Public Housing, Land and Area Development

In Australia and Ireland, the central governments have encouraged the use of concession models in their pilot PPP public housing projects. But the country with the deepest experience in this sector remains the Netherlands, which has been applying PPPs to social housing and regeneration projects for nearly two decades. Joint venture, the most commonly used PPP arrangement for these projects, suits the local governments' need to retain control over planning and development while utilizing the private partners' available resources and expertise. PPP contracts typically last for 5 to 10 years, after which the land owner (the government or the private partner) takes ownership of the project. This model proved quite successful for more than 100 locally initiated projects in the Netherlands.58 The cooperation needed to make joint ventures work have proven to be especially successful tools in breaking deadlocks with private developers that arise because land in crowded Holland is scarce.

The Dutch central government has also introduced key PPP projects in urban regeneration. These projects, are centrally administered, with continued involvement by local governments.59