In the major Dutch cities, social rented housing in post-war neighborhoods is demolished and largely replaced by more expensive owner-occupied and rental housing. Through residential mobility, these measures can trigger substantial population changes. In two recently restructured neighborhoods in the city of Rotterdam, we study residents’ social capital. Herewith, we distinguish between the stayers, movers and newcomers. In a neighborhood context, social capital refers to the benefit of cursory interactions, shared norms, trust and collective action of residents. Survey data show that social capital is not only an asset of long-term stayers, but that in particular newcomers are relatively rich in social capital. Factors associated with higher levels of social capital are a higher net income, presence of households with children, stronger place attachment, higher perceived neighborhood quality, homeownership and single-family dwellings. The expected future length of residence in the area appears of little importance for social capital.

Urban regeneration policies are a common phenomenon in Western European countries. Comparisons demonstrate that policy contents and implementation differ strongly between countries, but there are also similarities. One is the growing importance of the concept of social capital in the discourse of urban regeneration. Many policymakers claim that urban regeneration should not only improve the physical quality of urban neighborhoods, but also the social well-being of their residents (see e.g. Flint and Kearns, 2006; Kearns, 2004; Lelieveldt, 2004; Middleton et al., 2005). Recently, the notion of social capital has been introduced in the political debates on urban regeneration. As Middleton and colleagues (2005) put it: “Social capital is seen as the foundation on which social stability and a community’s ability to help itself are built; and its absence is thought to be a key factor in neighborhood decline” (ibid., p.1711). To turn the tide, urban regeneration policies often target the housing stock of certain neighborhoods. Frequent interventions are demolition and upgrading of social rented housing and new construction of owner-occupied housing. Urban restructuring is a commonly used term for those measures. They result in a considerable temporary turnover of residents, because significant residential mobility out of, within and into the restructuring area is inevitable.