Housing pathways,aspirations and preferences of young adults within increasing urban density

Abstract

There is growing recognition within housing preference studies that younger housing consumers are more amenable to compact dwellings. Yet, there remains uncertainty around the drivers of these preferences. In Auckland, the development of a spatial plan emphasizing intensification has attracted opposition from residents, reinforcing a notion that compact housing is largely unappealing. Utilizing a housing pathways approach, we question this notion through examining the housing narratives of Generation Y, a cohort whose preferences are largely ignored in this debate and poorly understood within housing research. This paper highlights the influence of past experiences on attitudes to changing urban environments, providing several themes related to housing experiences that have the potential to influence preferences. We conclude that a process of ‘acclimatisation’ to density is likely as Generation Y become exposed to higher-density housing. However, to encourage positive experiences, compact dwellings must attend to the dynamic nature of contemporary housing pathways and provide quality housing, located where young people aspire to live.     

Housing Pathways of Camping Ground Residents in New Zealand

A housing pathways approach captures the dynamics of housing: people's experiences of movement between dwellings and location, their decision making and preferences over time and space (Clapham, 2002). This paper presents the narratives of camping ground residents and community key informants, through discussing the experiences of residents in, through and out of camping grounds in New Zealand. The movement in and out of camping grounds is not a discrete event, but can be seen as affecting and affected by previous and future moves. This paper has a particular focus on the forced nature of many residents' pathways. The narratives highlight social, economic and political factors affecting residents' access to housing, and show the social exclusion experienced by many residents. The experiences of camping ground residents are placed within the context of the broad housing sector, which draws attention to the complexity of housing pathways.     

Exploring the Housing Pathways of Low-Income Women: A Biographical Approach

This research explores the use of a housing pathways framework and a biographical method to improve our understanding of the long-term housing experiences of low-income women. Biographical methods have been employed in the study of vulnerable and special populations outside of the US; however, there has been limited application of the method to examine low-income households within the US. This study draws on interviews of 29 low-income women with children in a large Midwestern metropolitan area to examine the nature of low-income housing pathways. The wages provided in the jobs that were available to the women in this study were insufficient to afford even low-quality, low-rent apartments, suggesting that the ability to achieve stability in modest housing is predicated on achieving much higher levels of household income. Federal rental assistance provided through the Housing Choice Voucher programme, rather than increased job stability or wages, resulted in improved housing conditions and stability for the women in this study. Biographical methods present great potential in providing a nuanced understanding of the housing experiences and life circumstances of low-income households and other vulnerable populations in the United States.     

Housing Experience and Settlement Satisfaction: Recent Chinese,Indian and South African Skilled Immigrants to New Zealand

Relatively little work has been done on the housing experience of recent migrants from cultural backgrounds different to that of their host society. This absence is particularly marked for relatively high socio-economic status skilled migrants, many of whom have to negotiate housing markets significantly different from those in their countries of origin. Data obtained from a panel study of recent immigrants from three separate sources—China, India and South Africa—to New Zealand's main cities (primarily Auckland) are used to explore the nature of their housing experiences. Over a four-year period these migrants moved towards the New Zealand norm of owner occupied, detached dwellings, although more rapidly in some cases than others; the pace of movement reflected not only cultural differences among the three groups, relative to the New Zealand norms, but also experiences in the labour market. These differences are reflected in levels of satisfaction with the decision to move to New Zealand.     

Unlocking the Black Box: Analyzing Policy-Makers Narratives of Housing Policy Change in Finland

Housing policy change is typically initiated by housing policy actors. Here, housing policy change is discussed as an institutional change, with institutional constraints playing a role in the change process. At the same time, change is seen as a result of the behaviour of policy actors. The case of Finnish rental housing policy serves as an example when the process of change is analysed from the perspective of housing policy actors. The policy actors produce a narrative of exhaustion of old policy in a new political climate. At the same time, the policy actors also tell a story about how change is made through negotiations and compromises and what types of strategies they use to break institutional constraints. Furthermore, changes in the political power dynamics can help transform an idea into an agenda.     

Residential Distribution of the Emergent Class of Skilled Migrants in Nanjing

Migration in China is traditionally dominated by unskilled rural-urban migrants that find their way into the city through urban villages, dormitories or informal housing. However, a remarkable increase in the number of skilled migrants has been witnessed with the economic restructuring. Reforms in the labour and housing market have shifted the spatial arrangement of opportunities, consequently changing migrants' access to the cities. Using 2000 Population Census and employing spatial regression models, this study shows skilled migrants to have better access to the city in the sense that their residences locate in the areas with more professional jobs and better houses. It is their advantages in the labour market that determines their favoured access to the public sector housing, resulting in better residential locations. Female skilled migrants are less likely than males to settle in areas with a large proportion of urban village housing or shared accommodation. These findings reveal the heterogeneity among migrants and the concomitant differences in spatial behaviour.     

芬兰和英国的产业化钢结构住宅

鉴于欧洲钢结构住宅发展较早、产业化水平较高,本文重点介绍了芬兰和英国的轻钢住宅产业化特点。芬兰传统的住宅 类型为别墅住宅,本文从住宅体系、轻钢住宅的制作安装、住宅的节能及造价等几个方面分析了芬兰的产业化轻钢住宅 现状。与芬兰的产业化轻钢住宅相比,英国的轻钢住宅在体系及住宅的施工方面也有一些自己的特色,特别是模块化住 宅体系的应用。     

Housing Tenure: Pacific Families in New Zealand

Home ownership has been associated with health, social and economic benefits. However, a decline in ownership has been observed over the past decade in New Zealand. Minority groups, including Pacific people, have been disadvantaged in the housing sector. This study investigated housing tenure and the relationship between tenure and health among mothers of a birth cohort of Pacific children in New Zealand. Findings showed that most families lived in state or private rental accommodation with few (15.4 per cent) owning their own homes. Homeowners were more likely to be older, partnered and have higher incomes. Better mental health was observed for homeowners compared to renters. Findings can inform housing and public health policy for Pacific families.     

Exploring Dual Housing Tenure Status as a Household Response to Demographic,Social and Economic Change

This article proposes that single housing tenure categories do not enable an understanding of the ways in which households use, occupy and own residential properties in the context of broad demographic, economic and social changes. Adapting work on sub-tenure housing choice, housing tenure is overlaid with ownership of residential property to develop four tenure types: Owner, Owner-Owner, Renter and Renter-Owner. Applying this typology in the Australian case provides valuable new insights, with 1.5 million households having dual housing tenure status, including almost one in eight private renters. More broadly, reconceptualising housing tenure to include ownership of other residential property can contribute to theoretical debates about household income and wealth; social status and identity; and social practices and life planning, potentially generating new research questions such as the extent to which Renter-Owners reflect new patterns of living or a response to affordability constraints, and the social identity and political affiliations of those with a dual tenure status.     

Housing Choice in Retirement: Community versus Separation

This study explored influences on the housing choices of retirees. Sixteen convergent interviewing processes were conducted in inner urban, suburban, coastal and rural locations in South Australia and New South Wales, Australia. In each location, separate interview processes were conducted with retirement village residents and retirees living in the surrounding community. Eighty-one village residents and 73 community residents were interviewed. Convergence (agreement) emerged within and between interview processes about two key themes: community, reflecting social connection and support, and separation, reflecting privacy and independence. A desire for community was pervasive, but was achieved differently in different locations and by retirement village and community residents. Community residents were more concerned about independence and had more negative perceptions of the impact of retirement village living on separation than village residents. Implications for retirement housing are discussed.     

Housing ownership and housing wealth: new evidence in transitional China

Ever since housing was transformed from the most important welfare benefit to the most valuable form of private property through radical housing reform in 1998, housing allocation mechanisms in China have been characterized by the coexistence of market logic and socialist legacy. Thus, the Chinese housing system exhibits a transitional nature as the country moves away from a socialist housing system towards a privatized housing system. Using the 2011 Chinese Household Finance Survey, we not only examine these changes in private ownership of housing, but also give an updated evaluation of the privatization process with new empirical evidence. We develop a conceptual framework and an empirical analysis to shed light on distinct housing inequality patterns in transitional urban China. Our results show that both socioeconomic characteristics and socialist institutions contribute to housing inequality, but they follow different paths in the reform and have different impacts on housing inequality.     

Housing Reform and Home Ownership Behaviour in China: A Case Study in Guangzhou

The recent housing reform in China signifies the paradigm shift from central planning to market mechanisms in the allocation of housing resources. This paper aims to identify major determinants, household demographics and work unit characteristics in the tenure choice decision so that policy implications can be drawn. The case study on Guangzhou provides insights into Mainland household decisions on choosing the utility-maximising tenure mode. Empirical results indicate that the market allocation mechanism introduced by the housing reforms has not yet replaced the entrenched influence from work units on home ownership behaviour. The finding on unsatisfied home owners is rather unexpected.     

Housing Tenure Preferences in the Post-privatisation Period: The Case of Slovenia

The privatisation of social housing transformed many transitional countries in Central and Eastern Europe into societies with predominant homeownership and a marginalised rental sector. The case of Slovenia shows that, despite a low level of government support of homeowners, the homeownership rate has remained at its unsustainably high level and households continue to express strong preferences for homeownership. The paper explores factors explaining current homeownership preferences in Slovenia. A comprehensive model of housing preferences is built. The model follows the proposition that tenure preferences are strongly influenced by general cultural norms and factors characterising the social, economic and political environments. The model is tested using structural equation modelling based on a survey of Slovenian households. The results reveal that the strong preferences for homeownership in Slovenia can be explained by the firm perceptions of the financial advantages of homeownership and by the lack of available rental alternatives.     

Housing and the Creation of Home for Refugees in Western Australia

Safe, appropriate housing is vital for the successful settlement of refugees, since establishing a home is part of the process of redeveloping a sense of ontological security. However humanitarian entrants in Australia have a far greater likelihood of moving multiple times in the early years of settlement and are far less likely to be purchasing their homes compared to other migrants. Using data from interviews, focus groups and a photovoice exercise, positive home-building experiences of refugees are illustrated, while factors leading to negative outcomes are also identified. The more positive story came from the photovoice exercise with images of the remaking of home as a place of connection with others, of personal pride, of comfort and leisure, of family and commensality. Interview and focus group data focused on structural issues including the cost of housing, limited choice in the rental market, lack of public housing, poor quality, negative attitudes of real estate agents, lack of access to services, and complex tenancy procedures which are key factors influencing insecurity of tenure. The effects on refugees’ sense of ontological security are discsused.     

Housing policy and the ethnic mix in Helsinki,Finland: perceptions of city officials and Somali immigrants

Helsinki provides an interesting case for the comparison of European mixing policies, as it has a relatively short history as a city of immigration. In contrast to prevailing desegregation policies of many other European countries, mixing policies in Helsinki are more of a preventive nature. In this article, we aim to examine how these policies are constructed and what kinds of reasons and explanations are given for the official policy goals and their implementation. Interviews with Somali immigrants are used as empirical evidence to confront policy assumptions and to get more insight into the factors causing ethnic residential segregation in Helsinki. The study shows that the local policies have been largely influenced by international debates on ethnic segregation, and therefore they have lacked an adequate understanding of the causes and effects of segregation in the local context. While the policy goals of ethnic mixing have been rather precise, tools for implementation have also been lacking. The case of Somalis illustrates that processes of residential segregation are more complex and dynamic than what is pictured in policy documents.     

Housing Pathways of Disabled Young People: Evidence for Policy and Practice

Most studies of disabled young people's housing experiences focus on structural constraints, with little attention given to the role of young people themselves in shaping their housing biographies. Using Clapham's (2002) housing pathways framework, this paper reflects on new empirical data to examine interactions between structure, agency and wider discourses in the housing pathways of disabled young people. The paper develops a typology of disabled young people's housing pathways, consisting of direct, staged and return pathways to independent living. Within each of these pathways, young people face key challenges of deciding to leave, finding suitable accommodation and maintaining their accommodation. The research identifies some of the complex interconnected factors that shape the ways young people negotiate these challenges and in doing so key messages emerge for policy makers and practitioners. Moreover, the paper not only informs policy and practice but also responds to questions that have recently been asked of the pathways framework and social constructionism more generally.     

Housing decision-making process explained by third agers,Finland: ‘we didn’t want this,but we chose it’

This paper investigates housing decision-making processes, using ‘third agers’ as a target group. Third agers offer individual and household level explanations to scrutinize the decision-making process in detail, explaining individual processes and negotiations. A cross-sectional qualitative study combining data from three projects, conducted in Helsinki Region, Finland, indicates that the triggers for moving affect the ways preferences are selected and formed as choice criteria. The interview-based data explains negotiations and other forms of information processing throughout the choice process, ending with unexpected choice outcomes. Despite the focus groups’ relative wide-ranging freedom of choice, residents constantly adjust their preferences as choice criteria throughout the decision-making process. Afterwards, coping strategies are adopted to reconcile eventual discrepancies. The paper indicates that the reasons for dissatisfaction are not communicated to the developers or the architects. The results suggest that the residents are not operating as prosumers with influence on housing design and production.     

适应多元居住需求的住房规划管理体系--日本住房制度变迁的启示

目前我国住房的核心矛盾已经从供需不足转为供需不匹配,相应的制度亟待改革。本文参考经历过类似转变时期的日本,从完善法律体系、供给体系及规划实施体系三方面入手进行考察,探讨做什么、谁去做以及怎样做三个问题。首先,相对于管理,日本住房体制更关注保障居住权利,并通过法律法规明确各方责任,形成权力制约。其次,政府并不直接提供住房,而是鼓励多方合作,从刚性"管制"转为弹性"引导"。最后,通过完善的统计系统和监督体制、相对独立的住房规划体系、切实可行的居住质量和居住面积等指标体系来确保有效提供住房。日本所有的住房政策都明确地指向一个目标:解决不同人群的多元居住需求,并通过细致严谨的规划管理体系保障实施,这对于我国从居住需求角度出发改革住房制度具有很好的借鉴作用。     

Housing Governance in the English Regions: Emerging Structures,Limits and Potentials

The centralising tendency of successive governments left housing policy struggling to comprehend and respond effectively to increasing regional and sub-regional differentiation in housing markets in England during the 1990s. A consequence of this central-local paradox, whereby the centre has exerted increasing control over local affairs but is unable to appreciate and sensitise policy to the particulars of local housing markets, has been rising 'top-down' interest in the regional tier of housing administration. There is also evidence of 'bottom-up' impetus for the development of a regional tier of housing governance. Paying particular attention to the situation in the North of England, and taking Yorkshire and Humberside as a case study example, this paper examines this emerging regional tier of housing governance. Focusing specifically on the development, role and function of Regional Housing Forums, and situating discussion in the context of debates regarding 'New Regionalism', some preliminary conclusions are drawn regarding the potentials and limits of housing governance in the English regions.     

Some considerations on the warping of marble façades: the example of Alvar Aalto’s Finland Hall in Helsinki

A scanning electron microscope study was performed on samples cored from the white-marble panels of Finland Hall’s façade which revealed considerable warping only a few years after the building’s completion. The analysis shows that granular decohesion is the most important sign of damage at the microstructural level. The presence of calcium sulphate is clearly recognisable on the façade’s surface, though it appears that chemical attack has failed to penetrate inside the material and, presumably, cannot thus be considered the only cause of decay. Following up on the results of other experimental observations that correlate warping with the degradation of bending strength, flexural tests were performed on four different qualities of white-marble, conditioned by thermal cycles in order to reproduce the damage process. The tests evidence that the four material types present very different resistance to thermal aggression: some varieties hold up very poorly, while others instead remain reliable in the long term.