Rental housing policy in England: post crisis adjustment or long term trend?

The UK Coalition government, formed in 2010, has set in place major housing policy reforms. Its objective is in part to address the country’s structural deficit, but also to rationalise the housing finance and welfare systems to ensure that assistance is more directly targeted and better value for money for government. Many commentators see these reforms as new and draconian while others regard them as just one more set of incremental changes in line with trends over the last four decades. This paper addresses this question by examining both long term trends in housing finance and policy and structural changes as they have affected the rental sector, particularly those shifting the balance between supply and demand side subsidies. The evidence suggests that the majority of changes over the longer term have been bi-partisan and have reflected economic tensions as much as political ideology. The biggest difference in current policy is not in the continuing shift towards demand side subsidies but more in the extent that lower income households will be expected to make larger contributions to their own housing costs. Whether policies on either the supply or the demand side will be fully implemented remains to be seen.     

Development of a customer focused strategy in speculative house building

The UK housing industry has been slow to adopt new working practices which have brought improvements in product quality and customer focused operations to many sectors of manufacturing industry. Instead, the dominant business driver has been land and house price inflation, with the market characterized by pronounced boom-and-bust cycles. Reports on the sector often have highlighted the need for research and action aimed at bringing about fundamental changes in its operations, both to satisfy social needs and benefit the companies in the industry. This paper examines the drivers needed for implementing new customer focused business processes in the sector. Of particular importance is the development of a product strategy based on an understanding and analysis of the market. Results are presented from a large market survey that was carried out, and their implications for the industry are discussed.     

Improved Management of the Existing Stock - The Case of Poland

This paper traces the changes which have occurred in housing provision and management in Poland during the period of transition to the market system. It suggests that the changes that have occurred have been greatly influenced by the environment within which the reforms have taken place. It claims that changes in housing management are restricted by historic attitudes yet have proceeded due to financial constraints imposed as part of the government's policy for restructuring the economy in the early 1990s. At the same time these restrictions have worked against the developmentof the housing market and investment in the existing housing stock. While the planned programmaticand legislative tasks in the reform of Polish housing are concluded, there is still a need for major shifts in the attitudes of consumers and providers to effect these changes.     

Transfers,Contracts and Regulation: A New Institutional Economics Perspective on the Changing Provision of Social Housing in Britain

Social housing policy in the UK mirrors wider processes associated with shifts in broad welfare regimes. Social housing has moved from dominance by state housing provision to the funding of new investment through voluntary sector housing associations to what is now a greater focus on the regulation and private financing of these not-for-profit bodies. If these trends run their course, we are likely to see a range of not-for-profit bodies providing non-market housing in a highly regulated quasi-market. This paper examines these issues through the lens of new institutional economics, which it is believed can provide important insights into the fundamental contractual and regulatory relationships that are coming to dominate social housing from the perspective of the key actors in the sector (not-for-profit housing organisations, their tenants, private lenders and the regulatory state). The paper draws on evidence recently collected from a study evaluating more than 100 stock transfer organisations that inherited ex-public housing in Scotland, including 12 detailed case studies. The paper concludes that social housing stakeholders need to be aware of the risks (and their management) faced across the sector and that the state needs to have clear objectives for social housing and coherent policy instruments to achieve those ends.     

Portfolio Management in the Social Rented Sector: Valuation,Risk Analysis and Strategy Development

The financial aspects of social housing management are becoming more important for housing associations in Western Europe, due to changes in their economic and institutional context. As part of a trend towards the privatisation and decentralisation of public services, housing associations are becoming more self-reliant. Government financial support is decreasing and parts of the housing market are changing in response to low demand. To ensure that housing associations run an economic, efficient and financially sound business, knowledge of the financial performance of their stock is becoming more important for their investment policy. In the Netherlands, these general changes in housing policy, management and market have been a prominent feature of the last decade, and have resulted in a variety of responses under the general heading of asset and portfolio management. This paper describes methods for valuation, risk analysis and portfolio management for housing associations. The paper sets out the context within which Dutch housing associations operate. Existing methods for valuation and risk analysis are evaluated for their applicability to social landlords. These methods are placed within the business planning process to show how the methods can be used to inform asset management strategy. Finally the paper reflects on the implications for practice in social housing management.     

Changes in the political economy of Vietnam and their impacts on the built environment of Hanoi

The most important changes in the political economy of Vietnam began with the Doi Moi (Renovation) reforms of 1986. The changes in the national economic system have been reflected almost immediately in urban development patterns, where the diversification of capital investment (especially the influx of foreign direct investment), the creation of a property market (dealing with land use rights), and the commercialization of the housing sector have created significant changes, while the planning system has not been sufficiently adapted to the new political reality. This article shows how the changes in the national policy framework have transformed the urban development patterns of Hanoi. Industrial development in the rural fringe areas, the new dynamics of the private housing sector, and the commercial redevelopment of the inner city are described and quantified. While the formerly rigid command-and-control system of urban management has already been simplified to some extent, inappropriate bureaucratic attitudes persist. This has resulted in a lack of authority, communication, and competency, while a thriving informal sector of urban development has emerged. In conclusion, there is an urgent need for building new forms of public involvement to ensure social equity goals and to avoid market distortions. The policy reforms at the national level need to be mirrored by a more capable urban management system.     

Housing policy outcomes in global perspective: An application of discriminant analysis

Comparative analysis of the functioning of the housing sector has been severely limited by the dearth of reliable data. In seeking to rectify this, the UNCHS and World Bank have provided data on 52 cities through their joint Housing Indicators Program. Drawing on this data set, this paper identifies the housing policy outcomes that are particularly important in distinguishing various groups of cities. This paper also provides a classification of cities on the basis of their respective housing outcomes. The empirical analysis is based on a discriminant analysis. It reveals that infrastructure expenditure per capita is the most important housing policy outcome that discriminates between the various groups of cities. This is followed by floor area per person, housing credit portfolio, percentage of unauthorized housing, and total investment in housing. Furthermore, the analysis indicates that cities which are identical on the basis of their income levels may not necessarily be identical when their housing policy outcomes constitute the criteria for such classification. This is reflected in the fact that 15 of the 52 cities were reclassified on the basis of their housing policy outcomes. Ben C. Arimah is working at the Center for Urban and Regional Planning, University of Ibadan in Ibadan, Nigeria. His research interests include housing and urban economics, energy planning, and environmental management.     

POLICY REVIEW The Impact of Housing Policy Changes on Housing Associations: Experiences in the Netherlands

For decades, housing associations in the Netherlands were the country's landlords of social rented housing par excellence. Presently housing associations own and administer over 90 per cent of the social rented stock, which now comprises 37 per cent of the total Dutch housing stock. The changes in Dutch housing policy which were made from 1993 onwards, have also changed the role and position of the housing associations. The financial ties binding the social housing sector and the national government have largely been dissolved. Responsibility for adequate housing was decentralised from the central government to the local authorities. Municipalities and housing associations have developed a new tradition of performance agreements on local housing policy. This paper reviews the response of housing associations to the circumstances created by the new housing policy of the 1990s.     

From deficient planning to “incapable tenants”. Changing discourses on housing problems in Sweden

Since the mid 1970s, discourses on housing problems and problem tenants in Sweden have changed significantly. This article, which is based on official reports and an urban case study, accounts for this transformation at the national, the urban, as well as the work‐practice level of discourse from a constructivist perspective.

The government's understanding of high vacancy rates were, in the 1970s, associated with deficient planning and building. However, in the 1980s, focus was diverted to a crisis in the public housing sector, which in turn highlighted the “noisy neighbour” as the source of their negative image. At the urban level the shifting discourse is signified by the municipal housing companies’ more selective policy in the 1980s, and the local social authorities’ growing role in housing for homeless clients. Contradictory demands from the role as landlords and as social workers, at the level of work‐practice, resulted in a redefinition and revaluation of homeless clients. In the beginning of the 1990s, these new practices at urban and street‐levels were sanctioned at the national level, thereby completing the shift from structural to individual accounts for housing problems.     

New Zealand housing policy: Continuities and changes

The article reviews the development of New Zealand's housing policy from the early years of the present century when the foundations were laid for an interventionist social democratic‐style housing policy. This policy has increasingly come under pressure through changes within New Zealand's internal and external economy particularly during the 70s. In this decade and in the early 80s changes took place in the pattern of house building, the costs of construction, land and finance; leading to rapid escalations in prices and a growing problem of affordability. The change of Government in 1984 and the initiation of new policies by the Labour administration have produced a radical restructuring of the housing sector removing many of its protections through the de‐regulation of the financial market. The initial results have been rapidly rising interest rates together with shifts in patterns of building and in investments within financial institutions. These changes have led to a sharpening of divisions between those who are already owner occupiers and other householders and have exacerbated further the problem of housing affordability. The article concludes with some speculation as to the likely social and political consequences of these changes in macro‐economic policy.     

Private rented housing in France

This paper reviews the evolution of the French private rented housing sector. It traces post-war policy developments, putting the specific tenure in a wide housing market context. The paper reviews France’s intricate system of personal and property—oriented housing subsidies, and assesses their demand and supply side repercussions. Discussion of the general post-war decline in private rented housing as a means of housing consumption is situated in the evolution of the national housing system, and the paper alludes to some key regional and local differentiations. The paper discusses the market contexts for attempts to revitalise the sector, concluding that broad fiscal measures are likely to have greater impact than rent decontrol. Madhu Satsangi is Lecturer in Housing Studies at the School of Planning and Housing, Edinburgh College of Art/Heriot-Watt University. Madhu has researched housing markets, voluntary and private-sector housing finance and housing management issues.     

住宅全装修是住宅产业现代化推进的重要切入点

伴随着我国房地产业的发展,全装修住宅在市场上的份额逐步加大,与之相应的住宅装修业得到了极为迅速地发展,但住宅装修业不可避免存在不容忽视的问题,亟待从市场管理、产业政策、生产方式上加以完善,真正使住宅全装修成为住宅产业现代化的必由之路.     

Housing Investment Trusts: A New Structure of Rental Housing Provision?

Recent governments in Britain have sought to attract financial institutions into private rental housing in order to increase the scale, professionalism and reputation of the sector and thereby to 'modernise' private landlordism. In 1996, in order to provide an attractive vehicle for the financial institutions to invest in the sector, the government introduced legislation permitting the establishment of housing investment trusts. These residential property companies have a reduced tax liability compared with normal property companies. However, no housing investment trusts have so far been established and none seem likely to be set up. This paper reports on qualitative interviews with financial institutions to examine why housing investment trusts have proved to be a policy failure. It is argued that the rules governing such trusts did not reflect the normal operations of a property company and that the existing structure of housing provision in the private rented sector was itself an obstacle to the modernisation of private landlordism.     

The future of the private rental sector in sweden

The private rental sector in Sweden is competing on a less-regulated and less-subsidized housing market. The paper analyses the prospects of this sector. The private sector has the dual advantage of an older (more attractive and centrally located) stock and a slightly beter-off tenant profile than the municipal sector. Thus, the private sector will be less affected by the withdrawal of interest subsidies, as these were given to new stock. The rent-to-income ratio will surpass 30 per cent in all sectors of the housing market in the year 2002, according to a recent projection. The private sector suffers less from vacancies than the municipal sector. The economic situation is, however, characterized by high LTV ratios, due to a price and borrowing boom in the late 1980s. This has led to bankruptcies and a weak economic situation for many private landlords. The boom was followed by a bust in 1990–93. Both the upswing and the downturn can be explained by fundamentals such as changes in GDP, unemployment, housing subsidy and tax rules. In the present recession, the private rental sector will benefit from its large share of small dwellings, which will also be advantagenous in the longer run, in view of the demographic trend towards more small households. There is fierce competition between the private and the municipal housing sector. In the short run, the private sector will benefit from the removal of interest subsidies. The effects will be felt in the younger municipal sector. All in all, both short-run and long-run considerations point at a housing market in Sweden which will keep its dualistic character of free competition between the private and the municipal sector in the future. Bengt Turner is Professor of Economics and Chair of the Institute for Housing Research at Uppsala University. He is also chairman of the European Network for Housing Research and coordinates a working group on housing finance. His research area is housing policy, microeconomic analysis of the housing market, as well as housing finance. He has also analysed the housing situation in transitory (East European) countries. In Sweden he is actively involved in housing policy formation as an expert in Governmental commissions and as a member of a number of research boards. Tommy Berger is an economist at the Institute of Housing Research, Uppsala University. His main interest is in housing finance and taxation policy.     

Transnational migration,remittances and the financialization of housing in Colombia

Recently, various Latin American governments have sought to render migrants as development agents by channelling remittances to specific sectors such as housing and finance. The available literature has yet to articulate how these developments are reconfiguring the political economy of housing in the region. The paper draws on empirical data collected at both ends of the Colombia–UK migration network. It argues that the Colombian Government’s efforts to incorporate migrants into the polity through a renovated housing policy aim to institutionalize migrant households’ transnational practices and their links with global circuits of capital and finance. They are underpinned by the repositioning of housing away from consumption into an investment item and driver of economic growth and the financial sector as the main medium for households’ access to public and private housing, and other basic services. These developments have taken place in the context of a broader process of financialization of the global development agenda in the last three decades.     

Changing Housing for Elderly People and Co-ordination Issues in Europe

The inter-sectoral policy systems of housing for elderly people in the EU-countries change with the implementation of ageing in place and by general processes of modernisation of society and welfare state. For implementation of the innovations the relevance of co-ordination between the sector housing, care and social services depends on the state of development of the sectors in a country. However, modernisation threatens co-ordination by decentralisation, privatisation and transfer of choices and responsibilities to the individual. This paper is an international comparative study describing how countries of the European Union are dealing with the topic of co-ordination. Nowadays especially policy actors at the regional and local level have the responsibility for inter-sectoral co-ordination. Looking at the practices of these actors the development of a shared vision on ageing in place seems to be very important. Central government should facilitate this approach and control the results. The term 'managed co-operation' describes very well this new way of management of co-ordination.     

Conceptualising Social Housing within the Wider Housing Market: A Vacancy Chain Model

There have been increasing calls for studies of housing systems that are more integrative and pluralistic in nature. Understanding the relationship of social housing systems to the wider housing market remains a key challenge. The mobility of households and the structural configuration of supply are both of importance, demanding methods able to reconcile both. This paper propounds vacancy chain models as offering significant potential in this regard, allowing policy analysis and options appraisal to be built on more dynamic conceptualisations of housing systems. The theoretical basis for vacancy chain models is developed before an account is given of a model developed of the Bradford (UK) social rented sector. The results suggest that social renting is very closely linked to the wider housing market and consequently the impacts of policy and investment may be felt beyond the sector. Observations on the future development of vacancy chain models are offered.     

Does developers' ownership structure shape their market behavior? Evidence from state owned enterprises in Chengdu,Sichuan, 2004–2011

Real estate development is a complex speculative endeavor and developer firms take a variety of forms throughout the world. State run development companies are relatively common and China is no exception. State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) have played a major role in China's transition to a market-based real estate sector, yet we know relatively little about the housing they build relative to private companies currently. To assess how their performance differs from private companies, we use a comprehensive set of georeferenced housing transactions, joined with remote sensing data and data on neighborhood amenities and transportation infrastructure, to analyze the dynamics of the Chengdu housing market from 2004 to 2011. We observe a drop in the variation in housing price and size, as well as a growing premium for larger units that we connect to changes in government regulations. Importantly, we find that units developed by SOE sell at a discount of roughly 7%. To explain this discount, we draw on literature and examine pricing strategy, difficult to measure quality elements, preferred treatment by local governments, and efforts to fulfill social goals related to housing provision. The study outlines directions for future research and we recommend the Chinese government formalize the relationship between SOEs in national housing policy to facilitate the production of lower-cost housing in a more consistent and equitable manner.     

Building codes and energy conservations—Another view

The Swedish housing policy decision of 1974 is internationally unique in its specific quest to establish neutrality between housing tenures, not only in terms of costs, but also with regard to housing standard and household influence over housing management. After presenting the 1974 policy objectives, an interpretation of these goals is attempted in order to establish criteria for an evaluation of goal achievement. Then the present state of affairs for each of the three target areas is compared to the criteria. It is found that the record of achievement with respect to standards is mixed; while there is a visible and steady trend towards greater tenure diversity in single‐family housing production, the size variation is, if anything, diminishing in the multi‐family housing sector. As for household Influence, the self‐regulatory strategy involving tenants and public housing companies has increased collective tenant influence. Certain legislative measures have increased individual tenant influence over repair and maintenance. However, tenant rights are still inferior to those of homeowners. Finally, the objective of cost neutrality seems to have come increasingly closer to achievement in. latter years, if one limits the perspectives just to housing consumption. If the possibilities of extracting the exchange value from housing are taken into account, homeowners still seem favoured compared to tenants. It is concluded that if a greater extent of end‐state neutrality is to be achieved, housing policy would have to be more “non‐neutral” towards the tenures than has been the case’ so far.     

Commercial rented housing: two sectors in the Netherlands

This contribution analyses the different developments and roles of two commercial rented sectors in the Netherlands: rented dwellings owned by individuals (private landlords) and rented dwellings owned by institutional investors. Characteristics of properties and households are specified in relation to tenure. An analysis follows of household characteristics of non-movers and movers to, from and within the commercial rented sector. Some policy issues are dealt with, which are relevant for the commercial rented sector. The commercial rented dwellings owned by persons are predominantly pre-war, small, cheap dwellings with a modest quality. They form part of the urban renewal problem. The owners are small-scale landlords, mostly not professional, who do not invest in ambitious renovation or new dwellings. For this sector the future is not very bright. For starters on the housing market and elderly people, this urban sector may have a limited function. The commercial rented dwellings owned by institutions are predominantly post-war (built after 1960), spacious, expensive dwellings with a high quality. The owners are pension funds and insurance companies which sell their properties often after 15 to 20 years when conditions are favourable. This sector has a strategic function at the upper side of the rental market where rents are decontrolled. Well-to-do households in a flexible urban labour market and elderly people are the most important target groups for this sector. This sector demonstrates how a free rental market functions and enriches the whole housing sector with relevant market signals. Hugo Priemus holds the chair in housing at Delft University of Technology, where he is also managing director of OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies.