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.     

Low Income Housing Tax Credit Programme Impacts on Housing Affordability in Australia: Microsimulation Model Estimates

Growing concern about a lack of rental housing affordable to low-income Australian households has prompted consideration of possible policy interventions. This paper estimates the potential housing market impacts of a tax credit targeted on rental housing affordable to low-income Australian households. The study finds that existing landlords in low-income rental housing benefit from a one-third or more reduction in their effective tax burdens. If these tax benefits are passed on in the form of lower market rents, it is estimated that the percentage of households paying more than 30 per cent of gross income in rents falls from 26 to 21 per cent. This impact would be larger but for eligible households in receipt of demand-side subsidies in the form of rent assistance. As a consequence, many low-income households receive only part of the low income housing tax credit benefits that are passed on into lower market rents. Moreover, higher income tenants occupy some of the cheaper rental housing targeted by tax credits, and this weakens the policy rationale for such supply-side measures. The paper advocates the adoption of headleasing arrangements to increase the share of benefits received by low-income tenants.     

租赁型保障房经济激励机制研究

鉴于租赁型保障房建设目前存在的资金缺口以及其他国家保障性住房发展的经验,采用LIHTC 机制运用税收抵免吸引社会资本投资可支付租用住房建设,对解决低收入人群住房问题将发挥重要作用。介绍了LIHTC 机制主体及其运行模式,分析了该机制在经济激励效果、政府负担、有力监管、开发商融资四方面所展现出的优势。提出了创建我国租赁型保障房税收抵免经济激励机制的构想,从宏观经济流动性过剩与地方政府积极性角度分析该机制在我国推行的可能性,同时阐述实施过程中将会遇到的税收抵免分担比例问题。并为构建我国租赁型保障房税收抵免经济激励机制提出了相应的建议。     

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.     

BOT模式开发公租房的税费优惠激励强度探讨

民间资本不愿意投资公租房项目的主要原因是项目投资回报率低。因此,为了在公租房中以BOT模式引入民间资本参与投资建设,就必须要建立相应的投资激励机制。考虑到税费优惠是最常用的投资激励手段之一,本文在建立公租房项目收益函数的基础上,以算例量化分析税费优惠的激励强度。     

Investors,taxation and the housing boom

In recent years considerable attention has been paid to the activity of investors in private rental housing. Underpinning this interest has been the perceived effects of changes during the 1980s to the tax treatment of investment in private rental housing. Of particular interest has been whether or not landlords should be able to ‘negatively gear’, or deduct from their taxable income the interest losses they incur on the rental properties. According to real estate lobby groups, the federal government's decision in July 1985 to ‘quarantine’ negative gearing in residential investments decimated the supply of private rental housing, and this in turn was said to be the prime reason for escalating rents and tightening vacancy rates in some capital cities. The campaign by the real estate lobby groups received considerable media coverage and eventually led to one of the few policy backdowns by the current federal government. In August 1987, and in an otherwise very tight budget, negative gearing was fully reintroduced.     

The responsiveness of the private rental sector in Australia to changes in commonwealth taxation policy

The introduction of a series of tax reforms by the Hawke government midway through the 1980s generated widespread disagreement about their liable impact upon the production, availability and cost of rental accommodation in Australia. In this paper we examine the validity of the claims made for and against the tax reforms (ie the ‘quarantining’ of negative gearing, the imposition of a capital gains tax, and provision for a 4 per cent depreciation allowance on new rental housing) by setting them against trends in the private housing sector, and other housing and investment markets.

Although the real estate industry was prepared to attribute the adjustments occurring within the private rental sector almost entirely to the changes in taxation policy, we present evidence of other ‘exogenous’ effects that helped amplify the trends and ‘panic’ the Hawke government into an ill‐considered reversal in September 1987 (viz, the reinstatement of full negative gearing on residential rental property). We conclude that this indirect approach to the provision of private rental accommodation via taxation policy is too indiscriminate to achieve national housing goals.     

ANALYZING EVIDENCE FOR THE STRUCTURAL THEORY OF HOMELESSNESS

ABSTRACT: Structuralists believe that increased homelessness over the past two decades was caused by loss of affordable rental housing and increasing numbers of poor people in large cities. This viewpoint regards the tightening of the aggregate low income housing ratio as the primary cause and the relatively high rates of personal disabilities of homeless people as selection factors. The author uses microdata to analyze trends in low income housing supply, the low income housing ratio, and crowding in low income rental units. He shows that the claimed near 100% tightening of the low income housing ratio is only 26% and rates of overcrowding in affordable units increased by only 1%. The macrolevel trends that structuralists say cause increasing homelessness exist but are not nearly as dramatic as they believe. The author argues that theory and policy must place greater weight on the personal disabilities of homeless people that structuralists have deemphasized.     

DERIVING PLACE-SPECIFIC MEASURES OF THE RENTAL HOUSING CRISIS FROM THE 1980 CENSUS: AN APPLICATION FROM TEXAS

The argument is advanced that rental affordability problems are the key symptom of the rental housing crisis. These problems may be measured by the rent-to-income ratio as reported by the 1980 census for five different income groups. Of special significance is that these data are available in a standardized form for every county, city and census tract in the nation. To demonstrate the use of these data, a rent burden indicator is constructed from these data and then applied to all counties in Texas with at least 100,000 population. One county, Travis, stands out with a particularly high incidence of rent burden, and this incidence is only slightly reduced when the rent burden indicator is adjusted to a standardized income distribution. This provides clear evidence of an unusually severe rental housing crisis.     

公租房保障对象收入申报管理研究

针对公租房租金流失问题,借鉴A-S模型分析思路,构建基于固定租金、比例租金和混合租金三种情景的公租房保障对象收入申报遵从理论分析框架,探讨提高抽查率、加大惩罚力度、提高奖励力度和增加收入等对保障对象的收入申报遵从行为的影响;最后,提出完善公租房保障对象收入申报机制的建议。     

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.     

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.     

公租房 PPP 项目三阶段动态收益分配模型及应用

公租房 PPP 项目是目前公租房项目的重要形式之一,而项目的收益分配方案是项目成功的关键。公租房 PPP 项目 的阶段性特征明显,而目前关于 PPP 项目收益分配的研究大多未考虑 PPP 项目的阶段性特征,不能满足动态收益分配的要 求。因此,考虑项目的动态性和变化性,尝试构建覆盖项目全生命周期的公租房 PPP 项目三阶段动态收益分配模型。即建 立基于公租房 PPP 项目收益分配影响因素修正的 Shapley 值初步收益分配模型;基于合作主体的满意度采用不对称 Nash 谈 判模型进行调整;根据参与各方的阶段性实际贡献综合评价结果再次调整,得到最终的收益分配方案。为公租房 PPP 项目 的收益分配问题提供了一定的参考。     

Driving in neutral: Is it the way forward for housing policy?

The `libertarian' argument of PeterKing aims to put tenure neutrality and a negativeincome tax in place of current government supportfor housing. However, formulating rules for tenureneutrality is hard and the negative income tax mayrequire unacceptably high taxes. Real worldcomplexity makes such simple rules with regard tohousing difficult to achieve. Such complexity alsohelps to make a case for social housing.     

公租房PPP 项目收益分配研究

为了合理分配公租房PPP 项目的收益,充分调动民间资金参与公租房项目的合作意愿,选取公租房PPP 项目中公共部门、私人部门以及项目特许经营单位3 个核心部门为收益分配对象,综合考虑合作意愿、风险分担、投资比例及努力程度对公租房PPP 项目收益分配的影响,采用层次分析法法确定合作意愿因子、风险分担因子,构建基于合作意愿、风险分担、投资比例及努力程度等因素修正Shapley 值的公租房PPP 项目收益分配模型,使用该模型得到的公租房PPP 项目的收益分配结果更加合理,使项目参与各方满意,充分调动参与各方的积极性。     

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.     

上海市住房保障体系建设概述

目前,上海已基本构建起廉租住房、经济适用住房、公共租赁住房、动迁安置住房＂四位一体＂的住房保障体系。廉租住房、经济适用住房分别解决城镇户籍低收入和中低收入家庭的住房困难;公共租赁住房主要解决城镇户籍青年职工、来沪务工人员和引进人才等常住人口的阶段性居住困难;动迁安置住房主要解决城市改造区域动迁居民的住房改善问题。各项基本制度和配套政策已在推行实施,并将不断优化完善。＂十二五＂规划期间,上海居民的住房困难将得到明显改善。     

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.     

Discourses around negative gearing of investment properties in Australia

A tax rule whereby losses on a rental property are deductible against personal taxable income (commonly known as ‘negative gearing’) is an almost uniquely Australian practice. This article explores how this practice is legitimised and justified by politicians despite coherent criticisms that the practice misdirects investment into unproductive asset speculation causing house price inflation and inequality. This article uses critical discourse analysis to examine how ‘negative gearing’ is criticised and legitimised. It is argued that the interests of the property-owning majority and electoral pragmatism determine government housing policy. There is a disjunct between the political imperative of the major parties to maintain high housing prices in order not to erode the wealth of the majority of voters (property owners) and the emerging problem of housing unaffordability. Despite mounting coherent critique coming from economists, and younger cohorts excluded from home ownership, the policy continues due to realpolitik considerations.     

Housing Policy Towards the Rental Sector in Italy: A Distributive Assessment

We study the distributive effects on Italian households of the three most relevant housing subsidies targeted to renters: a national rent supplement scheme introduced in the context of the reform that liberalised the rental market in the late 1990s, a tax credit for renters that has been recently strengthened and the implicit economic support given to tenants in the social housing sector, through below-market rents. The analysis is performed on data from the Eu-Silc survey for Italy and, in the case of the housing allowances, also on register data from 9 out of the 13 largest Italian towns. We consider, in particular, the ability of these schemes to target low-income households and their effects on the overall levels of poverty and inequality. Results from our analysis show a good targeting but very limited effect on social protection, with the partial exception of social housing.