History

• During the late 1980s, social science research on housing had become more and more international in outlook and perspective. A number of new journals had appeared. Several large and quite successful international research conferences had been held, such as the International Research Conference on Housing Policy in Gävle (Sweden) in 1986 and the Research Conference on Housing, Policy and Urban Innovation in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) in 1988. Out of these events had grown a recognition of the increasing need for a more structured cooperation between social scientists in different countries, particularly in the European context.
• ENHR was officially founded in 1988. Bengt Turner (chairman, SE), Hugo Priemus (NL) and Lennart Lundqvist (secretary, SE) were the ENHR pioneers. Together with Frans Dieleman (NL), Dan Ferrand-Bechman (FR), Iván Tosics (HU), Helmut Wollman (DE), Michael Harloe (UK), Duncan Maclennan (UK) and Christine Whitehead (UK) they formed the Coordination Committee. Its goal was to provide an organizational platform for institutions and individuals in both Eastern and Western Europe, who are actively engaged in housing research. The Network was primarily directed towards the social sciences, but also welcomed institutions and individuals in other disciplines, whose research is oriented towards, or is of relevance to, social science housing research.
• The ENHR Secretariat first was located at the National Swedish Institute for Building Research but moved to the University of Uppsala in Sweden in 1994.
• A select group of researchers from Europe were invited to become a member of ENHR and the first ideas for the launch of several Working Groups were considered. The first ENHR-newsletter was published in 1989.

• In the summer of 1990 officially the first major ENHR conference after ENHR’s inception took place in Paris. The theme was ‘Housing debates, urban challenges’. With approx. 600 participants the conference was a great success. Since then every year a conference was organised.
• In June 1991 the first General Assembly took place. At that meeting the ENHR Charter was adopted (replaced by Bylaws and Internal Rules in 2019).
• The first meeting of Young Housing Researchers was held in London in 1994.
• In 2007 the founder of ENHR, Bengt Turner, unexpectedly passed away. In his memory the Bengt Turner Award was introduced for the best conference paper. In 2008 the prize was awarded for the first time.
• In 2010 Christine Whitehead and Lawrence Teeland, two members who had been very actively involved in ENHR, stepped down from the Coordination Committee and the ENHR Secretariat respectively. 
• In 2011 Professor Peter Boelhouwer (Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands) became the new Chair. The Secretariat then moved to Delft University of Technology, with Marietta Haffner as head of the Secretariat. In 2017 she was succeeded by Dirk Dubbeling.
• In 2019 a set of Bylaws and Internal Rules were accepted by the General Assembly and ENHR was registered as an association at the Chamber of Commerce in Delft (The Netherlands).
• In 2024 Peter Boelhouwer stepped down as chair and from their midst the Coordination Committee seleted Montserrat Pareja Eastaway (Spain) as their new chair. Montse was a vice chair for many years.