Widening the gap: the differential impact of COVID-19 on tenants and homeowners

Abstract In this article, we study how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the housing inequalities between Flemish tenants and homeowners in terms of housing affordability, security and adequacy. Analyzing online survey data, we find that the pandemic increased the existing affordability gap in Flanders between homeowners and tenants. These differences between tenants and homeowners are explained by heterogeneous unemployment and income shocks. We find similar results for the differential impact on housing insecurity. Furthermore, relatively more tenants experience problems with the size of their dwelling due to the pandemic compared to homeowners. We find that these differences are best explained by the dwelling type as well as the household size, unemployment and work-from-home. The analysis shows that the COVID-19 crisis had a significant effect on the housing conditions of Flemish tenants and homeowners and exacerbated existing inequalities.