Property-based welfare and European homeowners: how would housing perform as a pension?

Notwithstanding current market volatility, there has been exceptional expansion in owner-occupied housing sectors and increases in house prices across European countries in recent decades. In the EU, individual wealth held in housing equity, especially among older people, has been considered a substantial reserve that could be tapped into to meet future pension needs as the ageing of the population becomes a greater stress on European welfare states. This paper seeks to take the notion of ‘property-based welfare’ further by examining, in principle at least, how home ownership may function as a pension across EU states. This firstly involves very approximate estimates of the types of, and rates of, income homeowners could hypothetically generate from their homes, including forms of income in kind. Secondly, criteria are identified to estimate how ‘adequate’ such potential incomes are in relation to working incomes and in bringing retired households above poverty levels. Thirdly, different circumstances across EU member states with regard to existing housing and pension arrangements are examined. Broad national groupings appear evident, with housing income having least impact in older member states in central and northern Europe. The paper concludes that while the potential outcome of housing wealth is country specific, in many cases, greater dependency on home ownership in welfare provision, particularly if it is used as a substitute rather than a complement to existing arrangements, may have adverse consequences for many.     

Property values as a measure of ability-to-pay: An empirical examination

The residential property tax is often criticized because housing value may not be a good measure of a household's ability to pay. To examine this criticism, a series of equations is estimated in which the dependent variable is housing price and the independent variables include household income. While the coefficient on income is always significant, it has little explanatory power. Further, the strength of the relationship between income and value weakens as length of tenure in the housing unit increases. Because housing value is a poor proxy for income, modifications to the tax structure such as tax deferment and curcuit breaker programs must be used to improve the viability of property taxation in terms of the ability-to-pay principle.     

Promoting the supply of low income rental housing

There is disturbing evidence of a contraction in the stock of low income private rental housing. In this paper we offer evidence indicating that federal government tax preferences, economies of scope and higher operating costs are part of the explanation for this contraction. The Australian Bureau of Statistics Rental Investors' Survey is used to gauge whether low income housing tax credits and tax-free capital gains thresholds can be used to promote the supply of low income rental housing.     

Housing Taxation and the Economic Benefits of Homeownership

This paper re-considers the arguments for reforming housing taxation in the UK on the basis of a review of evidence on the macro- and micro-economic effects of homeownership. The paper then examines the political economy of feasible tax reform. This currently involves a context of extreme fiscal pressure and a political system wedded to the housing tax status quo. The paper concludes by suggesting elements of a strategy to progress a much-needed debate on taxation that is consistent with but goes beyond arguments recently made by Shelter and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Housing Market Task Force.     

Promoting the supply of low income rental housing

Abstract

There is disturbing evidence of a contraction in the stock of low income private rental housing. In this paper we offer evidence indicating that federal government tax preferences, economies of scope and higher operating costs are part of the explanation for this contraction. The Australian Bureau of Statistics Rental Investors’ Survey is used to gauge whether low income housing tax credits and tax‐free capital gains thresholds can be used to promote the supply of low income rental housing.     

The taxation of housing consumption

The chief objective of this paper is to bring the subject of the taxation of housing consumption into future analysis of the housing system. It is shown that the domestic rates levied by local authorities in Britain are precisely such a tax and that net of various remissions total receipts in 1981–82 from the twenty million hereditaments in the domestic sector probably exceeded £4 billion. This is less than the flow of subsidies on housing consumption but of the same order of magnitude. It is also made clear that in recent years there has been widespread ignorance of housing consumption taxation amongst specialists from a variety of ‘schools’ and an explanation is advanced for how this came about.     

Is private rental an option for urban housing provision in Hungary?

By 1998, 91 percent of all housing units in Hungary were occupied by owners –an extremely high percentage by international standards. Today's Hungarian housing politicians, whose anti-rental convictions stem from the experience of the previous regime, tend to disregard arguments about the consequences of this bias: the negative impact on mobility, the creation of a rigid housing market (lack of adaptability to the housing market), hardships in addressing social problems, conflicts between generations (obligations borne by elder generations) as well as the `compulsory' purchase of housing by younger generations and the drain of subsidies. There is extensive evidence that current Hungarian regulations are hostile to rental housing. With subsidies channeled to the ownership sector (housing construction benefits, interest subsidies, local subsidies, employer subsidies) as well as tax relief (purchase of privately owned housing, savings-linked subsidies, imputed rents), it is more expensive for households to rent than to buy or build housing. This leads to a distorted economic structure and a distorted use of society's resources. A housing policy based on modern economic theory pursues neutral subsidy and tax policies concerning ownership. Thus, from an economic point of view, there is no reason to prefer owner-occupied housing to rental housing. This paper explains why the private and public rental sectors are so small. But at a deeper level, the question is why private rented housing exists at all. The paper also explores related questions: who tend to rent out their units, why, for how long and how much; and who tend to rent these units, why do they rent them, and at what prices? The key policy issue is to define the basic impediments to the sector's expansion. On this basis, a new housing policy program can be formulated.     

Implicit Land Taxation and Affordable Housing Provision in England

The paper considers the proposal in England that a continuing requirement for residential developers to contribute directly to the supply of affordable housing in return for planning permission should operate alongside a new tax on land value increases due to planning permission. The paper asks whether it is right in principle for affordable housing to be supported by the implicit taxation of development. It is argued that in terms of transparency, clarity, and certainty explicit taxation is to be preferred to implicit taxation. It is thus suggested that once the new explicit tax is in place developers should no longer be routinely required to pay an additional implicit affordable housing tax. Affordable housing should, it is argued, be supported on the basis of need, not the resources available from the development process. The link between the provision of affordable housing and planning obligations should be broken.     

住宅价格的影响因素综述

本文从供需平衡、特征因素和房地产泡沫角度,对国外住宅价格影响因素的相关文献进行了回顾与总结,从土地、收入、税收、金融、区位等方面对国内最新研究成果进行归纳,并做了简要评析.     

Testing Home Ownership as the Cornerstone of Welfare: Lessons from East Asia for the West

In recent years, one driver behind the promotion of home ownership in Western countries has been the belief that owner-occupied housing assets provide a means to build up individual welfare security, potentially offsetting pension shortfalls in retirement. In contrast, many developed East Asian societies have both long focussed on advancing ‘asset’ or ‘property-based welfare’ systems as well as experienced the late-1990s Asian Financial Crisis which forced changes in housing and welfare practices. This paper examines how home ownership and asset-based welfare fared in these contexts and the lessons to be learned. It begins by considering the role of owner-occupied housing assets in different welfare regimes before empirically examining how asset-based welfare systems have been realized. It then considers how East Asian home ownership and asset-based welfare systems have stood-up to economic crises. The final section considers what the East Asian experiences contribute to an understanding of the housing assets–welfare relationship.     

Shifting subsidy from bricks and mortar to people: Experiences in Britain and West Germany

Since the early 1970s there has been a very similar shift in the balance of public spending on housing in Britain and Germany from general supply subsidies to demand subsidies (income related housing allowances and tax expenditures). This paper compares and contrasts the structures of those subsidy systems, the problems associated with them and current directions of change. Although there are close parallels in the shift of policy in both countries towards ‘targeting’ of explicit subsidies and in favour of greater profit‐making private provision, the environments in which this has occurred are very different. In particular, the lack of a functioning market for private rental housing in Britain—itself in part a function of tax and subsidy arrangements—severely limits the freedom of manoeuvre of British policy makers compared with their German counterparts.     

HOUSING FOR LOW INCOME PEOPLE: A PRELIMINARy COMPARISON OF EXISTING AND POTENTIAL SUPPLy STRATEGIES1

Although there is a general agreement among housing analysts that affordability has gotten worse and that overall quality has gotten better, there is some debate on whether the supply of low cost housing is adequate. Based upon available data, this paper takes the view that many local markets have severe shortages of decent, low cost rental housing. After concluding that cash vouchers would not stimulate housing production, and that the unaided private market is not capable of meeting the demand, a preliminary comparison is made between the two previously tried housing supply strategies for low income people: private market with public incentives and direct production and ownership by the public sector. While a lack of systematic data hampers the analysis, the public housing program emerges in a stronger position than the publicly subsidized multi-family programs that depend on for-profit developers. However, low rent housing production by community and tenant groups presents a compelling and exciting new strategy that warrants further exploration and support. The paper concludes that a national program should be launched to promote community-based housing initiatives.     

Subtenures and Housing Outcomes for Low Income Renters in New York City

New York has devised a variety of policy approaches to improve the housing status of low‐income households, including public housing, publicly subsidized private housing, rent vouchers, welfare shelter allowances, rent regulation, and tax incentives to landlords. Little systematic attention has been paid to how these various subtenures compare when judged by the housing outcomes they produce for low‐income households in the city. Using data from the 1996 New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey, this article compares New York City’s rental subtenures in terms of the following outcomes: housing quality, crowding, affordability, residential mobility/stability, and various indicators of neighborhood quality. Adjusting for differences in household and housing stock characteristics, we find that the tenant‐based Section 8 program seems to produce the best set of overall outcomes for low‐income renters in the city.     

HOUSING REHABILITATION IMPACTS ON NEIGHBORHOOD STABILITy IN A DECLINING INDUSTRIAL CITy1

This study explores the impacts of publicly and privately funded housing rehabilitation efforts in Cleveland, Ohio. The results show that (1) selective census tracts receiving publicly funded home owner rehabilitation assistance did not experience demographic, economic or property stabilization; (2) private borrowing for housing renovation increases as the number of home owners, median gross rents, median family incomes, median values of owner-occupied housing and median sales-to-median assessed market ratios increase and (3) heterogeneous populations, poverty incomes, high unit vacancies, high tax delinquencies and housing demolitions decrease home owner propensities to borrow for repairs and maintenance. Many neighborhoods have experienced incumbent upgrading, but housing disinvestment and property tax delinquency threatens neighborhood stability. Public intercession is unlikely to influence these real estate market processes because housing disinvestment is merely symptomatic of a deeper economic malaise. Only a dramatic economic upturn can possibly slow housing disinvestment. Otherwise, housing unit removal shall continue unabated, inevitably wrecking neighborhoods and frustrating public efforts.     

More and better credit: Housing policy reform in Bolivia

Access to financing for housing in Third‐World countries is in very limited supply and formal‐sector housing finance is only available to a small proportion of the (higher‐income) urban population. Typically, the great majority of households in developing countries rely entirely on their own savings. Since investment by owner‐occupiers is usually three to four times their annual incomes, the inability to borrow against future earnings using the house as collateral prevents them from satisfying their housing needs and inhibits investment in housing. Consequently, a variety of lending policies and practices have been suggested and attempted in many countries to make housing finance more accessible to borrowers. This paper describes recent attempts by the Bolivian government to improve the supply of funds available for low‐income housing credit through the examination of the Fondo Nacionale de Viviendas Sociales (FONVIS), an entity designed to improve access to mortgage credit among low‐income households and funded through a mandatory payroll tax. The impact of FONVIS on problems of affordability and housing supply is estimated using data from the organization's data banks as well as those culled from recent household surveys. In addition, the paper includes a discussion of the most salient problems with FONVIS’ current procedures and regulations, such as its unnecessary control over housing design standards and the exclusion of informal‐sector workers. The paper concludes with recommendations regarding how to make FONVIS more responsive to the housing conditions of the poor, assuming that the current administration wants to continue using a mandatory payroll tax to support the credit market.     

Fiscal policy,taxation incentives and inner‐city housing development

This paper considers the risk and uncertainty attached to inner‐city environments and analyses the use of taxation incentives as a policy instrument in generating demand‐led residential development in such localities. Initially an international perspective is outlined; however, particular attention is focused on Dublin, Ireland, where taxation breaks specifically orientated at both owner and occupiers and investors have been a prime influence in stimulating private sector residential development on a major scale within the central core of the city. The case is presented for the imaginative use of tax incentives in achieving effective urban regeneration. Whilst it is recognised that housing policy and mechanisms cannot simply be replicated from one situation to another, there is need for policy‐makers, especially in Britain, to consider more innovative approaches to inner city housing renewal by integrating macro‐economic, fiscal and housing policy objectives.     

Institutional logics and organisational hybridity: English housing associations’ diversification into the private rented sector

State withdrawal combined with challenges in raising private finance has led not-for-profit housing organisations in a range of countries to diversify into commercial activities as means to generate additional income streams and cross subsidise their core social operations. Within England, an increasing number of housing associations (HAs) has looked for new forms of investment, notably from private rental housing, to generate additional cash flows and fill gaps in the housing market. Drawing on the concepts of institutional logics and organisational hybridity, the paper uses organisational archetypes to examine the different hybrid financing, governance structures and housing products that two pioneering London-based HAs have employed to undertake private rental activities alongside their social businesses. The paper argues that the trends identified are indicative of wider institutional change, with not-for-profit housing organisations facing difficult strategic choices about how to fund their core business in a world of lower public subsidy and uncertainty over future sources of private finance.     

寻找私有和共享的结合点——经济型住宅中的公民社会营造

城市居住问题是城市化进程的组成部分,也是公民社会的重要组成部分。由于社会本身的复杂性,解决低收入群体的居住问题需要对问题本身进行定位。首先进过对欧洲早期社会住宅发展史的分析,指出根据不同历史和区域条件寻找商品经济（私有）和公有体制（共享）的结合点,是解决住宅问题的关键。其次,分析了香港和新加坡两个亚洲重要的华人城市在社会住宅建设方面的经验,以印证私有和共享的划分要根据各自不同的目标和条件。最后结合现代建筑参与设计和开放建筑设计案例．分析了主动将私有和共享的结合点运用于经济型住宅的方法,旨在为中国建筑师提供借鉴。     

Poverty and poor housing in Scotland: The relationship between income and housing condition

The paper examines the relationship between income and poor housing conditions. It considers the role of housing outcome measures in relation to the different concepts of poverty, deprivation and social exclusion and examines the relationship between equivalised incomes, socio-economic household characteristics and a wide range of possible measures of housing deprivation. It concludes that income alone does not provide an adequate proxy for the quality of housing outcomes and that multiple housing measures are more satisfactory than the use of any single indicator. It also argues that such measures could be gathered in large-scale surveys but that many commonly used indicators in the UK (such as those derived from the census) would benefit from expansion and updating.     

Rental housing and crime: the role of property ownership and management

This study examines how residential rental property ownership characteristics affect crime. It examines the incidence and frequency of disturbances, assaults, and drug possession and distribution using police incident report data for privately owned rental properties. Results show that a small percentage of rental properties generate incident reports. Count model regressions indicate that the distance the owner resides from the rental property, size of rental property holdings, tenant Section 8 voucher use, and neighborhood owner-occupied housing rates are associated with reported violations. The study concludes with recommendations about local government policies that could help to reduce crime in rental housing.