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In recent years, energy efficiency is a topic of growing importance not only on the political agenda of many Western countries, but also in the management of individual housing providers in these countries. Although there are many publications on how these organisations take up the topic of energy efficiency in their policies and activities, not so much has been written about the progress in policy in the national housing sectors as a whole. This paper presents the results of an investigation about the policy developments in the non-profit housing sector in the Netherlands, in which the present situation is compared with that of four years ago. Where did the Dutch non-profit housing providers stand in their policy development concerning energy efficiency, and where do they stand now? Have they become more ambitious or less ambitious? The paper also deals with the main stimuli and barriers that the non-profit housing providers have perceived. The findings show a progress in policy in the period under investigation, but this progress seems too small to attain national and international targets for 2020.

Recent findings from a monitor containing around 1.5 million homes in the Dutch non-profit rental sector show that the improvement of the energy performance of the respective homes is mostly carried out in small steps: single measures per dwelling dominate and deep energy renovations are rare. From the way in which housing providers conceive and implement their portfolio and asset management strategies, the purpose of this paper is to explain for the dominance of the small interventions and investigate the argument for a more concentrated allocation of budget resources.

In total, 12 housing providers with different energy investment policies were selected and interviewed.

Results show that energy investments, as most other investments, must fit in regular investment schemes and have to follow general decision criteria such as the lifespan of the respective building element and the market position of the respective dwelling. As these schemes are limited in budget and time, the room for a more concentrated allocation of budget resources is small.

The number of organisations interviewed is obviously not statistically representative, but gives a good indication of the investment planning practice in the Dutch non-profit housing sector.

Much has been written about the (slow) progress of the energy performance in the housing sector, but not about the more structural organisational forces behind this progress.

Following the neo‐liberal trend of less government intervention and more room for market forces, the introduction of private sector models in the public or non‐profit sector has gained a lot of attention and popularity. This has also been the case in several European non‐profit social housing sectors. This paper aims to reflect on the practicability of strategic business planning models in the Dutch non‐profit housing sector and to present suggestions for improvement of these models.

Case studies have been held among six Dutch non‐profit landlords. These case studies included interviews with both policy staff and staff responsible for individual investment projects.

In the Dutch non‐profit housing sector, models based on principles of strategic business planning and similar models have been applied to structure and to systematise decision making about investments in the housing stock. These models, however, appear to be unsuccessful in their impact on actual investments in estates or buildings. The main weakness is that these models implicitly suppose a vertical, top‐down implementation of policies, whereas policies are also formed by other strategies, beliefs and motives in the organisation, either documented or undocumented.

The research is confined to the Dutch non‐profit housing sector. However, similarities of the findings with other policy implementation studies suggest that the implications for strategic planning models also apply in many other non‐profit sectors and maybe even in commercial sectors.

This paper challenges classic strategic planning models and gives an adapted version of these models which meets the shortcomings identified in the research.

Many studies on policy implementation have emphasized the difficulties of putting policies into practice. This paper presents several ways in which Dutch social landlords incorporate their energy saving policies in their “regular” housing management, such as planned preventive maintenance, renovations and other physical improvements.

Several housing associations were selected that have formulated an energy saving policy and that have at least some experience in implementing these policies into projects. Interviews were held with managers of asset and maintenance management and with policy staff of housing associations. The extent to which the policy ambitions, both at the portfolio level and at the project level are carried out, and in which way these ambitions are embedded in the organisations’ regular working processes are investigated. Also, the main stimuli and barriers for the implementation of the energy saving policies are identified. Special attention has been paid to the feasibility of combining of energy saving measures with other physical improvements in the housing stock.

Results show that the implementation of energy saving policies in annual improvement and maintenance plans is in most cases not problematic, and that the most significant problems arise during the realisation of the policies in the preparation of specific investment projects.

Energy saving policies are relatively new to the sector in The Netherlands. Therefore, the number of case studies is relatively low.

The paper offers case studies which illustrate and explain the gap between energy saving policies and realisation of these policies.

States that social housing has traditionally been provided through bureaucratic mechanisms, and as a consequence landlords have operated mainly in a task‐oriented way. Reports that many governments in Europe have transformed their housing systems to include or to reinforce market principles in the hope that this could lead to a more efficient social housing system. Argues that market orientation should be reinforced in the social rented sector. Concludes that in the methods from the private sector the emphasis naturally lies on financial performance, so social landlords must find ways to incorporate social returns in their decisions.

As a result of changes in housing policy in the 1980s and 1990s, social landlords in several European countries have to manage their stock in a more commercial way. They have to anticipate market developments and formulate a strategy for the development of their stock. This kind of asset management is referred to as “strategic housing management”. Being mainly a practitioners' business, and mostly of recent date, strategic housing management lacks a sound theoretical basis. Publications of “good” practice are scarce. This paper sets up a framework for strategic housing management of social landlords. The main question addressed is: “How can social landlords develop their asset management schemes in a strategic way?” From the theory on business planning and housing management, the paper defines strategic stock management and its characteristics. The paper uses Kotler's general model for strategic business planning and illustrates how this model can be applied to social landlords with various examples from The Netherlands and approaches from front‐runners among Dutch social landlords.

In previous research publications the authors combined the available knowledge about obsolescence in a conceptual model for further research on and appliance in the decision making about demolition. Since evidence-based theoretical research references on obsolescence are rare, the model inevitably had an explorative character. The purpose of this paper is to test and elaborate the model.

A series of case studies were conducted in various residential building estates. In each estate the types of obsolescence (according to the model) and their interrelationships were identified.

The model can usefully be applied; it enables the determination of types of obsolescence. The case studies also show that several types of obsolescence occur simultaneously, and that these types can be interrelated. This touches upon the complexity of cause-effect mechanisms as already mentioned in the introduction. One of the weaknesses is that information is sometimes available for only one point in time, and that the availability of information varies with the type of obsolescence.

The study is based on a limited selection of case studies. Further, the causal relationships between the types of obsolescence could not always be revealed.

The current model does not distinguish between causes and effects. For further development of the model, cause-effect processes have to be further analysed.

Actual measurement of the extent of obsolescence per type is not part of this study, but has to be carried out before social implications can adequately be indicated.

The paper presents a conceptual classification of obsolescence that turns out to be workable when tested in practice.

There is a clear tendency towards more business‐like approaches in the housing sectors in many European countries. The paper attempts to identify these approaches and related techniques with Dutch institutional real estate investors.

It has been investigated how real estate investors in The Netherlands decide about the physical and technical development and the tenure of their housing stock. In‐depth interviews have been held with several large real estate investors, which cover the majority of all dwellings in the sector.

Results show that investment allocations are only partly rationalised and are not in the least based on intuition. In addition, some elements of strategic asset management prove to be less common than we had expected from the commercial nature of these elements.

The research concentrates on the development of the total portfolio. In future research, individual estates can be selected for case studies, in order to assess to what extent the policies on portfolio level are carried out in practice.

The paper presents recent evidence on the state of professionalisation in the commercial housing sector.

The existing housing stock has a major energy saving potential and is mostly considered to be the sector in which energy efficiency most cost effectively can be achieved. About 30% of all energy use is consumed in the housing stock. The European union formulates saving targets, policies and regulations that have to be implemented by the member states and a considerable share of the EU budget for research and innovation is dedicated to this challenge. In recent years many policies, investment programmes, technical innovations and process innovations have been developed and been put into practice. However, it appears to be very difficult to realise massive renovation programmes in the existing housing stock and really make a step forward towards the energy efficiency goals. This special issue presents an overview of actual insights of the perspectives of energy efficiency in the housing stock based on several research projects and analyses and discussions about how the current policies will work out and which are the barriers that still have to be taken. We focus on the policies, the processes and the people.