The role of institutional regimes in motivating change for sustainable housing

Although the provision of shelter is the primary function of housing, it also has important implications for actors from many other sectors such as investment, energy supply, urban design and immigration. The decisions and actions of these actors regarding their specific non-shelter uses of housing must be considered if the question of housing sustainability is to be thoroughly addressed. The institutional regimes approach was used to analyse seven case study housing stocks in Switzerland, Germany and Spain in an international study that sought to gain knowledge about the largely unknown influence of institutional regimes (i.e. the set of public policies, property rights and contracts between parties governing all uses of housing) on the sustainability of multifamily residential buildings. The results reveal the mechanisms by which regimes can motivate housing-related actors to use housing in a sustainable manner and to shape housing stock owners' solution space to achieve sustainable housing. The use of the institutional regimes' analytical framework can provide coherence to the diverse array of regulatory conditions and large number of actors. An integrated regime with a clear alignment of roles and responsibilities is a precondition before actors can be motivated to achieve housing sustainability.