Making Norway’s housing more affordable and sustainable

Ben Conigrave and Philip Hemmings

No 1711, OECD Economics Department Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: Norway, like a number of other countries, saw steep growth in house prices during the pandemic. This added to past years of strong price increases and has brought renewed concern for housing affordability. Tax advantages to buying homes inflate house prices, contribute to wealth inequality and divert resources from more productive investments. An underdeveloped rental market is an additional consequence of Norway’s pro-homeownership policies. Beyond tax reform and targeted support for low-income households, including renters, lasting improvements in affordability will require measures to enhance the responsiveness of residential construction to increased demand. However, creating room for new housing supply can involve difficult trade‑offs with environmental and other policy objectives.

Keywords: house prices; housing affordability; housing market; land-use regulations; Norway; personal income tax; social housing; sustainable housing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H20 H24 Q58 R21 R31 R38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-04-19
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env, nep-ore, nep-pbe and nep-ure
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