THE FUTURE FOR PRIVATE RENTAL HOUSING: SURVIVING NICHES OR FLEXIBLE MARKETS? Duncan Maclennan ABSTRACT Private rental housing has had a mixed experience of growth and decline across the advanced economies over the postwar period. Patterns of the tenure's significance have been driven by policy rather than economic growth and public housing provision, home-ownership subsidies and inflation have been as significant as rent controls. Sectors now comprise well-defined segments or niches and there are both commonalities and contrasts in units provided, ownership and occupancy. A more stable macroeconomic environment and the mobility and fiscal stringency consequences of global competition appear to facilitate a more expanded role for the sector which also requires scrutiny in relation to the housing requirements for successful European Monetary Union. 1 Old experiences, new questions The papers in this volume make clear that whilst there were important commonalities in the past development of private rental housing in the advanced economies there were also clear differences. This concluding contribution tries to draw together an overview of changing sector scale (Section 2) and its causes (Section 3), the current pattern of provision (Section 4), the characteristics of residents (Section 5) and the ownership of rented dwellings (Section 6). The last two sections of the paper look to the future and consider possible roles for private rental housing (Section 7) and the emerging social and economic context likely to shape rental housing markets in Europe (Section 8). The aim of the paper is to assess how past experiences in rental housing can inform debates about future roles and policies for the sector. 2 Patterns, perceptions Decline For much of the last half-century, West European policymakers and researchers (see Neth. J. of Housing and the Built Environment, Vol. 13 (1998) No. 3. 387