mw. Prof. dr. ir. M.G. (Marja) Elsinga

Head of Housing Systems research programme

Marja Elsinga works as professor the housing market and housing policy fields. She is appointed at the faculty of Technology Policy and Management and based at OTB Research Institute of the Built Environment. She supervises a number of PhD students and teaches Bachelor’s students in the domain of Space: Use and Development at the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management. She is active as editor in chief of the Dutch Journal for Housing and as Associate Editor in Chief of Elsevier’s Encyclopedia of Housing & Home and editor of several books. 

In both her academic and contract research she focuses on the following areas: home ownership for low-income groups, forms of affordable home ownership, mortgage guarantee schemes, the risks of home ownership, the effects of sale of rented homes, various forms of housing allowance and rented housing policy, the role of housing associations in urban renewal and the future of social housing in Europe. 

Marja coordinates the OTB Research Institute’s contribution to Steunpunt Ruimte en Wonen (Policy Research Centre on Spatial Planning and Housing) in Flanders: http://www2.vlaanderen.be/ned/sites/weten/steunpunten/steunpunten2/rw.htm   She is also a member of the EU DEMHOW (Demographic changes and Hosing Wealth) project management team concerned with the role of home ownership in old age provision, http://www.demhow.bham.ac.uk.  She is one of the coordinators of the Home Ownership and Globalisation working group of the European Network for Housing Research: http://www.enhr.ibf.uu.se/wg/homeow.html. 

Marja graduated in housing ecology at the University of Wageningen in 1989. In 1995 she obtained her doctorate with distinction on the subject ‘Home ownership for low-income groups’. She was a member of the Board of Commissioners of the Maassluis housing association, a member of the supervisory board of PWS housing association in Rotterdam and strategic policy officer at Woondrecht housing association in Dordrecht. She is currently an active board member of Nederlandse Woonbond (Dutch National Tenants’ Association).

Overview publications Marja Elsinga