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Housing quality is known to be related to subjective well-being (SWB), but much less is known how this relationship varies with national contexts. This study addresses the association between housing tenure and housing quality on the one hand and the SWB of older Europeans on the other, given the differences in housing markets across Europe. Data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe were used, and linear regression models of SWB were estimated for 16 European countries. The findings indicate that being a renter is negatively related to SWB, while having a large house is positively associated with it. The negative effect of being a renter on SWB is small in several countries with accessible and well-regulated rental markets. Moreover, the difference in SWB between older people with a small and a large dwelling is somewhat smaller in countries with a high level of housing quality than in countries with lower housing quality. For each of our housing indicators, however, we also found countries for which the findings deviated from the general pattern. The findings imply that housing-market characteristics matter to how housing relates to SWB and, therefore, that housing-market interventions might affect this relationship.

In this article, using policy documents and both qualitative and quantitative data sources, we evaluate the extent to which the Belgian welfare system conforms to trends towards asset-based welfare involving the promotion of home-ownership as an alternative to social security provision. We conclude that, following the explicit and ongoing sponsorship of home-ownership since the end of the 19th century, in Belgium, an asset-based approach to welfare has actually been in place for some time. Most Belgian elderly people are income-poor (mainly due to low public pensions) but asset-rich. While the risk of poverty for home-owners in old age is somewhat higher than that for the general population, it is much higher for elderly renters. As far as the preconditions for a possible restructuring of the Belgian welfare state in the direction of greater reliance on asset-based welfare are concerned, we find that most of them are fulfilled. Public debt is high with increasing costs of population ageing looming large on the economic horizon. However, although some politicians have raised the issue, so far, virtually no initiatives have been taken to tap into existing housing wealth. Our qualitative evidence shows that this can be partly explained by the fact that Belgians have a rather conservative attitude towards the welfare state, which is expected to provide adequately for 'traditional' life-course risks such as unemployment and old age. Housing is considered a private issue, separated from the social security sphere.

It seems that many Belgian cities are doing well. Their population is increasing, numerous urban projects are under way, and masses of construction sites testify to effective realisations. And the inner cities are swamped with tourists and visitors attracted by the historical monuments and leisure activities. Is the 21st century indeed becoming the era of the city, as a White Book on urban policies predicts? Or is some modification of that prediction necessary? It would seem so, since the population growth is due to people coming from abroad (family reunification or formation; asylum-seekers), while at the same time the natives-as they have done since the 1960s-keep on leaving the city. So sub- and de-urbanisation has not stopped. There are even indications that it is accelerating again. In this contribution we consider why sub- and de-urbanisation, why sprawl is so obstinate, so persistent. We look at the structures behind the Belgian sprawl, seeing them as the consequence of a longstanding dialectical process of political choices and actions, cultural convictions and economic possibilities that reinforced each other in daily practice over and over again in the dominant direction.