The quasi-market approach: the answer for social housing in New Zealand?
Keyword(s):
One of the major current policy initiatives of the New Zealand government is the introduction of the quasi-market approach for the delivery of social housing under the Social Housing Reform Programme. The Social Housing Reform Programme seeks to increase the participation of third-party not-for-profit community housing providers in delivering social housing in competition with Housing New Zealand Corporation (Minister of Housing, 2012). What has become known as the ‘quasi-market’ approach in social policy is based on the idea of creating competition and using market-based incentives. The rationale of this approach is that if prices are based more on supply and demand, then resource allocation will be more efficient.