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).

The Dutch housing condition survey

Surveys of the condition of a country's stock of housing are difficult to achieve with precision. This article from the Bouwcentrum in Rotterdam explains how research there has helped the new Dutch Housing Condition Survey to strike a balance between survey cost and the information required, by combining overall enquiries with detailed investigations of buildings. By multiple linear regression, ‘estimators’ are derived which convert the overall assessments into ‘predictions’ of the global data sought.

This specially prepared article is based on a presentation given at the ‘News Review’ session of the recent CIB Congress in Washington.     

Low income home ownership and housing policy

Public Housing and Private Property 1970–1984. by Stephanie Cooper. Aldershot: Gower. 1985. pp. 178. £18.50.

Low Cost Home Ownership. edited by Philip Booth and Tony Crook. Aldershot: Gower. 1985. pp. 264. £18.50.

Home Ownership in the Inner City: Salvation or Despair? by Valerie Karn, Jim Kemeny and Peter Williams. Aldershot: Gower. 1985. pp. 162. £16.50.     

Intervening in the cycle of poverty,poor housing and poor health: the role of housing providers in enhancing tenants’ mental wellbeing

Journal of Housing and the Built Environment - Poverty, poor housing and poor health are complexly interconnected in a cycle that has proven resistant to intervention by housing providers or policy...     

Risks and principles: The management of housing with support in the social rented sector in Scotland

Social housing plays a key role in the provision of support to disabled people but to what extent can care in the community principles be upheld in the context of the financial constraints in the provision of supported housing? This paper draws on findings from an evaluation of Scottish Home’s care in the community policy, to establish the considerable consensus of opinion on the principles underlying the housing contribution to community care and the increasing concerns of providers on the complexity and instability of the funding mechanisms for supported housing. To illustrate the discrepancy between the word and the deed in housing management practice, evidence is examined from recent studies on the use of housing agreements and tenancy rights in supported accommodation in Scotland. The paper identifies the gap between the expressed aims and intentions of providers and managers towards the occupants of supported housing and housing management practice and contends that financial pressures are a key element in producing this gap. If community care policies are to be successful, appropriate funding mechanisms and housing management practice are crucial.     

The present and future of income‐related housing support: debates in Britain and the Netherlands

This paper examines income‐related housing support in Britain and the Netherlands. It considers the main issues that are at stake in current policy discussions, compares the arguments that are put forward in the two countries and draw conclusions about the future of income‐related housing support. In both Britain and the Netherlands political discussions about the possible introduction of housing vouchers are observed. The most complicated issues are the poverty trap and unemployment trap, and housing consumption incentives. Moral hazard concerns can result in complicated anti‐fraud measures that may add to the burden of administering income‐related support. It is expected that the way in which income‐related housing support schemes in both countries are designed and administered may come under closer scrutiny. Politicians want these schemes to be in tune with the need for labour and housing market mobility, wage flexibility, and the need to bring the public budget under control.     

房价与地价的关系

结合房地产开发的现状,分析了影响房地价格的因素,详细地阐述了房价与地价的关系,结合“汤臣一品”的事件,从反面证明了房价与地价的基本规律不能违反的结论。     

湘潭：完善住房保障制度解决低收入家庭住房难

近年来,为解决低收入家庭住房困难,湘潭市切实完善住房保障制度,加速推进廉租住房建设,大力发展经济适用房,全面启动棚户区改造和公共租赁试点,取得了良好成效。     

Poverty and disrepair: Challenging the myth of ignorance in private sector housing

As private home ownership grows in Europe, so do the problems of maintenance and repair for poorer owners. In England, it has been believed that one obstacle is the owners' apparent satisfaction with poor conditions. This paper deconstructs the questions in the English House Condition Survey 1981 on which that assumption has been based. By reference to other EHCSs and to a research methodology offering a more differentiated approach to establishing residents' views, it suggests that the problem is not ignorance at all. A more subtle understanding of the validity of housing satisfaction questionnaires is needed to develop effective policies of urban renewal.     

The evidence of poor quality in high rise and medium rise housing units: a case study of mass housing projects in Turkey

Achievement of acceptable levels of quality in the construction industry has long been a problem. Great expenditures of time, money and resources are wasted each year due to inefficient or non-existent quality levels. The situation is even worse in the case of mass housing projects addressed to low and middle income groups. It is the scope of this paper to identify the type of deviations resulting in rework in mass housing projects. For this aim, a general knowledge concerning quality is given at first, and then some related issues like cost of quality and total quality management are discussed. Finally, the quality of mass housing projects in Turkey is examined. In order to achieve this objective, data have been derived from 500 cases in two mass housing regions by means of a questionnaire including 108 questions, and results of this survey were evaluated by t-test and the percentage values calculated by frequencies of the answers. It is concluded that the residents are not adequately satisfied by the quality of products/services provided by their housing units.     

Comparative housing and welfare: Theorising the relationship

Housing accounts for a high proportion of the capital investment component of welfare, and is the largest single item in household budgets. It also plays a major part in defining life styles and structuring the urban environment. It is argued that in the light of this, housing must cease to be treated as the poor relative of the four pillars of welfare and the vital role it plays must be recognised, especially in terms of synergy with other dimensions of welfare – notably pensions – that sets limits to the way welfare states are organised. Differences in how housing is organised between countries therefore need to be given much closer and more theoretically informed attention by welfare researchers than has been the case hitherto. In this article a first step is made toward this end.     

Spatial analysis of the relationship between housing values and investments in transportation infrastructure

The relationship between residential location, location value and accessibility has been of long interest to regional scientists. Studies investigating the relationship between house price and changes in accessibility, however, have been fewer in number, and predominantly have centered upon the house price impact of fixed rail investments. Neglected have been the impacts of smaller road investments made on a regular basis by municipalities and state departments of transportation. This research therefore reports on the spatial relationship between house price and investment in road-based transportation infrastructure by combining two spatial databases, both centered on Columbus, OH. The first contains information on all single-family detached houses sold in 1990. The second contains detailed spatial and temporal information on all accessibility-changing road investments in the same area, since 1978. Results indicate that while moderate, past, current and approved (but not begun) road investments have distinct and significant impacts on house price.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 40th Annual Meeting of the Western Regional Science Association in Palm Springs, California, February 2001, and was awarded The Charles M. Tiebout Prize in Regional Science. Randall Jackson, Morton OKelly, W. Randy Smith, Donald Haurin, Frank Mittlebach, the editor and an anonymous reviewer all provided valuable comments on previous drafts. Research funding was provided by the E. Willard and Ruby S. Miller Fellowship and through the Committee on Urban Affairs at Ohio State.Received: March 2001/Accepted: November 2003     

The changing nature of financing low‐income urban housing development in Kenya

The poor state of housing in the cities of developing countries has been the subject of numerous studies. Only a few published articles on the topic, however, emphasise the complexity and interrelatedness of the key components of housing such as land, finance, building materials, and construction technologies. This article examines one of these components, namely finance, and assesses its importance to the development of appropriate low‐income housing in Kenya's second city, Mombasa. Kenya's urban housing policy emphasises home ownership rather than rentals. For the low‐income groups, the twin package of site and service and settlement upgrading has been the main programme of action. One of the most recent projects of this nature, the Second Urban Project (SUP) is evaluated here in so far as the nature of its financing has had important repercussions on the low‐income urban housing sub‐sector in Mombasa. It is the contention of this paper that the introduction into Mombasa's low‐income settlements of the conventional or formal systems of financing residential development has resulted in socio‐economic turbulence of gigantic proportions. It has led to clandestine plot sales, absentee landlordism, escalating rents, and the ‘invasion’ of low‐income settlements by higher income groups. Prior to the implementation of this World Bank funded project, the financing of low‐income housing had been primarily done on an informal basis under a traditional method known as the ‘tenancy‐at‐will’ system which encouraged progressive housing development, and discouraged absentee landlordism. This article concludes that it is not cost‐effective to rapidly replace non‐conventional methods. It would be more appropriate to integrate the two in a pragmatic way by adopting more novel ways of financing low‐income residential development in a way that would minimise the current rampant failures of these projects in meeting their stated objectives.     

Housing segregation and the poor: New trends in French social rented housing

Traditionally, French social housing was housing low‐paid workers with a regular job. The very poor were in private dilapidated housing. Today a new pattern is emerging: the very poor and the deprived are in the most dilapidated fraction of social housing. Far from improving their social integration, dilapidated social housing estates are stigmatizing them. Social tenants are still second‐class citizens.     

“7090”政策与住房供应结构关系研究

通过分析"7090"政策与住房供应结构的关系,回顾"7090"政策出台后的发展,总结出该项政策的弊端,并以"7090"政策制约佛山市禅城区土地市场及招商引资发展作为研究实例,得出需要以区域平衡为原则,针对不同的项目配置不同的住房供应结构的方式来破解"7090"政策对佛山市禅城区的发展,最终得出新出台的《关于优化禅城区住房供应结构的指导意见》对佛山市禅城区今后发展的积极作用。     

Using solar energy to heat water in low income housing

The NBRI originally developed a pipe type integral solar water heater for use in low income dwellings. This design was subsequently adapted by a number of manufacturers to suit manufacturing procedures and utilise more durable materials.

The integral unit is relatively inexpensive and simple to install and operate. Its solar efficiency is high but it has the disadvantage that the water in the unit cools during the night. The integral unit unit is inherently frost resistant in a mild winter climate because of the large waterways and small exposed surface area. Those units currently available are water and hail resistant and are of durable construction.

The integral solar water heater, when used as a stand-alone water heating system, is much more cost-effective than the alternative of an electrical geyser or a geyser combined with a solar water heater.