The supply of private rented housing in Canada

Canadian housing policy objectives are generally pursued through a market framework. There is little provision of non-market housing. Thus, while Canada has a substantial private rented sector, it has only a small social rented housing sector. About a third of all dwellings belong to private landlords for market renting and only six percent are owned by public and private landlords for non-profit renting. The supply of dwellings newly constructed specifically for private market rental has fallen over the last 20 years. This fall has been compensated for in part by the supply of existing dwellings that have been transferred from other tenures. There has also been a fall in the proportion of private market rented dwellings owned by corporate landlords and an increase in the proportion owned by small-scale individual landlords, including individuals buying existing dwellings in other tenures to convert to private renting. These recent supply-side changes have been in response to three factors. First, changes to the federal tax system and direct supply incentives have reduced the attractiveness of investing in private renting for corporations but increased it for individuals. Second, the demand for private renting has fallen amongst middle- and high-income households because of demographic and tax changes. This has reduced the numbers of private renting households able to pay the rents needed to make new construction profitable. Third, other public policies have also had an impact on supply, including rent controls imposed by provincial governments and land use planning restrictions and building standards imposed by local authorities. An important feature of the Canadian private rental market is its geographical diversity, with supply-side trends varying in different provinces and urban areas in accordance with variations in demand and local policies. Tony Crook is Professor of Town & Regional Planning and Head of Department at the University of Sheffield. His main current research interest is housing policy, especially the investment decisions of private landlords and housing associations and the relationships between housing policy and land use planning. His research work has been funded by DoE, ESRC and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. It has been widely published in books and in academic and professional journals. He is currently Chair of the Conference of Heads of Planning Schools. He is also active in the worlds of policy and practice. He is a member of the RTPI Housing and Renewal Panel, trustee of two housing associations, and an independent director of one of the new Local Housing Companies.     

The geography of rental housing and the restructuring of housing assistance in New Zealand

In 1993 major reforms to the delivery of housing assistance in New Zealand came into effect. These included the introduction of an Accommodation Supplement to provide income assistance for housing, the establishment of Housing New Zealand Limited to market former state houses and the setting up of the Ministry of Housing to provide policy advice. These reforms have replaced an explicitly spatial public policy based on the provision of housing stock in particular locations with an apparently aspatial housing policy based on income supplements,. The former state housing construction and allocation programme, however, has generated residential location patterns which continue to constrain and predetermine the choices made by those contemporary households who now draw income supplements. Far from spatially diffusing rental demand, these recent housing reforms show every sign of further concentrating demand and supply of low rental housing and reinforcing the inherited, highly segmented social geography of the New Zealand city.     

The Limits and Potentials of the Housing Market Enabling Paradigm: An Evaluation of China's Housing Policies from 1998 to 2011

This paper examines the housing policies in China in the last 14 years in the context of the international debate on the World Bank's housing market enabling strategy to improve low-income housing provision in developing countries. A review of China's urban housing outcomes reveals housing price inflation and shortage of affordable housing in the fast expanding housing market. The paper analyzes policies to increase both demand for and supply of housing and argues that these policies have contributed to worsening affordability. This situation has been exacerbated by problems in the institutional framework managing the housing sector. The paper concludes that market enabling alone is not sufficient to achieve a satisfactory housing outcome for low- and middle-income groups in Chinese cities. It advocates more effective and direct public intervention for enhancing social housing provision and tightening market regulation to address both market and government failures to improve housing conditions for lower income groups.     

Housing for health in a post‐welfare state

The theory and practice of social welfare has been radically redefined in every part of the developed world in the past 20 years. However, associated changes in welfare provision vary from state to state. In Britain, housing policy has played a key role in the process of welfare restructuring, spearheading the privatisation programme, promoting the quasi‐market and embracing the welfare alliance. This paper explores the welfare alliance at the interface of housing, health and social care. Specifically, the paper assesses the capacity of a restructured housing system to meet some goals of a recently reorganised health service by supplying accommodation and support for people with health and mobility problems. Drawing on surveys of local authorities and housing associations, public health professionals and housing applicants, the paper outlines the strengths and limitations of using housing provision to meet health needs. The results suggest that housing interventions may secure health gains and so advance the restructuring of health and social care. This role is limited, though, by the impact of an earlier phase of neo‐liberalisation on the social role of housing.     

当前城市建设中的关键问题——土地财政

中央接二连三发文调控房地产市场,但均无果而终。最后不得动用行政手段:限购令。但这种用行政手段干预市场的办法只能是应急的措施。房地产市场失控,根本在于地方政府对土地财政的依赖,这个关键问题没有解决,不仅房地产市场难步入正轨,中国的绿色发展也难行。房地产业耗用大量土地,消耗钢材、铝材、水泥、陶瓷……。一旦房地产业背离了民生的本质,成为投资标的物与奢侈品,住房标准严重脱离国情,非理性的住房消费,房地产业则蜕变为高耗能、高排放、高污染的"三高"产业。唯使地方政府摆脱土地财政的依赖,才抓住绿色发展的关键。开征房产税是重要手段,然试行的房产税存在严重误区,有使利器失效之危险。     

大城市保障房供应的两种结构——发展阶段转换背景下的广深实践

摘要　从住房供应结构（Structure of Housing Provision）的理论视角出发,基于广深两城实践,着重论述中国大城市保障房供应的 两种结构,即“政府主导”（大规模建设模式）和“政企联合”（配建模式）。不同的供应结构,根植于不同阶段的社会经济及城 市发展背景,其本质为不同行动主体由于资源动员能力的差异而联合起来以实现保障房供应。“政府主导”的大规模建设模式盛行 于“十二五”期间,主要受自上而下的中央政府压力以及城市扩张期郊区建设用地的相对可获得性所驱动。在“后‘十二五’”时期, 一方面大城市发展阶段逐渐由增量扩张转向存量更新,新增建设用地受限,而存量用地更新涉及复杂的利益主体和高昂成本,在此 情景下“企业化”的政府无法“独自”实现保障房供应;与此同时,大城市的保障房需求日益高涨,实现保障房供应的主体多元化（特 别是开发商）是形势所需,“政企联合”的配建模式成为典型。     

重庆直辖10周年商品住宅市场回顾与预测:1997-2007

在各种统计数据的基础上,从住宅开发投资规模、土地供给、市场供求和住宅价格等方面对重庆直辖10周年商品住宅市场供给、需求的整体走势和基本特点进行了分析和总结,预测了重庆市2007年及未来住宅市场的发展趋势。研究表明,重庆直辖对重庆房地产业的政策影响明显,极大地促进了重庆房地产业的发展,商品住宅市场发展趋势良好,不存在“泡沫”。     

Examining the Impacts of Land Supply on Housing Price in Chinese Mega Cities: An Analysis of Prefecture-Level Cities in China from 2009 to 2016

Residential land supply is considered a powerful tool for intervening in the housing market in China. There has been continuous debate on the correlation between residential land supply and housing prices. Based on 35 Chinese prefecture-level cities' panel data from 2009 to 2016, this study investigates the spatio-temporal characteristics of residential land supply and housing prices, and explores their relationship applying Generalized Moment Models(GMM). The results show that(1) there is an overall downward trend in residential land supply and a significant rise in housing prices in most Chinese mega cities from 2009 to 2016, and the extent varies in four economic-geographical regions;(2) the decrease in the quantity of residential land supply contributes to the rise in housing prices to some degree, but there is no significant correlation between the land supply structure and housing prices. With the integration of socio-economic factors, the quantitative results validate the previous theoretical models of the casual correlation between residential land supply and housing prices. It further depicts the constraint of insufficient residential land supply in Chinese mega cities and claims it to be a contributor of rising housing prices. The paper concludes with implications for housing strategies and future studies.     

The underpinnings of inclusionary housing in California: current practice and emerging market and legal challenges

Inclusionary zoning, commonly known as inclusionary housing (IH), first originated in the United States in the early‐1970s in the wealthy suburbs of Washington, DC. Since then, the epicenter of IH practice in the U.S. has moved west to California. Today, more than 25 % (145) of the state’s local governments have adopted inclusionary policies. These policies vary greatly in detail, but share common characteristics. In contrast, IH in Europe is of newer vintage, emerging mostly in the 1990s as governments began to withdraw from direct provision of social housing and impose affordable housing requirements on private developers. And, unlike Europe, IH in the U.S. is not imposed via national, state, or regional government land use and planning laws, but is, generally, a voluntary election by individual localities. Since 2008, the implosion of the California real estate market and negative court cases have challenged the fundamental assumptions underlying IH and brought the virtual cessation of new IH programs. Some existing programs have been modified, suspended, or repealed. This research discusses the political and ideological debates that inform IH within the American context, profiles the origins and characteristics of these programs, and speculates about the future of IH in view of recent changes in the housing market and the legal environment.     

Low-Income Access to Urban Land and Housing in Botswana

Like most developing countries, Botswana—a middle-income country—has experienced rapid urban growth, which has brought in its wake many social and economic problems. One of the key challenges has been the lack of access to land and housing for the poor who have moved into the urban centres in large numbers in search of employment and economic survival. Many programmes and strategies have been introduced by both central and local governments to address this problem. These include: squatter settlement upgrading; public housing through site, service and self-help housing; subsidised plot allocation; financial incentives for housing construction, etc. Many challenges have hampered the implementation of these strategies and programmes including fast urbanisation, which outstrips supply of land and housing for most urbanites; unaffordability of many of these schemes; poor targeting; high defaulting rates and poor management of these schemes. This paper calls upon the government, the private sector and local communities to devise holistic solutions to enable low-income households to procure decent accommodation in urban areas.     

Social housing programme of Selangor <Emphasis Type="Italic">Zakat</Emphasis> Board of Malaysia and housing satisfaction

Social housing in Malaysia is provided through the public and private sectors. Recently, the Selangor Zakat Board (SZB) has started to provide social housing in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. Up to 2007, a total of 906 units have been delivered under its different programmes. This paper evaluates these programmes by adopting the housing satisfaction model which is currently used as a customer satisfaction tool for public/private housing in many local governments in the UK and USA. The main purpose of this paper is to identify the types of housing programmes adopted by SZB and examine beneficiaries’ housing satisfaction in each programme on a comparative plane. In order to examine housing satisfaction, five objective components of satisfaction—housing unit features, housing unit support services, the social environment, public facilities and neighbourhood facilities—were analysed through beneficiaries’ levels of satisfaction which were measured by applying a Likert scale. The findings of the paper indicate that SZB has been successful in providing a moderate level of satisfaction with the housing unit. However, the existence of variable levels of satisfaction with other components implies that there is still scope to enhance residents’ satisfaction with those components.     

商品住房市场土地供给政策调控的传导机制分析

土地供给政策在中央及各城市的房地产调控政策文件中频繁出现,表明了其在住房市场调控中的重要作用。本文就各土地供给政策工具将如何影响商品住房市场进行研究,希望对土地供给政策的制定提供参考。文章主要通过供求均衡模型分析各土地供给政策对住房市场的作用。并得出如下结论:各土地供给政策通过影响土地市场各环节和住房市场供给弹性对商品住房市场产生影响,其影响渠道较为复杂,但主要土地供给政策工具通过各种渠道影响住房市场的方向是可以判断的。土地供应数量通过住房供给数量、土地价格水平及住房供给预期三种渠道影响住房市场,且同时从三种渠道对房价产生负向作用;我国2002～2004年进行的土地出让方式改革则通过住房供给数量、土地价格水平和住房供给价格弹性影响住房市场,且三种渠道都会助推房价的上涨。     

Housing Market Renewal in Liverpool: Locating the Gentrification Debate in History,Context and Evidence

This paper places the Housing Market Renewal programme in Liverpool in its historical context, highlighting a mismatch between the supply and demand for housing which has existed for four decades. This disequilibrium produced an environment where successive waves of neighbourhood abandonment occurred from the late 1970s despite significant public policy interventions. The implementation of the Housing Market Renewal programme has stimulated a debate about the extent to which the public sector interventions are leading to the gentrification of poor neighbourhoods. The paper finds that there is no evidence of gentrification in older neighbourhoods, however, inflows of capital rather than middle-class residents have altered the physical development of the city to an extent that the housing choices of all income groups have been affected. The paper concludes that critical gentrification research should take account of historical development and wider housing market change to remain relevant to the debate about the changing social and economic structure of cities.     

Opportunities and Constraints in State Housing Policy: The Example of Tasmania's ‘Affordable Housing Strategy’

The lack of Commonwealth government funds for public housing has encouraged state governments across Australia to develop ‘Affordable Housing Strategies’ to address the problems that result from the shortage of housing available for low-income households. However, to date there has been limited discussion of the implications of these affordable housing strategies and their significance as a form of policy intervention. This article highlights the Tasmanian Government's ‘Affordable Housing Strategy’ as a case study to illustrate the obstacles that confront state housing policy makers. These include difficulties in securing partnerships with the private sector, an inability to influence macro-economic policy settings, fluctuations in the property market cycle and a reliance on small and uncertain budgetary allocations. However, there is limited scope to address some of the problems that have undermined previous state and Territory housing policy initiatives by reaching agreements with local government to ease planning controls for social housing, boosting the capacity of the community housing sector and using additional budgets judiciously.     

Opportunities and Constraints in State Housing Policy: The Example of Tasmania's 'Affordable Housing Strategy'

The lack of Commonwealth government funds for public housing has encouraged state governments across Australia to develop 'Affordable Housing Strategies' to address the problems that result from the shortage of housing available for low-income households. However, to date there has been limited discussion of the implications of these affordable housing strategies and their significance as a form of policy intervention. This article highlights the Tasmanian Government's 'Affordable Housing Strategy' as a case study to illustrate the obstacles that confront state housing policy makers. These include difficulties in securing partnerships with the private sector, an inability to influence macro-economic policy settings, fluctuations in the property market cycle and a reliance on small and uncertain budgetary allocations. However, there is limited scope to address some of the problems that have undermined previous state and Territory housing policy initiatives by reaching agreements with local government to ease planning controls for social housing, boosting the capacity of the community housing sector and using additional budgets judiciously.     

Public land leasing and the changing roles of local government in urban china

Since late 1980s China's urban land use began to change from administrative allocation to public land leasing. Based on the assumptions of fiscal decentralization and growth of private economy, this paper provides another perspective on public land leasing in addition to the well-known efficiency of market allocation of land resource. My focus is on the endogenous evolution of local public finance due to rent capitalization. Especially, I model a two-sector urban economy and a multi-task local government that allocates its effort to maximize fiscal revenue. The findings indicate that complete wage capitalization under administrative allocation of land contributes to the pressure on local governments to look for alternative revenue source. Public land leasing helps to include private firms into local public finance and re-orient local governments' interest from SOEs to public goods provision. A simple test on the institutional change shows the efficiency of public land leasing relative to the old system. I thank Rena Sivitanidou and Yongheng Deng for their helpful comments on an early version of the paper.     

Modes of housing provision in developing countries

In the face of an estimated one billion people living in inadequate housing conditions in developing countries the need for scaling up housing supply has become an urgent focus of policy debate. To this end the expansion of the role of the private markets has formed the central thesis of the ‘enabling strategy’ for developing the housing sector as a whole rather than relying on project based approaches such as sites and services and settlement upgrading programmes. Policy recommendations emanating from such a standpoint concentrate on adjustments to supply and demand through deregulation and institutional development of the land and housing markets in developing countries in order to overcome largely external constraints to a more efficient market mechanism. This conception of the enabling strategy, however, has been subject to much debate and criticism for its over-concentration on the private markets and exclusion of alternative/complementary modes of housing provision from serious policy consideration. By utilising the structure and agency approach as its basic methodological tool of analysis this paper provides a comprehensive review of the scope and potential of different modes of housing provision in different contexts in developing countries. Thereby providing a firm comparative basis for examining the potential for expanded private market activity.The paper concludes that the severe underdevelopment of institutional capacities and human and material resources coupled with intricate and complex social, political, cultural and economic interactions between various agents and structures of provision create major obstacles to the efficiency of private land markets in developing countries. Therefore, while private markets can and should be supported they can not form the focus of the enabling strategy in most developing countries. Instead, the paper argues for a comprehensive approach to enabling strategies which combines adjustments to overall supply and demand conditions with the identification and inclusion of different modes and agents of housing provision in a holistic integrated policy.     

The Maturation of the Neo-liberal Housing Market in Urban China

Neo-liberalism has dominated policy formulation and implementation for three decades and been influential in reshaping urban housing provision in different countries. However, the nature and impact of neo-liberal housing policy developments are also affected by previous arrangements, the exact nature, timing and pace of policy change and by how governments and markets have responded to emerging global and local challenges. This paper examines neo-liberal urban housing reform and market development in China and focuses on market performance and government responses following initial reform. The era of neo-liberal housing policy has been associated with turbulence, market changes and unequal housing and asset distribution. Housing reform and regulation policies have changed frequently in response; and this maturation of the neo-liberal system has important implications for policy and the structure and operation of the market.     

公共租赁住房供给市场效应分析

公共租赁住房供给是现阶段我国住房保障体系建设的重点,在解决特定群体住房困难的同时,公共租赁住房供给对房地产要素市场也产生作用。从公共租赁住房供给的预期目标出发,分析公共租赁住房供给在不同时期、不同市场条件下对土地市场和商品住房市场供需的作用路径,从而从宏观层面对公共租赁住房供给的市场效应进行评估,纠正公共租赁住房供给的非理性预期,为公共租赁住房供给制度的目标设计提供参考。     

Affordable housing and planning gain,linkage fees and the rational nexus: Using the land use planning system in England and the USA to deliver housing subsidies

The paper examines how the English planning system is being used to reduce land prices for social housing schemes at a time when government subsidies to social rented housing producers are being cut and compares and contrasts this with practice within the USA. The paper describes the key characteristics of the English planning system, recent trends in English housing policy, the role the planning system plays in meeting overall housing requirements and how it has been adapted to meet specific needs. It explains the new arrangements the government has put into place to lower land prices for social housing and argues that this represents a specific tax on development values to provide subsidies for social housing and that the government has had to significantly modify the land use planning system in order to achieve its housing policy aims. The paper compares these changes with practices in the USA, particularly in relation to the ‘rational nexus’ argument. It finds significant parallels and argues that the use of the planning system to help provide affordable housing through de facto and site specific taxes on land values can be justified and does not need to be restricted to cases where the rational nexus argument applies, but that practice in each country reflects underlying differences in attitudes to development rights, market provision of housing and the role of local governments.