Explainer: Do taxes on property cause high house prices? No.

Housing industry lobbyists in Australia and abroad often claim that property-related taxes comprise a large and growing share of the price of new housing and are hence pushing up the market price of new and existing dwellings. Land taxes, stamp duties on property transactions, GST on value-added investments, and other fees and charges are generally included in this analysis, as are many inferred price effects that are assumed to be due to regulations.This note explains four reasons why the claims of this tax summation approach are not valid.1.Many of the included costs are not taxes on new housing.2.Adding indirect taxes double counts.3.Assumed price effects are implausible.4.Taxes on property assets reduce market prices, not add to them.

A DYNAMIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONSUMER CONFIDENCE AND RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY PRICE: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FOR MALAYSIA

In recent years, the real estate market has become a major interest for economists and researchers. In general, property prices are influenced by the supply and demand of the real estate market. In addition to the individual's positive expectation of the real estate market would raise the demand for housing and hence, house price indexes would increase. This study provides new knowledge on how consumer confidence in the housing industry affects residential property prices in Malaysia. Previous studies on the effect of consumer perception towards residential property in Malaysia are scarce. Therefore, the objective of this study is to determine how consumer confidence affect residential property price in Malaysia. Our study differs by focusing on the effect of consumer confidence on the housing industry and macroeconomic drivers toward residential property prices in Malaysia over the period 2004:Q1 to 2018:Q4. By using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) test, the empirical results have shown the presence of long-run adjustment and indicate that consumer confidence towards the housing industry and many macroeconomic variables significantly affect residential property prices. From this finding, we have suggested that government and policymakers should be able to understand consumer confidence in the housing industry to increase consumer satisfaction and to improve consumer sentiment towards the residential property market in Malaysia.

Integrating lean production strategies, virtual reality technique and building information modeling method for mass customization in cabinet manufacturing

PurposeIn response to increasing demand for a fully customized and individualized home environment, mass customization (MC) has been suggested as an effective strategy to fulfill the customer’s customization needs while keeping production cost-effectiveness. However, in current practice, the implementation of the MC in the industrialized housing industry has not achieved an ideal level. Little effort was devoted to customer value generation and achieving lean production in a multi-disciplinary MC environment. In this concern, a highly efficient and flexible production information system is expected to capture accurately the customer’s demand and efficiently perform work planning for encouraging customer involvement and mass efficiency production.Design/methodology/approachTo gain an insight into the development of the MC production information system for the housing industry and to depict the interaction among system modules, this study used a design science research methodology for a case study of customized cabinet production information system development.FindingsA prototype of the production information system was proposed in this paper, supported by three information technologies to facilitate the MC implementation in the millwork manufacturer. A focus group discussion method was carried out for evaluating the system feasibility and the subsequent survey analysis on the virtual reality (VR) interface experiment. The evaluation process results showed that the VR interface is an effective medium for design information communication and encourages customer involvement. Most participants believed that the proposed production information system could generally benefit the MC implementation and improve production efficiency.Originality/valueThis study integrated lean production principles along with building information modelling, VR and discrete-event simulation in the production information system to assist the manufacturer in effectively handling variant product information and enabling quicker reactions in response to diverse customer requirements in housing industries. The coordination among system modules and the managed information flow could be a valuable reference for future MC production system development in housing industries.

Nachhaltige Landnutzung mit Agri-Photovoltaik: Photovoltaikausbau im Einklang mit der Lebensmittelproduktion: Szenarioanalyse zur Inanspruchnahme landwirtschaftlicher Nutzflächen durch Photovoltaik in Deutschland bis 2050

Ohne massiven Ausbau der Photovoltaik lassen sich die Klimaziele nicht erreichen. Dafür werden auch Anlagen auf Landwirtschaftsflächen nötig sein. Wie viel Agrarfläche braucht es für den erforderlichen Photovoltaikausbau in Deutschland, welche Auswirkung hätte er auf den Agrarflächenbestand? Entscheidend, auch für das Erreichen der Flächenkreislaufwirtschaft, ist, ob dieser Ausbau mittels Agri-Photovoltaik oder mittels Freiflächenanlagen erfolgt.Germany’s Sustainable Development Strategy sets the goals to reduce “land take” for housing, industry, roads or recreational purposes to 30 hectares per day by 2030 and to “no net land take” by 2050 (“circular economy for land and soils”). Simultaneously Germany plans to increase the share of ground-mounted photovoltaics (PV-GM). Yet, PV-GM accounts to industry land take and thus the two targets are contradictory. The expected area of arable land taken for PV-GM till 2050 is simulated. For a second simulation, PV-GM diffusion is partially substituted by agrivoltaics. Finally, the arable land demand in both scenarios is compared and evaluated according to the German policy goals. Agri-PV dissemination, when replacing PV-GM, could preserve approximately 60,000 hectares of arable land and thus reduce land take increase significantly. Political recommendations for sustainable land management and Agri-PV implementation finalize the article.

Prefabricated Housing and LEED

Prefabricated house could be a sustainable way to provide residences for Canadians. This research project is intended to assess prefabrication in terms of its compliances and potential links to LEED for Home by a commentary approach on each selected components of LEED. To achieve this goal, an in-depth analysis of the current situation of the prefabricated housing industry in Canada was carried out to come up with the appropriate results for this paper. Also a relevancy assessment has been carried out to identify potential LEED credits that can be directly or indirectly relevant to prefabricated homes. Furthermore, LEED credits have been examined to show to which degree prefabricated homes can facilitate achieving LEED points. EcoTerra house has been selected to be LEED rated to assess the role of prefabrication in achieving LEED points. As results some recommendations are given to be considered followed by limitations and suggestions for future researchers.

Prefabricated Housing and LEED

Prefabricated house could be a sustainable way to provide residences for Canadians. This research project is intended to assess prefabrication in terms of its compliances and potential links to LEED for Home by a commentary approach on each selected components of LEED. To achieve this goal, an in-depth analysis of the current situation of the prefabricated housing industry in Canada was carried out to come up with the appropriate results for this paper. Also a relevancy assessment has been carried out to identify potential LEED credits that can be directly or indirectly relevant to prefabricated homes. Furthermore, LEED credits have been examined to show to which degree prefabricated homes can facilitate achieving LEED points. EcoTerra house has been selected to be LEED rated to assess the role of prefabrication in achieving LEED points. As results some recommendations are given to be considered followed by limitations and suggestions for future researchers.

Productivity in the US Housing Industry: Total Factor and Public Firms

Productivity is widely recognized as one of the main contributors to increased economic and societal wellbeing. Unfortunately, productivity has been extremely difficult to operationalize in a repeatable context in the construction sector. The result is a lack of consensus on the basic question of whether there has been improvement or decline in the productivity of the sector. This study focuses on productivity in the housing industry. Productivity is especially important in this industry, as in addition to providing shelter, the housing market is the primary source of wealth accumulation in the US. An individual’s ability to enter this market will be a function of affordability which will be effected by the productivity of the industry. The combination of academic and societal impacts suggests that there is a need to address a fundamental question: what is the status of productivity in the housing industry. In order to address this question a data base was compiled from the 10-Ks of the largest, long lived, US companies in the single family housing industry. The result is a panel data set that consists of information on 11 firms over a 15-year period. These 11 firms were responsible for approximately 25% of all new home sales in any given year. The data set was analysed with random effects GLS time series regression. The results indicate that, at best, the housing industry has seen negligible total productivity growth.

The Goal of Housing for All As Envisaged By the UN Habitat Agenda: A Case Study of Cooperative Housing Societies in Pakistan

Pakistan is member of UN Habitat agenda under which housing for all is the goal of all member states. In pursuance of this goal housing has been acknowledged under the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973 in the chapter of principles of policy. It is beyond of financial resources of the Government of Pakistan to provide housing units to all the citizens of Pakistan. To achieve the goal of housing for all, private sector has been encouraged to provide housing units to the people of Pakistan. But, due to a weak Legal Framework to regulate the activities of the developers of the housing industry, there are malpractices and frauds in the housing industry of Pakistan which are committed by the management of the cooperative housing societies. This article deals with the major problems faced by the cooperative housing societies along with the recommendations to strengthen the Legal Framework relating to cooperative housing societies. Secondary data has been used to make critical analysis of the regulatory regime of cooperative housing societies. The aims and purposes of this article includes to provide input the legislature as well as regulatory authorities to amend and strengthen the Legal Framework relating to cooperative housing societies in Pakistan.