Dwelling services, with an emphasis on imputed rent in the European Union*
Dwelling services, with an emphasis on imputed rent in the European Union*

Summary/Abstract: Imputed rent and actual rent paid by the tenant are inherent in dwelling services. The study presents the estimation method of imputed rent in national accounts. Without imputing this item, gross domestic product (GDP) figures would be skewed. The author examines the distribution of imputed rent within the European Union (EU) member states, and describes the housing conditions therein; she also identifies the theory behind the differential distribution of owner-occupied dwellings among member states and analyses EU housing conditions. Using the Esping-Andersen (1990) welfare state typology and national accounts figures, EU member states are clustered based on their imputed rents. Some of the findings align with the Esping-Andersen typology, while others do not. Convergence of liberal, universalistic and conservative welfare regimes is found with respect to housing tenure. In the paper the Mediterranean welfare regime constitutes a separate cluster, just as EU ‘new-comers’ (formerly socialist member states) that showed a completely different character with respect to housing tenure. The study presents two methods (the stratification and the user-cost methods) by which imputed rent was determined for the EU member states. Macro- and micro-level aspects are considered when analysing dwelling services of EU member states, depending on the scope and depth of the examination. The two data sources are based on different methodologies thus satisfy different research purposes. Nonetheless, by leveraging these two data sources, one can achieve deeper insights in-to EU housing conditions.

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