and how it can be fixed. Within this context of ‘crisis’, public housing in Aotearoa is undergoing significant reform, largely centred around the encouragement of ‘third sector’ housing provision in line with the Austrian model. Drawing on Ruth Levitas’ Utopia as Method , this paper compares public housing provision in Aotearoa and Austria. Locating Austria in the place of utopia, this does not treat Austria as a ‘good place’ to be emulated but as a ‘no place’ from which to observe the ideological assumptions underpinning public housing provision in Aotearoa. Focussing on the establishment of public housing regimes in the early 20th century, the neoliberal turn in its final decades, and the ‘permanent crisis’ ensuing from the Global Financial Crisis, this paper argues that the distinct funding structures of public housing in Austria and Aotearoa are reflective of underlying ideological and wealth-distribution mechanisms. Ultimately, the ‘housing crisis’ in Aotearoa is not a temporary malfunctioning of an otherwise healthy system so much as a financialised housing system functioning exactly as can be expected

Aotearoa · Political science · Public housing · Sociology · Gender Studies · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Migration, Aging, and Tourism Studies · Urbanization and City Planning