scholarly journals Live Large in Small Spaces

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Danae Bloxham
Keyword(s):  
Design Research ◽  
Home Ownership ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
House Prices ◽  
House Price ◽  
Urban Housing ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
Low Density ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Great Opportunity

<p>The ‘kiwi dream’ of home ownership has become less attainable because of increases in housing costs. Unaffordability is linked with the house price to income ratio, especially within urban environments where incomes have fallen to 50% below property prices. This not only affects access to affordable housing, but also access to quality housing. A home should be dry, warm and safe – these are the key fundamentals of quality housing and people of all ages should have access to a home in which these qualities are not compromised by their personal income. A home that is well insulated, heated, structurally sound and located close to transport nodes should be affordable for all New Zealanders.   Home ownership in New Zealand plays a central role in our national identity. The design research will cater for the younger generation that are most affected by the housing crisis – first home buyers ranging between the ages of 25 and 30,wanting to get their foot on the property ladder and realise the ‘kiwi dream’ of home ownership.   A key issue of New Zealand’s high house prices is the influence of land costs. An intensification strategy to reduce the amount of land per dwelling is one solution to combat house prices. Intensification of New Zealand’s cities should also be targeted at an increase in urban housing along railway corridors, transport hubs and in town centres, improving both housing affordability and transport costs – two main factors of household expenditure. When these two strategies are combined with careful design and space efficient techniques, solutions can be created within a small footprint, without compromising comfort and functionality.   This thesis proposition is tested in Khandallah, one of Wellington’s wealthiest suburbs, with high access to public amenities, transport and services. The suburb already has the infrastructure needed to accommodate intensification. It’s comparatively low density housing holds great opportunity for medium density and infill development. The suburb has a large range of community facilities, schools and open spaces and dwellings are typically of low density with large sites – developed through meandering roads and col-de-sacs of single houses on single sections. With Wellingtons housing needs changing, a greater need for diverse housing throughout all of Wellington’s suburbs is necessary to cater for the growing population. Khandallah has the infrastructure to support intensification and young families should have the option of buying into a suburb of their choice.   The aim of this research is to develop a model for affordable, high quality suburban housing that is responsive to New Zealand’s housing preferences, providing a solution for greater access to desirable housing that occurs through interrelated well designed small homes. This thesis argues that doubling suburban density while retaining site coverage will make housing more affordable. This is tested through planning and spatial design strategies of a range of small homes less than 80m2. These homes will be developed through examining the design of internal spaces; the limits of the small home and relationship with external spaces and the limits of the suburb. The relationship between homes will allow a development of private and common utilities, optimising open space and shared amenities within an intensification strategy for the suburb. The design research produces an argument for clusters of small homes as future housing that will have a positive impact on New Zealand’s housing affordability as ‘starter homes’ and ‘downsize homes’.</p>

scholarly journals Live Large in Small Spaces

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Danae Bloxham
Keyword(s):  
Design Research ◽  
Home Ownership ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
House Prices ◽  
House Price ◽  
Urban Housing ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
Low Density ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Great Opportunity

<p>The ‘kiwi dream’ of home ownership has become less attainable because of increases in housing costs. Unaffordability is linked with the house price to income ratio, especially within urban environments where incomes have fallen to 50% below property prices. This not only affects access to affordable housing, but also access to quality housing. A home should be dry, warm and safe – these are the key fundamentals of quality housing and people of all ages should have access to a home in which these qualities are not compromised by their personal income. A home that is well insulated, heated, structurally sound and located close to transport nodes should be affordable for all New Zealanders.   Home ownership in New Zealand plays a central role in our national identity. The design research will cater for the younger generation that are most affected by the housing crisis – first home buyers ranging between the ages of 25 and 30,wanting to get their foot on the property ladder and realise the ‘kiwi dream’ of home ownership.   A key issue of New Zealand’s high house prices is the influence of land costs. An intensification strategy to reduce the amount of land per dwelling is one solution to combat house prices. Intensification of New Zealand’s cities should also be targeted at an increase in urban housing along railway corridors, transport hubs and in town centres, improving both housing affordability and transport costs – two main factors of household expenditure. When these two strategies are combined with careful design and space efficient techniques, solutions can be created within a small footprint, without compromising comfort and functionality.   This thesis proposition is tested in Khandallah, one of Wellington’s wealthiest suburbs, with high access to public amenities, transport and services. The suburb already has the infrastructure needed to accommodate intensification. It’s comparatively low density housing holds great opportunity for medium density and infill development. The suburb has a large range of community facilities, schools and open spaces and dwellings are typically of low density with large sites – developed through meandering roads and col-de-sacs of single houses on single sections. With Wellingtons housing needs changing, a greater need for diverse housing throughout all of Wellington’s suburbs is necessary to cater for the growing population. Khandallah has the infrastructure to support intensification and young families should have the option of buying into a suburb of their choice.   The aim of this research is to develop a model for affordable, high quality suburban housing that is responsive to New Zealand’s housing preferences, providing a solution for greater access to desirable housing that occurs through interrelated well designed small homes. This thesis argues that doubling suburban density while retaining site coverage will make housing more affordable. This is tested through planning and spatial design strategies of a range of small homes less than 80m2. These homes will be developed through examining the design of internal spaces; the limits of the small home and relationship with external spaces and the limits of the suburb. The relationship between homes will allow a development of private and common utilities, optimising open space and shared amenities within an intensification strategy for the suburb. The design research produces an argument for clusters of small homes as future housing that will have a positive impact on New Zealand’s housing affordability as ‘starter homes’ and ‘downsize homes’.</p>

scholarly journals The role and significance of planning in the determination of house prices in Australia: Recent policy debates

2021 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2198894
Author(s):  
Peter Phibbs ◽  
Nicole Gurran
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Housing Market ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
House Prices ◽  
Housing Prices ◽  
House Price ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Urban Housing ◽  
Price Inflation ◽  
Depth Analysis

On the world stage, Australian cities have been punching above their weight in global indexes of housing prices, sparking heated debates about the causes of and remedies for, sustained house price inflation. This paper examines the evidence base underpinning such debates, and the policy claims made by key commentators and stakeholders. With reference to the wider context of Australia’s housing market over a 20 year period, as well as an in depth analysis of a research paper by Australia’s central Reserve Bank, we show how economic theories commonly position land use planning as a primary driver of new supply constraints but overlook other explanations for housing market behavior. In doing so, we offer an alternative understanding of urban housing markets and land use planning interventions as a basis for more effective policy intervention in Australian and other world cities.

International Real Estate Review

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-220
Author(s):  
Karol Jan Borowiecki ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Real Estate ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
House Prices ◽  
House Price ◽  
Housing Price ◽  
Quality Improvements ◽  
Vector Autoregressive ◽  
Price Growth ◽  
Price Determinants ◽  
A Minor

This paper studies the Swiss housing price determinants. The Swiss housing economy is reproduced by employing a macro- series from the last seventeen years and constructing a vector-autoregressive model. Conditional on a comparatively broad set of fundamental determinants considered, i.e. wealth, banking, demographic and real estate specific variables, the following findings are made: 1) real house price growth and construction activity dynamics are most sensitive to changes in population and construction prices, whereas real GDP, in contrary to common empirical findings in other countries, turns out to have only a minor impact in the short-term, 2) exogenous house price shocks have no long-term impacts on housing supply and vice versa, and 3) despite the recent substantial price increases, worries of overvaluation are unfounded. Furthermore, based on a self-constructed quality index, evidence is provided for a positive impact of quality improvements in supplied dwellings on house prices.

Asymmetric sensitivities of house prices to housing fundamentals: evidence from UK regions

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 442-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huthaifa Alqaralleh
Keyword(s):  
House Prices ◽  
Housing Prices ◽  
House Price ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
Star Model ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Macroeconomic Variables ◽  
North West ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The North

Purpose This paper aims to examine asymmetries in the house price cycle and to understand the dynamic of housing prices, incorporating macroeconomic variables at regional and country level, namely, housing affordability, the unemployment rate, mortgage rate and inflation rate. Design/methodology/approach To highlight significant differences in the asymmetric patterns of house prices between regions, the STAR model is adopted. Findings The authors highlight significant differences in the asymmetric patterns of house prices between regions, in which some areas showed asymmetric response over the housing cycle; here the LSTAR model outperforms other models. In contrast, some regions (the South West and the North West) showed symmetric properties in the tails of the cycle; therefore, the ESTAR model was adopted in their case. Practical implications Being limited to a few fundamentals, this study opens an avenue for further research to investigate this dynamic using in addition such demand-supply factors as land supply, construction cost and loans made for housing. These findings can also be used to examine whether other models such as ARIMA, exponential smoothing or artificial neural networks can more accurately forecast housing prices. Originality/value The present paper aims to highlight housing affordability as a cause of asymmetric behaviour in house prices. Put differently, the authors seek to understand the dynamics of housing prices with other fundamentals incorporating macroeconomic variables in regions and country level data as a means of achieving a more concise result.

Generation Rent

Housing Shock ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 21-44
Author(s):  
Rory Hearne
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Home Ownership ◽  
House Prices ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
Housing System ◽  
Housing Cost ◽  
Rental Sector ◽  
Low Incomes ◽  
Part Time ◽  
At Home

This chapter details how the younger generations and lower-income households are most affected by the housing and homelessness crisis. It shows how huge aspects of their lives have become precarious and insecure, as a result of insecure, low-paid and often part-time jobs, and insecure and unaffordable housing. Generation Rent is the new housing precariat, living with precarious housing, precarious work contracts and an inability to access mortgage credit, alongside unaffordable house prices and rent. It details the structural shift in Ireland’s housing system: decline in home-ownership rates and rise in private rental sector. Generation Rent now extends to the middle-aged and older generations as shown in the increase in the number of people renting in their 40s and 50s. It looks at increasing housing cost overburden rates where young people on low incomes are most severely affected by the issue of housing affordability than young people on higher incomes. Generation Rent also includes Generation Stuck at Home - those forced to live at home with theirparents as they cannot afford to move out into the rental sector, orbecause they have been evicted, unable to meet mortgages, cannot access social housing, or are trying to savefor a deposit.

scholarly journals Housing Affordability Woes and The State Of Developed Underdevelopment In Penang Island

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khoo Suet Leng ◽  
Nor Malina Malek ◽  
Suziana Mat Yasin
Keyword(s):  
Home Ownership ◽  
House Prices ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
Equal Opportunities ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Aesthetic Values ◽  
Development Perspective

Housing affordability is a critical issue in Malaysia. This issue is doubly challenging in states like Penang where its topographical make-up is divided into a mainland and an island. The dwindling stock of land in Penang Island has inevitably pushed up house prices. To compound this problem, a combination of policy and socio-economic changes has collectively hiked up the cost of buying a house on the island. This has hindered equal opportunities towards home ownership. Based on a development perspective, this paper attempts to contextualize current housing woes in Penang Island. This paper argues that Penang Island’s physical urban environment has ‘developed’ in terms of aesthetic values and appreciated in monetary terms but actual development in terms of a person’s ‘capability to function’ and enjoy a better quality of life is not progressing in tandem. A critical state of developed underdevelopment is currently unfolding on the island in terms of housing affordability. The recommendations of this paper will contribute towards shaping pragmatic housing policies.  

scholarly journals International Real Estate Review

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-521
Author(s):  
Le Ma ◽  
◽  
Chunlu Liu ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Heterogeneity ◽  
House Prices ◽  
House Price ◽  
Urban Housing ◽  
Price Convergence ◽  
Capital Cities ◽  
Regression Methods ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Long Run Equilibrium

In order to explore the long-run equilibrium in the house prices of different cities, studies on house price convergence have been conducted by a number of researchers. However, the majority of previous studies have neglected the effects of spatial heterogeneity and autocorrelation on house prices. This research improves on the investigation of house price convergence by developing a spatio-temporal autoregressive model based on a framework of panel regression methods. Both spatial heterogeneity and autocorrelation of house prices in different cities are taken into account. Geographical distance and the scale of development of the urban housing market are used to construct temporal varying spatial measurements. The spatio-temporal model is then applied to investigate the long-run equilibrium in the house prices of Australian capital cities. The results confirm that house prices in Sydney approach a steady state in the long run, whereas house prices in Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and Perth are able to do with lower confidence. However, little evidence supports the existence of long-run equilibrium in the house prices of Adelaide, Darwin and Hobart.

scholarly journals Why House Prices Increase in the COVID-19 Recession: A Five-Country Empirical Study on the Real Interest Rate Hypothesis

Urban Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
Chung Yim Yiu
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Interest Rate ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Real Interest Rate ◽  
House Prices ◽  
House Price ◽  
The United States ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
The Real

There are substantial rebounds in house prices in many developed economies after the outbreak of COVID-19. It provides a special opportunity to test the real interest rate hypothesis empirically as a “synchronized” price rebound implies a common cause of house price hikes across the economies. This study conducts a panel regression analysis on five economies, namely Australia, Canada, European Union, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, to test the hypothesis. The data range from 2017Q1 to 2021Q1. The results confirm that the real interest rate imposes a negative and significant effect on house price growth rate after controlling for economic growth factors, unemployment factors, and cross-country fixed effects. The empirical result of the five housing markets shows that a 1% fall in the real interest rate caused a 1.5% increase in house prices, ceteris paribus, in this period. It also provides casual evidence refuting the economic growth hypothesis and the migrant hypothesis in New Zealand. The results provide far-reaching practical implications on housing policy and on the ways forward to solve housing affordability problems.

Causal effects of immigration inflows on house prices in a traditionally non-destination country

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Woei Chyuan Wong ◽  
Jan-Jan Soon
Keyword(s):  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
House Prices ◽  
Housing Prices ◽  
House Price ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Annual Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Variable Approach ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the causal impact of international immigration inflows on housing prices at the state level in Malaysia from 2007 to 2018. Design/methodology/approach Hedonic regressions using both fixed effects and first difference approaches are used to estimate the impact of immigration inflows on house prices in Malaysia. This study deals with potential endogeneity of immigrants’ choices of destination states in Malaysia by using a shift-share instrument variable approach. Specifically, historical shares of immigrants in a state are used to predict current immigrant inflows to a particular state. The predicted value of immigration flows is then inserted into the house price regression models in place of the actual immigration flows. Findings Using annual data for 14 states from 2007 to 2018, this study documents the positive impact of immigration inflows on house prices in Malaysia. The authors find that a 1% increase in immigration inflows is associated with an increase of 10.2% (first difference) and 13.4% (fixed effects) in house prices. The economic impact is larger in magnitude than that found in developed countries. Contrary to existing studies that find immigration inflows to be associated with native flight, the authors find support for the attraction effects hypothesis, where immigration inflow is positive and significantly related to net native flows. Research limitations/implications The effects of immigration inflows are economically significant, considering that the effects are 10 times larger than those documented in the USA. Policymakers in Malaysia ought to monitor house price trends in immigrant-popular states to ensure that natives are not priced out by new immigrants. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is perhaps the first study to focus on the relationship between immigration inflows and house prices in Malaysia. Focusing on Malaysia has at least two originality aspects. First, Malaysia is relatively not an immigrant-popular destination. Second, Malaysia has a multiracial and heterogenous society among its natives. The findings, obtained within these two settings, would therefore provide a wider scope of result generalization, and natural experiment grounds for causal implications of our results.

scholarly journals Housing cycles in the UK: a historical and empirical investigation

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charalambos Pitros ◽  
Yusuf Arayici
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
House Prices ◽  
House Price ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Duration Magnitude ◽  
Empirical Perspective ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Uk

Purpose The study looks at the characteristics of upswings and downswings for UK housing cycles. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to empirically analyse cycles in house prices and housing affordability on the characteristics of persistence, magnitude and severity. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws upon the triangular methodology of cycles and utilises housing data from the last three decades. Findings From an empirical perspective, the study obtained four main results. First, the graphical trajectory of cycles in house price and housing affordability is highly synchronized. Second, upturns in both cycles tend to be longer than downturns on average. Third, the recent upturn in house prices and housing affordability is characterised by larger duration, magnitude and severity than the earlier case. Fourth, the latest downturn in both cycles is highly synchronised in terms of time occurrence, persistence, magnitude and severity; in addition, in both cases, the latest downturn is considerably smaller than the previous one. The study additionally indicates that on average the length of a complete house price and housing affordability cycle is 19 years on a peak-to-peak basis. Research limitations/implications This paper is essentially exploratory and raises a number of questions for further investigation. Future research should, first, arrive at a more nuanced definition of affordability and, second, examine causality. The fact that two phenomena appear to have some significant synchronicity is not an indication that they are interdependent, although logic would suggest they might be. Originality/value This is among the few papers that analyses cycles in UK house prices. It is the first study that draws attention to the housing affordability cycle and the first to compare cycles in house prices with cycles in housing affordability.

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