Urban Planning And The Housing Market

This book re-examines the role of urban policy and planning in relation to the housing market in an era of global uncertainty and change. The relationship between planning and the housing market is a contested problem across research, policy, and practice. Problems with housing supply and affordability in many nations have been linked to planning system constraints, while the global financial crisis has raised new questions about the role of urban planning regulation and processes in responding to housing market trends. With reference to international cases from the United Kingdom, the United States, Ireland, Hong Kong and Australia, the book examines how different systems of urban planning and governance address complex and dynamic housing market trends. It also offers practical guidance on how urban planning can support an efficient supply of appropriate and affordable homes in preferred locations. A detailed study, which explains and decodes the workings of the planning system and housing market, this book will be of particular interest to scholars of human geography and urban planning, as well as housing policy makers and practitioners. To view Nicole Gurran’s related TEDx talk please visit: Housing Crisis? How about housing solutions. TEDx Sydney 2018 (http://bit.ly/2psfpMw)

This book is devoted to fill the ‘urban economics niche’ and conceptualize a framework for valuing the urban configuration via local housing market. Advanced network analysis techniques are employed to capture the centrality features hindered in street layout. The author explores the several effects of urban morphology via housing market over two distinct contexts: UK and China. This work will appeal to a wide readership from scholars and practitioner to policy makers within the fields of real estate analysis, urban and regional studies, urban planning, urban design and economic geography.

This open access book discusses booming housing markets in cities around the globe, and the resulting challenges for policymakers and central banks. Cities are booming everywhere, leading to a growing demand for urban housing. In many cities this demand is out-pacing supply, which causes house prices to soar and increases the pressure on rental markets. These developments are posing major challenges for policymakers, central banks and other authorities responsible for ensuring financial stability, and economic well-being in general.This volume collects views from high-level policymakers and researchers, providing essential insights into these challenges, their impact on society, the economy and financial stability, and possible policy responses. The respective chapters address issues such as the popularity of cities, the question of a credit-fueled housing bubble, the role of housing supply frictions and potential policy solutions. Given its scope, the book offers a revealing read and valuable guide for everyone involved in practical policymaking for housing markets, mortgage credit and financial stability.

Australia’s Unintended Cities identifies and researches housing and housing-related urban outcomes that are unintended consequences of other policies, the structure of incentives and disincentives for the housing market, and governance arrangements for metropolitan areas and planning and service delivery. It is argued that unintended consequences have a greater impact on the housing market and Australia’s cities and their future than policies directly concerned with housing, urban policy and metropolitan strategic planning. The book will inform policy makers, including government officials, consultants and politicians. It will also be used by academics and students in various areas of urban policy, such as housing and urban planning, as well as environment, public policy and economics.

An argument that operational urban planning can be improved by the application of the tools of urban economics to the design of regulations and infrastructure. Urban planning is a craft learned through practice. Planners make rapid decisions that have an immediate impact on the ground—the width of streets, the minimum size of land parcels, the heights of buildings. The language they use to describe their objectives is qualitative—“sustainable,” “livable,” “resilient”—often with no link to measurable outcomes. Urban economics, on the other hand, is a quantitative science, based on theories, models, and empirical evidence largely developed in academic settings. In this book, the eminent urban planner Alain Bertaud argues that applying the theories of urban economics to the practice of urban planning would greatly improve both the productivity of cities and the welfare of urban citizens. Bertaud explains that markets provide the indispensable mechanism for cities' development. He cites the experience of cities without markets for land or labor in pre-reform China and Russia; this “urban planners' dream” created inefficiencies and waste. Drawing on five decades of urban planning experience in forty cities around the world, Bertaud links cities' productivity to the size of their labor markets; argues that the design of infrastructure and markets can complement each other; examines the spatial distribution of land prices and densities; stresses the importance of mobility and affordability; and critiques the land use regulations in a number of cities that aim at redesigning existing cities instead of just trying to alleviate clear negative externalities. Bertaud concludes by describing the new role that joint teams of urban planners and economists could play to improve the way cities are managed.

The aim of this book is to bring methods of land-market and land-price analysis to the foreground. It relates substantive research findings for land and urban development and blends these with a focus on research design and methodology. Its findings have relevance beyond the topics of housing and land: it broaches the whole question of how research design and general approach may lead to fundamentally different findings, different priorities, and different policy prescriptions and preoccupations. It is based on work done in the Third World, but is also relevant to studies of the industrialized world.

Housing systems in many countries are now more market-oriented than ever before. This is particularly true of the UK, where there is heightened interest in the ability of the market to deliver new housing, as well as considerable debate among housing academics and policy makers over the extent to which policy instruments can be used to steer market processes. This increased market orientation means a greater understanding of market economics is needed. The challenges of providing affordable housing, while simultaneously addressing the problems of low demand housing in some areas, together with the revitalisation of neighbourhoods in need of renewal, also underline the need for a better understanding of the structure and operation of housing markets at local and neighbourhood level. This timely contribution to the field addresses the main housing and planning policy challenges in the UK today. It does so by examining the structure and operation of the urban housing system and then exploring both conceptual and empirical analyses of the workings of the market. The authors then consider the lessons for policy makers, discussing the limitations of the policy framework and considering the strategies for integrating market information into the analysis undertaken in practice. Housing Markets & Planning Policy is an invaluable advanced text for students of land economy, land management, urban planning, housing and urban studies. The authors provide a uniquely detailed analysis of an important policy area that builds on a strong theoretical basis drawn from housing economics. With the challenges posed by the instability of the housing market, it will be of particular interest to academic researchers, policy-makers and housing and planning practitioners.

Urban sustainability has become a political and social agenda of global significance, of which real estate is an integral dimension. Sustainable urban development includes much more than ‘green building’ standards, yet in practice, other aspects such land use plans and locations are often overlooked. This book demonstrates that the issue of sustainable development stretches far beyond the hitherto dominating agenda based on ‘green’ (i.e. environmentally and ecologically sustainable) buildings. In doing so, it presents a novel framework based on the concept of economic sustainability of real estate locations, drawing connections with the global financial crisis and housing price bubble discourse. It argues for the need to better integrate social, cultural and economic dimensions into the real estate sustainability agenda. It also explores the role of location, and especially the image aspect therein. Trends in consumer choice are important to the way these dimensions are appreciated in decisions about investment, development, valuation and other activities of the production, consumption and governance of the built environment. This book will be of interest to private and public sector practitioners of real estate valuation as well as scholars of urban studies, geography, economics, urban planning and environmental studies.