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.     

(Re)Viewing Ethnic Residential Segregation in Southern European Cities: Housing and Urban Regimes as Mechanisms of Marginalisation

Housing and residential marginalisation in Southern European cities represents the most critical and controversial of urban conditions for the settlement and inclusion of immigrants. However, these issues are conspicuously under-researched in both the international and Southern European comparative literature. The complexity of ethnic housing hardship and segregation is often de-problematised and misleadingly attributed solely to market mechanisms or inevitable polarisation dynamics. This paper reviews the distinctive features of ethnic residential segregation within wider societal and urban contexts, drawing on an analysis of eight Mediterranean cities with a special focus on the role of housing systems and processes of ethnic and social differentiation. Problems and drivers are reconceptualised within an holistic, comparative framework. It is demonstrated that low levels of ethnic spatial segregation conceal a real problem of social residential marginalisation. This paradox predominantly originates from macro-scale mechanisms of differentiation rooted in the welfare redistributive arrangements and dualist housing systems. It is additionally reinforced by current urban renewal strategies.     

石家庄市住房空置率调查分析

参照国际上通行的住房空置情况确定方法以及住房空置率合理区间标准,对石家庄市住房空置情况进行调查分析,在此基础上,向有关部门提出发展房地产市场的有关政策建议。     

High dwelling vacancy rate and high prices of housing in Malta a mediterranean phenomenon

Current data from South European countries, especially Malta, indicates the existence of some contradictory forces in the housing market that defy the law of supply and demand and require explanation. In a ‘normal’ housing market, it can be expected that a high dwelling vacancy rate would help keep down the price of housing. In Malta, however, both the vacancy rate and housing prices have been rising in tandem for decades, unabated, even under the recent international market crunch. The government housing policy, which has always stimulated homeownership, is still encouraging new house building. Despite the high number (over 50,000) of vacant dwellings, the authorities issue more than 6,000 building permits annually to the private sector. In this paper we outline and explain the major factors contributing to this unlikely combination. Doing so, we use a welfare-state perspective. We identify and explain the underlying factors that are collectively responsible for such a paradox: the state; the family; the powerful Catholic Church; the underdeveloped Maltese financial market; and the paternalistic culture prevalent in Malta.     

Housing Vacancy and the Shrinking City: Trends and Policies in the UK and the City of Liverpool

In the context of the discourse around shrinking cities, the aim of the paper was to try and better understand and differentiate the various types and causes of urban housing vacancy and to ask whether policy responses including planning policies appropriately reflect this variety. The paper briefly discusses the issue of shrinking cities, before considering theoretical explanations for housing vacancy and examining the relationships between population change, housing vacancy and policy responses in the Liverpool conurbation. Conclusions are then drawn about the nature of housing vacancy and the effectiveness of policy responses.     

"商品房空置率国际警戒线"质疑

目前,对我国商品住宅的空置率有一种"超警戒线"观点,即我国住宅空置率达到26%以上,已经超过了10%～15%住宅空置率的国际警戒线.本文从国内和国外两方面考证了这种理论的产生及发展,指出了其存在的缺陷,并将这种理论得出的我国几个代表城市的空置率进行了分析,提出了并不存在符合各国实际的、统一的"商品房空置率国际警戒线".     

企业“商改租”意愿的影响因素分析

“商改租”政策的提出不仅有利于扩大租赁住房供给来源,也为我国商办市场去库存提供了一个解决思路。但目前“商改租”的实践效果并不理想,针对企业积极性不高的问题,在相关文献研究和案例分析的基础上,从法律与政策、市场、企业和存量商办房自身4个方面,系统归纳出影响企业参与意愿的26个因素。运用系统工程方法,建立了影响因素间的6级多层递阶解释结构模型,明确各因素之间的相互影响关系和作用路径,找出了影响企业参与意愿的10个根源性因素。并针对法律与政策、政府激励措施、商办与住房租赁市场需求、改造市场经验、存量状况与满足转化条件程度等根源性影响因素,提出“商改租”工作推进政策建议。     

论住房制度改革及住房保障的发展

通过系统的回顾我国住房制度改革的发展历史,以及对住房市场和住房保障两条发展路线的梳理,结合福利经济学的观点,提出住房保障是住房市场的必要补充,是对社会财富合理再分配的观点。提出了住房保障应当与住房市场相互协调,住房保障的规模要与经济发展水平、社会发展阶段相适应的相互发展关系。     

房地产泡沫经济分析

文章分析了影响房地产泡沫经济产生、发展的客观、社会、环境等因素,通过对合肥房地产市场的信息调查,从房价收入比、空置率、房地产的资金来源等几个方面论述了房地产经济程度,同时对遏制房地产泡沫的产生和发展提出几点建议。     

编制住房建设规划的几点思考

供不应求是房价上涨的主要原因。我国城镇住房供需平衡逆转的时间点,可能与美国货币政策转向的时间点重合。届时房价大幅下跌的可能性剧增,将给我国金融系统稳定乃至国民经济健康发展带来严重影响。编制住房建设规划,科学判断未来一段时期城镇住房供求关系,有助于稳定和引导市场预期,实现房价与消费能力基本适应。我国住房建设规划工作现在处于起步摸索期,要尽快启动全国及省区级住房建设规划的编制工作,细化住房政策目标;要科学预测住房需求,合理确定住房建设目标;要编制存量住房改造规划,重视发挥现有资源作用;要优化住房建设空间布局,平衡地区间供需,并方便各阶层群众生产和生活;要妥善处理保障与市场之间的关系,严格执行发展小户型住房的有关政策;要充分发挥房产税作用,降低房屋空置率。     

Housing market dualization: linking insider–outsider divides in employment and housing outcomes

Abstract

Past decades of economic growth, relatively widespread employment security and expanding mortgage markets promoted growing homeownership. Recent years have witnessed this growth undercut across advanced economies, evidenced by a rise in other tenures and increasing housing precarity. Studies have shown that these housing outcomes follow more fundamental changes in labour markets. By adapting the established concept of labour market dualization to housing, this paper examines how employment and housing positions are intertwined under late capitalism, and how their relationship has changed through the Global Financial Crisis. Examining the salient case of the Netherlands through household-level data from the LISS panel, we demonstrate that being a labour market ‘outsider’ vastly increases the likelihood of being an ‘outsider’ across housing market dimensions, in terms of housing equity, affordability and prospective asset accumulation. Comparing housing and labour dualization over 2008 and 2016, we further show that the share of multiply disadvantaged households has grown substantially, both among labour market insiders and outsiders.     

新一轮房地产调控中的住房政策及其效果分析

为了解政府对住房市场宏观调控采取政策的执行效果,采用定性分析的方法对住房市场宏观调控中的金融、房贷和土地政策进行分析。在梳理总结各类政策的基础上,分析政策出台规律、政策实施效果以及造成市场现状的根源及深层次原因。结合政策特点和问题根源,提出相应的政策建议改善住房市场调控现状,建立住房市场宏观调控的长效机制。     

Why is the German Homeownership Rate so Low?

The comparatively low homeownership rate in Germany is often referred to as a weakness of the German housing market. As it turns out, the situation in Germany is primarily due to four factors. First, rental housing makes up a larger share of the market because of an extensive social housing sector. The high quality standard of social housing and the fact that private investors were included in the subsidisation scheme from the beginning laid the foundation for a large private rental housing market. Second, homeowners in Germany did not benefit from the same high subsidies as in countries such as Spain or the Netherlands. Third, the German rental housing market was not rendered inoperative by excessive interventions in rents, as was the case in countries such as Spain and the UK. Finally, German house prices remained stable over a long period of time. Therefore, in view of these results, judgements on Germany's housing market should be revised.     

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.     

The effect of market conditions on the housing outcomes of subsidized households: the case of the US voucher programme

Abstract

Since being created in the 1970s, housing vouchers have become the primary mode of federal housing support for low-income households in the US. The voucher programme was designed to provide recipients with the mobility needed to secure higher quality housing in neighbourhoods of their choice. Decades of analysis suggest that the programme has failed to produce the favourable outcomes envisioned by policymakers. To add to our understanding of the outcomes of this important federal programme, this paper seeks to underscore the importance of context-dependent policy analysis. In particular, this study analyses the impact of housing market conditions on the outcomes achieved by voucher recipients. Using neighbourhood and housing outcome data from the American Housing Survey, and median rent and rental market vacancy data, this paper demonstrates the important role that market conditions play in programme outcomes. The results from this study suggest that voucher recipients are successful at improving housing unit quality outcomes regardless of market conditions, but the ability to move to a better neighbourhood is a function of vacancy rates.     

‘Take whatever you can get’: practicing Housing First in Alberta

Abstract

Housing First (HF) is an increasingly widespread and influential response to chronic homelessness. Programs using an HF approach typically rely on market apartments to house homeless clients as rapidly as possible. This reliance means HF programs are dependent on the availability and affordability of market housing. Little attention has been given to how shortages of affordable rental housing influence the practice of HF. To address this gap, we undertook qualitative research in Alberta, Canada. Interviews with service providers revealed that high rents and low vacancy rates had profound impacts on program operations, and complicated efforts to follow HF principles. Clients often experienced delays in being housed and felt pressure to accept the first apartment they were offered. In response, HF programs devoted resources to improve relationships with landlords. Ultimately, however, reliance on market housing undermined programs’ ability to fulfil the potential of HF in the Alberta context.     

European Competition Policy and National Housing Policies: International Implications of the Dutch Case

This contribution explores the relationship between housing policy, which is the responsibility of national governments, and competition policy, including the decision on the legitimacy of state support, which is the responsibility of the European Commission (EC). The paper paints a general picture of EU policy on competition and state support and describes the Dutch social housing system. Attention then turns to the recent intervention by the European Commission in the governance of Dutch social housing and it is asked whether the factors that prompted the intervention exist in other EU member states as well. The analysis shows that this is indeed the case. It is concluded that the intervention of the EC in the Netherlands could become a precedent for other European countries, particularly for those countries that opt against a residualised social rented sector and for a competitive role of social housing providers on the housing market.     

Housing Market Failure in a Booming Economy

This paper presents national data and two case studies investigating the links between housing market failure and the context of Australia's recent resource mining boom. It demonstrates how unprecedented international demand for mineral resources resulted in critical, local housing issues in mining communities. We conclude that without careful strategic planning and understanding of the economic and social role of housing, international market dynamics can create local housing situations that are vulnerable to market and social failures. While this paper highlights the challenges inherent in managing housing issues in Australia during a mining boom, there are likely to be lessons which can be applied in international settings. These challenges include the diversity in scale, cyclical and often unpredictable nature of booms; differences in housing policy and institutional arrangements across jurisdictions and the importance of leadership in growth management and planning.     

The Winners in China's Urban Housing Reform

Housing reform in China has proceeded on two tracks: privatization of public housing and development of a new private housing sector. During this period of transition, rents have remained relatively low in the remaining public housing, and purchase prices offered to occupants of public housing have been well below market prices. Although these rents and prices are partly based on known formulas, there is considerable variability in how much people pay for similar apartments. This study uses 2000 Census data to estimate the housing subsidy received by the remaining renters in the public sector and purchasers of public housing, based on private sector prices for housing of comparable quality and size. The paper also analyzes variation in the estimated discount from market prices that these people receive. The findings show that the biggest winners in China's transition from socialist housing allocation are those who were favored in the previous system, based on such factors as residence status, education and occupation.