Has the Habitat for Humanity Housing Scheme achieved its goals? A Ghanaian case study

This work evaluates the Habitat for Humanity Housing Scheme in Ghana in the context of its goals. The Logical Framework is used to aid this assessment. We find that though the housing scheme has made progress in accommodating the low-income community in Agona and Kona, 80% of the houses develop cracks soon after completion. Apart from a few houses, the scheme has not improved any inadequate housing. Probably the most serious downside of the scheme is that it makes no serious effort to create economic opportunities in the community apart from housing. Little wonder that about 64% of the beneficiaries are yet to repay their loans.

Vacancy rates and low-rent housing: a panel data analysis

There is evidence of a shortage of low-rent housing stock in Australia. But there is a puzzling aspect to this evidence because it would appear that vacancy rates in the low-rent housing stock are relatively high. The paper establishes this relationship using a unique panel database for two very different cities within Australia. This panel database permits measurement of various dimensions of housing supply across value segments in a metropolitan private rental housing market and at different points in time. Our research findings describe vacancy patterns, turnover of tenancies and survival rates of properties by rent value segments and explore associations with the spatial concentration and polarisation of the low rent housing stock.

The Reverse Side of the Medal: About the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the Beautification of the N2 in Cape Town

This paper aims to show the reverse side of the (football) medal. The N2 gateway project in Cape Town is presented, by government and media, as a ‘flagship’ project of the new Breaking New Ground strategy, to fight the housing backlog of 400,000 houses in the city. But I want to argue that the fast-tracking of the project has to be understood as a beautification strategy to prepare the city for 2010. Massive slum eradication and the construction of ‘beautiful formal housing opportunities’ between the airport and the mother city are becoming a painful reminder of the forced removals under the apartheid regime.

Housing intermediary services in China: the rise and fall of ‘Fang Wu Yin Hang’

Housing reforms in China are often conceived to have engendered a gradual shift towards a market system. New institutions have been introduced to enable decentralized, monetarized and privatized allocation of housing units. This study explores the emergence, growth and downfall of an intermediary service (known as ‘fang wu yin hang’) created spontaneously by real estate agents to facilitate housing transactions in the Chinese cities. Although this new institution looked capable of strengthening the rationality, efficiency, transparency and impersonality of China’s housing market, it was abandoned soon after its inception. The failure of this transient service suggests the presence of some social institutions, which could have blocked China’s progress towards a full-fledged market system in the housing sector.

The spatial structure(s) of the Belgian housing stock

This paper presents the spatial structure(s) of the Belgian housing stock and the spatial outcome of socio-economic inequalities at a (sub)regional level and shows the link with the cultural landscape. A selection of housing patterns illustrates the processes that segment the Belgian housing stock today: north–south contrasts, east–west differences, centre–periphery and urban–non-urban dualities.

How are neighbourhood design features valued across different neighbourhood types?

In this paper, we examine whether implicit prices of neighbourhood design features in the housing market vary significantly across traditional, neo-traditional, and conventional suburban neighbourhood types. The set of neighbourhood design features we examine here include neighbourhood development density, street network connectivity, pedestrian access to transit and commercial stores, and land use mixture. Using data from Washington County, Oregon, we first use statistical procedures to identify distinct neighbourhood types. We then employ hedonic price analyses and a series of spatial Chow tests to obtain implicit prices of design attributes for houses in each neighbourhood type. We find that traditional design features such as higher street network connectivity and better pedestrian access to transit and commercial stores are valued more in the traditional and neo-traditional neighbourhoods, and that conventional neighbourhood features such as lower housing density and higher degree of homogeneous land uses are valued more in the suburban neighbourhoods.

The effectiveness of selected housing subsidies in the Czech Republic

The goal of this article is to evaluate the effectiveness of the new housing policy in the Czech Republic as an example of a transitional society after the collapse of communism. The first part provides a brief history of the housing policy dating back to 1918. The second part presents the results of empirical tests of effectiveness (or equity) of selected housing subsidies applied during the transition. As in other transitional countries, the considerable decrease in the financial affordability of housing after 1989 demanded an active housing policy. Housing subsidies, whether direct or implicit, were, however, often not well targeted. The economic subsidy from rent regulation, tax relief and housing allowances are especially assessed here.

The affordability of owner occupied housing in Beijing

Facilitating home ownership and providing more affordable housing has received considerable attention in urban China. However, it remains a challenge to develop better measurements of affordability due to the income disparity and housing inequality in Beijing. In this study, a new measure of affordability is defined by residual income. Therefore, a minimum required budget for a family to purchase a “standard” unit is deduced by accounting for the basic necessities and financial loans. This paper also discusses the deficiencies of the implemented “Economic Housing Plan” on bridging the housing affordability gap.

Equilibrium between interest payments and income in the housing market

The literature on housing markets suggests that house prices in almost all western economies can be explained by short-run demand-oriented variables and a long-run term. The basic principles of the theory are that the short-run fluctuations, which are based on recent price developments (shocks), occur due to market imperfection, while over the long term, causality with such fundamentals as income will recover. Nonetheless, many of the interesting questions in housing economics concern adjustments toward equilibrium. This paper seeks to identify a long-run equilibrium between interest payments and household income (interest-to-income ratio) instead of between house prices and income (price-to-income ratio).

Housing and home-making in low-income urban settlements: Sri Lanka and Colombia

Enabling the making of home is central to the practices of housing, but constructing home is more than building adequate shelter. It is about establishing, nurturing and managing social relationships and bringing together spaces, objects and elements to represent and celebrate desired relationships, events and memories. Drawing on empirical data from Sri Lanka and Colombia, this paper examines in detail the practices of home-making in low-income settlements. By focussing on people’s conceptions of home and by identifying key social and societal practices, the paper offers insights into the processes of home-making among ordinary dwellers in developing countries and calls for culturally sensitive and holistic housing interventions which support and complement these processes.

Steering local housing production: evaluating the performance of governance structures

This paper presents an analytical framework that allows us to evaluate the performance of dynamic governance structures. In housing development processes, governance structures—markets, hierarchies and network or relational structures—change as the process proceeds, and so do the goals that are set by all stakeholders, including local authorities. A framework for evaluation is set out that takes account of this temporal component. It is applied empirically to three case studies in the city of Arnhem (The Netherlands). The paper concludes that the effectiveness of steering housing production by local authorities depends on choosing appropriate governance structures, setting realistic goals, and a local authority that acts accordingly. Many of the choices with regard to goals and governance structures are not made autonomously but are structured by the spatial and institutional context in which they operate. A systematic evaluation of the performance of governance structures, within their context, could improve local government’s capacity to steer housing production.

Effect of lock delay on grain barge rates: examination of upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers

Directed acyclic graphs and multivariate time-series analysis are used to identify and measure the effect of lock delay on the upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers grain barge rates. Lock congestion on these rivers and its potentially unfavorable impact on grain barge rates that link the Midwest US to lower Mississippi River ports are of great concern. Results show that accumulated lock delay on segments of the upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers increases grain barge rates; however, the estimated dynamic relationships show that the impact is not large.

Household diversity and market segmentation within a single neighborhood

Housing hedonic studies typically assume that individuals or households are similar enough to aggregate into a single demand equation for analysis, usually relying on ordinary least squares (OLS) or some other single-line equation estimator. Diversity itself is managed by non-spherical disturbance corrections, typically spatial autocorrelation or heteroskedasticity in the single line OLS estimate. This paper tests whether households in the same neighborhood can be theoretically and empirically treated as a single type or if households can be assigned into more than one type; multiple types suggests distinguishable local housing sub-markets. Our technique, a combination of the method of principal components and the seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) model, allows for one or more demand curves to represent housing demand and allows several types to compete over a fixed housing stock in a given residential neighborhood. As such, the SUR is the empirical translation of a theory that different household types can coexist in the same neighborhood.

Subsidization as motor to residential mortgage securitization in the US

Residential mortgage securitization on the secondary mortgage market in the United States has grown enormously since 1970. This contribution describes the growth, especially the growth of the large special circuit housing finance system within the secondary mortgage market. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are at the heart of it. Different housing finance systems are introduced first in order to position the system of securitization. The technicalities of securitization are then briefly covered, before the focus shifts to the development of residential mortgage securitization in the United States. The reasons for expansion of the secondary mortgage market are traced, and especially of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the benefits they offer to homeowners and the buyers of securities. The success of securitization by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac does not seem to be based on a miracle of competition in the housing finance market, but largely on regulation and subsidization of these organizations. Nowadays, the question has become whether the undesired effects of this large part of the housing finance market outbalance the desired effects.

The knowledge production–regional economic growth complex: a framework and topics for future research

This note presents an introduction and framework for the papers that make up the special issue. In addition, it makes some suggestions for future research.

The future of Flemish social housing

Housing policy in Belgium and Flanders is directed mainly towards encouraging home ownership. Social housing in Flanders covers a share of 5.6% of the housing stock. This social rental sector is characterized as a safety net by some housing researchers and as a general model by others. During the 1990s and the first half of this decade social housing in Flanders became under discussion. The image of social housing that dominated then was one of increasing problems with tenants and neighbourhoods. Raising the income limits to get a better social mix was advocated by the sector and afterwards by policy as one of the solutions for these problems, meanwhile also improving the revenues of the housing associations. The political discourse however was very little supported by scientific knowledge. This contribution aims at clarifying the position of the Flemish social housing by describing the historical and regulatory context and presenting the results of the Housing Survey 2005. It dispels the misunderstanding that Flemish social housing is a residual model and explores different future models. One of the conclusions is that solving problems of the social rental sector may not occur at the cost of those who need affordable housing most.

An equilibrium network design model with a social cost function for multimodal networks

In this paper, we present a comprehensive investment planning model and its solution approach. The model takes a bilevel programming form and allows a variety of effects of the investments incorporated. The model is characterized by its ability to address the total social costs occurring in transportation networks and to estimate the equilibrium link volumes in multimodal networks. Two solution algorithms were proposed. Both algorithms handle the discrete optimization problem by exploiting the strings of binary digits of integer variables. In an illustrative example, we performed network design analyses for three scenarios in which 25, 50, and 75% of the total required capital is available. By applying the two solution algorithms to the example problem, the optimal network alternative for each scenario was found. If a cost/benefit analysis is coupled with the proposed model, the optimal investments and the optimal network configuration will be determined simultaneously.

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Geographic and dynamic heterogeneity of home ownership

This paper analyses the determination of the demand for home ownership. The determinants include prices and short- and medium-term price changes, public regulation (regulation of house rent, housing subsidies, taxation), competition from alternative residence forms (measured by supply of subsidised housing), social composition of population (age, social benefit recipients, household composition, civil status, education, nationality), economic ability (income), and congestion (measured by population density and degree of urbanisation). The study applies Danish aggregate data for 270 Danish municipalities, available annually for the period 1999–2004. The effects of determinants on home ownership rates are allowed to be heterogeneous by years and municipalities using temporally and geographically expanded coefficients. Considerable parametric heterogeneity over time as well as across municipalities is found, even when residual dynamic heterogeneity and interdependency as well as residual spatial spillover is controlled for.

Inter-generational Occupational Mobility Amongst Blacks in the Mitchell’s Plain Magisterial District, Cape Town: Evidence from the Khayelitsha/Mitchell’s Plain Survey

This study examines inter-generational occupational class mobility amongst blacks (Africans and coloureds) in the Mitchell’s Plain Magisterial District in Cape Town, South Africa. The results of the Khayelitsha/Mitchell’s Plain Survey conducted in 2000 serve as the main source of data. We show that middle-class occupational origins do not necessarily guarantee the transmission of advantage from one generation to the next. The findings revealed that there is a churning effect at work with respondents experiencing upward occupational class mobility due to the changing occupational structure, which at the same time is counteracted by considerable downward occupational class mobility. This result is partly due to (1) the particular class structure of the Mitchell’s Plain Magisterial District, which excludes many middle-class black areas and therefore has a more working-class character and (2) the precarious character of the black middle class, which is concentrated in low-paid nursing and teaching occupations.

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