Measuring Informal Housing Production in California Cities

Problem, research strategy, and ­findings: Planning scholars and practitioners once assumed informal housing was largely absent in the developed world; today they increasingly acknowledge its role in the United States. Recent evidence suggests that informal housing, or non-permitted construction, is a significant phenomenon inside incorporated cities, despite widespread regulations and code enforcement. Informal housing is a de facto source of otherwise scarce affordable housing in many locations, but also compromises health and safety and strains municipal infrastructure and fiscal health. Planners lack a means of measuring informal construction at the scale of individual cities. We propose such a method, and apply it to incorporated cities in California. Data limitations prevent us from precisely estimating the magnitude of non-permitted construction, but our findings suggest that informal channels are an important source of housing production, especially in the places where permitted construction is constrained.

Takeaway for practice: We urge planners to engage with informal housing issues, given the considerable importance of this hidden yet vital portion of the housing market as a means of providing living spaces amid tight housing market conditions. Our method for calculating the rate of informal housing addition is a useful tool for planners to gather basic facts about the informal housing market in their communities, a prerequisite for policy interventions.     

综合性房屋的共用建筑面积分摊计算

以现行的房地产测量规范为依据,阐述如何进行综合性房屋的共用建筑面积分摊计算.     

How Much Extra Affordable Housing is Needed in England?

Booming housing markets in the UK have once again brought into sharper focus the issues of housing affordability, housing need and ‘affordable housing’ solutions. This paper reviews issues in the measurement of problems of affordability, particularly access to homeownership, and reports on modelled estimates for England at regional and local levels. These models provide a method for comparing pressures in different areas, but also for measuring market change over time and its relationship with the economy. They are also useful for identifying and assessing the scope for ‘intermediate’ forms of provision between conventional homeownership and social renting. Measures of recent and prospective needs for additional affordable housing provision, derived from this analysis of affordability, are presented and assessed. These findings are linked to a broader contemporary policy debate about housing and planning policy in England.     

A model for assessing the effectiveness of public housing in Sana'a (Republic of Yemen)

A model is proposed for measuring the effectiveness of certain public housing schemes in Yemen. The suggested model assumes the measurement of housing effectiveness both subjectively, in terms of occupant satisfaction with the housing environment; and objectively, in terms of the adequacy level of the dwelling and its environment. It is hoped that such a model will help in testing different types of public housing provisions in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen, and assist in identifying the most effective and useful type. This paper introduces the model and its development process and the outcome of its testing programme will be reported later. It is important to note that the research model has been developed to fit the conditions of Sana'a/Yemen only and its application in a different set of conditions would need further alteration and adjustment.     

When Tourists Move In: How Should Urban Planners Respond to Airbnb?

Problem, research strategy, and findings: The online accommodation platform Airbnb has expanded globally, raising substantial planning and regulatory concerns. We ask whether Airbnb rentals generate significant neighborhood impacts like noise, congestion, and competition for parking; reduce the permanent rental housing supply and increase rental prices; or provide income opportunities that help “hosts” afford their own housing. We focus on Sydney, the largest region in Australia with 4.4 million people in 28 individual municipalities, which has experienced both rapidly rising housing costs and exponential growth in Airbnb listings since 2011. Airbnb’s growth has raised concerns serious enough to result in a formal Parliamentary Inquiry by the state of New South Wales. We analyze stakeholder submissions to this inquiry and review local planning regulations, Airbnb listings data, and housing market and census statistics. We find that online homesharing platforms for visitor accommodations blur traditional boundaries between residential and tourist areas so Airbnb listings may fall outside of existing land use regulations or evade detection until neighbors complain. Our findings are constrained by the difficulties of monitoring online operations and the rapid changes in the industry.

Takeaway for practice: Planners and policymakers in cities with increasing numbers of Airbnb rentals need to review how well local planning controls manage the neighborhood nuisances, traffic, and parking problems that may be associated with them while acting to protect the permanent rental housing supply. Local planners need to ensure that zoning and residential development controls distinguish between different forms of short-term Airbnb accommodation listings and their potential impacts on neighborhoods and housing markets.     

Reproducing housing commons. Government involvement and differential commoning in a housing cooperative

Since the late nineteenth century, reoccurring economic depressions and related housing crises have led to the development of collectively shared and managed housing systems. Nowadays depicted as ‘housing commons’, these systems are rooted in the early twentieth-century cooperative garden city housing model. Some of these housing initiatives have been marketed, while others have been scaled-up or co-opted by the state. Through a detailed discussion of changing government involvement in a rental cooperative neighbourhood in the Brussels Capital Region, and an analysis of participative practices, we discuss the relevance of the cooperative model today. Rather than an obsolete system, the paper shows that differential forms of commoning reproduce the cooperative model, resulting in capacity building and increased social capital among participating inhabitants. This sheds a different light on common-pool resource theory, which prescribes strict regulations to prevent free-ridership or enclosure.     

Housing Diversity and Affordability: The Effects of 35 Years of Exclusionary Land Use Regulations on Housing Affordability in Adelaide,South Australia

ABSTRACT

Australia is often described as being in the midst of a housing affordability crisis. This research analyses the effect exclusionary land use regulations have had on housing diversity and affordability in Adelaide, South Australia. The research shows there are significantly greater numbers of relatively affordable dwellings available areas where an absence of land use regulations for significant periods of time has enabled housing diversity. It also shows that metrics that compare median incomes with median prices are unreliable indicators of affordability as median prices alone are unable to capture the breadth of housing prices that exist within them.     

Building Code Enforcement Burdens and Central City Decline

Since the enactment of Hammurabi's Code in ancient Babylon, building regulations have been relied upon to protect the public from the hazards of substandard building materials and slipshod construction techniques. Unnecessary building code requirements and strict enforcement practices, however, have been widely criticized for increasing the costs of new construction and rehabilitation, particularly within central cities. These burdens reduce the ability of central cities to compete successfully with surrounding suburban areas for population and economic development. In this article, we address the linkage between enforcement of building codes and construction activity. We show that central cities can capture a larger share of the market for single-family detached housing in their metropolitan areas and also spur commercial rehabilitation if they adopt more “business-friendly” approaches to building code enforcement. These gains can be achieved without reducing the degree of compliance with building regulations as long as enforcement efforts are strong. In short, one key to increasing economic development in central cities is to foster the right kind of enforcement, rather than having weak enforcement of building regulations.     

对房价与收入衡量指标的探析

针对房价收入比指标衡量商品住宅价格与居民收入水平关系的不足,提出了住房单价月收入比的概念,阐述了该指标的优点与应用,并以南京为例进行了实证分析,指出该指标最适用于对不同收入群体的住房支付能力进行分类研究,以优化配置住房政策及住房金融资源。并建议将房价月收入比纳入各个城市房地产指标体系,从而探讨了我国房地产指标体系的新思路。     

新加坡公共住房发展研究:从“广厦”到“恒产”的智慧

伴随着新加坡经济40余年的持续增长,其公共住房的发展也取得了巨大的成功。基于对新加坡公共住房发展历程、运行机制和价值理念的分析,文章得出结论:新加坡公共住房的发展逐步实现了新加坡居民人人有房住、人人有住房的目标,并通过各种方法让居民的住房保值和增值,完成了社会财富结构的重塑,最终为新加坡经济的持续发展提供了稳定的政治和社会基石。     

住宅交付后各相关方的质量责任分析与对策

随着居住条件和生活水平的不断提高,人们越来越重视住宅的安全性与舒适性,因住宅质量所引起的社会问题却日益突出,住宅在合理使用期限内的质量缺陷问题及由此产生的纠纷,已成为消费者、政府和社会关注的焦点。通过结合我国现行法律法规的相关规定,分析住宅交付后各相关方的质量责任,并针对当前住宅交付后存在的质量缺陷责任主体不明、相互推卸责任、责任人消失、无力赔偿等问题,提出推行住宅质量保证保险制度将能在一定程度上使这些问题得到缓解。同时,对推行住宅质量保证保险制度下各相关方质量责任变化的问题也进行了探讨。     

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.     

探求上海“保障性住房涵盖之外”低收入阶层住房解决的可能性途径

通过对特大城市中保障性住房发展建设若干局限性的分析,指出解决特大城市低收入阶层住房不宜仅仅依靠大规模建设保障性住房,充分利用现有的住房租售市场、打破城乡二元分割的住房政策等也是解决低收入阶层的居住问题不可忽视的方面。以上海为例,分析上海市低收入阶层的构成及空间分布,探讨目前"保障性住房涵盖之外"的低收入群体解决住房的典型方式,并据此提出若干针对特大城市中未纳入保障性住房体系的大量低收入阶层解决基本住房需求的政策建议,以缓解社会压力,维护社会的稳定和谐。     

建住分离式的市场化改革--探索推进村镇住宅建设的有效之路

针对《村镇规划标准》及浙江省的有关具体实施办法在推行中遇到的重重阻力,从标准制定与实施两个方面进行了分析,提出了现行农村住宅建设的小生产方式与住宅产业化发展方向的矛盾是各类问题产生的根源,提出了要以中心镇村为突破口,推进建住分离规模化的住宅生产模式。通过对杭州市萧山区推进城乡一体化建设的实例分析,更进一步提出在经济发达地区的村镇推行住宅产业市场化的必要性,提出了对现行农村土地集体所有制和住宅产权制度进行改革的必要性与迫切性。     

房价不确定性对开发商销售行为的影响

随着中国房地产市场宏观调控政策的频繁出台,房价不确定性进一步加大,而开发商与消费者在交易过程中的行为与决策是影响调控政策效果的关键。基于期权理论,研究了房价不确定性对开发商销售行为的影响,以及开发商销售行为对最终成交价格的影响,并应用2006~2008 年北京市预售商品住房成交微观样本进行实证检验。研究结果发现房价不确定性将导致开发商销售行为的推迟,但并不一定最终引起成交价格的上涨;随着成交房屋销售持时的增加,成交价格呈现先降后增的趋势。     

Public Facilities in Public and Private Housing Projects in Dhaka,Bangladesh

Cities in developing countries are confronted with two conflicting problems. On the one hand, there is always an increasing demand for urban services and, on the other hand, the public sector responds poorly to the growing demand for such services. This articleexplores and compares the status of physical and environmental infrastructure and services provided in public and privately developed land and housing projects in Greater Dhaka, Bangladesh. The study made use of primary data gathered from April to June 2008. The findings indicate that although some households and developers are aware of the planning regulations which mandate infrastructure and services, this does not necessarily translate into compliance, particularly in privately developed housing projects. As a result, projects are usually developed with inadequate and unsatisfactory facilities. The analysis revealed that most physical and environmental infrastructure and services are either missing or unsatisfactory. These include narrow roads inconsistent with standard widths, little open space for social activities, few areas for childrens' playgrounds and poor waste management. The factors that explain the relatively low levels of physical environmental conditions in privately developed projects include an absence of inter-agency coordination, corruption, a lack of good governance, and political interference, along with disregard and apathy on the part of developers and buyers towards planning regulations. In the light of these findings, this article proposes stronger enforcement of planning regulations and more consistent monitoring by planning agencies to achieve better planned residential areas in Dhaka.     

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.     

不同地区住房市场供给结构比例研究——以江苏省部分城市为例

不同地区住房市场发展日趋差异化,“因城施策”成为住房市场调控的主导原则。如何科学制定住房供给政策,合理确定住房供给结构中保障性住房与商品房的比例大小,一直是各方研究的难点与重点。针对这一问题,从居民可支付能力和政府可负担性两个方面,通过住房支付能力、房价收入比和地方财政收入的可负担性3 个指标,以江苏省部分城市包括南京市、苏州市、镇江市为例进行实证分析,分别得出3 个城市住房市场供给结构。实证结果可为相关决策部门合理制定住房供给策略提供科学依据。     

Social housing management: Concerns about effectiveness and efficiency in the Netherlands

Recently a discussion flared up in the Netherlands on the effectivenessand efficiency of providers of social housing. Though most people feel that Dutch housing associations are run effectively, there are no data to underpin this conclusion. The government is not clear about the criteria for each housing association: most of the criteria are unquantified and, to some extent, contradictory. Nor is it clear whether every individual housing association has to meet these criteriato the same extent. Many more doubts have been raised about the efficiencyof social housing providers, as housing associations do not act as if theywant to maximize profits.Several suggestions have been put forward to improve efficiency: periodicalexternal visitations, benchmarking, the introduction of a Real Estate Index,and outsourcing a substantial part of the management and development activities. The main conclusion so far is that we are under-informed aboutthe efficiency of housing associations. Some advisory bodies argue that theoverall efficiency of housing associations would improve if they were transferred from the semi-public to the private sector. They claim that thedemand side of the housing market could be strengthened by the introductionof housing vouchers and suggest that housing associations opt out of the public sector.These options fail to take account of the fact that we are insufficiently informed about the efficiency of commercial players on the housing market and the inherent shortcomings of free housing markets when it comes to accessibility, affordability and quality for low-income households, externaleffects and the cherry-picking of tenants by commercial landlords. Hence, weconclude that until more information is available on the true effectivenessand efficiency of housing associations, there are good reasons to continue their current hybrid status, which combines public tasks and market activities.     

Dynamics of Housing Mobility in Australian Metropolitan Areas, 2001–2010: A Longitudinal Study

A lack of understanding of the dynamics of housing mobility and its difference across the major cities in Australia can have significant policy ramifications. In particular, a spatial mismatch in the demand and supply of higher density housing will arise if planning for resource allocations continues to be based on urban density targets without a complete understanding of the dynamics of housing mobility patterns. Therefore through the application of a unique 3-fold longitudinal study this paper examines the housing mobility patterns over time by measuring changes in housing characteristics of housing tenure, dwelling type and location using the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA). It was found that the most typical transition to a higher dwelling density in Australia is from a detached house to multi-storeyed units under 3 storeys. Downsizing moves for retirees are most frequent and a decrease in household income is closely related to downsizing. Also notable is the significantly higher level of downsizing moves found in Melbourne when compared to other cities over the past decade.