Increasing Housing Affordability Research Articles

Повышение уровня доступности жилья на примере субъекта Российской Федерации

The study addresses the issue of reducing the level of housing affordability for citizens in recent years. The results of calculating the housing affordability index (LDI) are analyzed. The emphasis is placed on the need to develop a segment of low-rise real estate in conjunction with the program proposed by the author for the gratuitous provision of land plots for targeted individual housing development (CIHS). The level of accessibility of housing and communal services in the Leningrad region has been calculated, as well as the necessary land bank required for the implementation of the proposed preferential program to increase housing affordability for citizens.

Making housing affordable? The local effects of relaxing land-use regulation

This paper examines the effects of relaxing land-use regulations on housing supply and rents at the local intra-city level. We apply a staggered difference-in-difference model, exploiting exogenous differences in the treatment timing of zoning plan reforms as identifying variation. Increasing the allowable floor-to-area ratio (FAR), i.e., upzoning, significantly increases the living space and housing units by approximately 9% in the subsequent five to ten years. This effect is stronger for larger upzonings, for rasters where zoning is binding, and where rents are high. Furthermore, upzoning leads to no difference in hedonic rents between upzoned and later-upzoned rasters. These results show that upzoning is a viable policy for increasing housing affordability. However, the effects depend on the upzoning policy design and take several years to materialize.

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE ON THE TRANSITION TO ECO-FRIENDLY SINGLE-FAMILY HOMES

As the global climate continues to change, countries across the world face a critical challenge in balancing sustainable construction, lowering construction costs, and increasing housing affordability and the United States is no exception. Since the U.S. building sector is a major contributor to CO2 and other greenhouse gases emissions, it necessitates the adoption of eco-friendly construction practices, which may increase construction costs. On the other hand, with the persistent yet increasing demand for affordable housing, it is imperative to navigate these concurrent issues efficiently. The challenges of climate-friendly buildings, affordable construction, and housing costs come together in a complex way. Ensuring that housing is both environmentally friendly and affordable for everyone, a deep understanding and innovative ideas are essential. The overarching goal of this study is two-fold. First, it aims to understand how the building industry in the state of Massachusetts, U.S. is addressing the transition to building more eco-friendly single-family homes. Second, it looks at the construction costs associated with building these energy-efficient homes by obtaining real estimates from subcontractors. Through these steps, this study offers a clear picture of the challenges and opportunities in an effort to provide housing that is both energy-efficient and affordable.

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE ON THE TRANSITION TO ECO-FRIENDLY SINGLE-FAMILY HOMES

As the global climate continues to change, countries across the world face a critical challenge in balancing sustainable construction, lowering construction costs, and increasing housing affordability and the United States is no exception. Since the U.S. building sector is a major contributor to CO2 and other greenhouse gases emissions, it necessitates the adoption of eco-friendly construction practices, which may increase construction costs. On the other hand, with the persistent yet increasing demand for affordable housing, it is imperative to navigate these concurrent issues efficiently. The challenges of climate-friendly buildings, affordable construction, and housing costs come together in a complex way. Ensuring that housing is both environmentally friendly and affordable for everyone, a deep understanding and innovative ideas are essential. The overarching goal of this study is two-fold. First, it aims to understand how the building industry in the state of Massachusetts, U.S. is addressing the transition to building more eco-friendly single-family homes. Second, it looks at the construction costs associated with building these energy-efficient homes by obtaining real estimates from subcontractors. Through these steps, this study offers a clear picture of the challenges and opportunities in an effort to provide housing that is both energy-efficient and affordable.

Building Sustainable Social Housing System: A Singapore Case from New Institutionalism Economics Approach

Policymakers worldwide currently face challenges in planning, regulating, and managing the housing market. One of the primary solutions is the provision of affordable social housing fostering economic development, culture integration, technology empowerment, and social stability. Singapore is recognized as a successful model of well-balanced centralized legislation and market-augmented governance. However, current studies have mainly focused on urban planning and real estate finance fields. A holistic approach should be conducted to understand the effectiveness of the whole framework and policy conduit including affordability, inclusiveness, and connectivity. This study emphasizes the importance of the Housing and Development Board (HDB) governance and analyzes what policies make social housing schemes robust and sustainable by combining the Singapore case with the New Institutionalism Economics (NIE) approach. HDB decreases transaction costs by centralized planning and establishes a transparent system to increase housing affordability and ownership. Inclusiveness is achieved by inter-departmental joint force so that social capital can be maximized for diverse community cohesion. Socio-technical change and institutional evolution have mutual effects on each other for efficiency and connectivity. Digital innovations make sustainable communities and smart cities. As a result, this study proposes a practical framework for learning from Singapore's implications for national governance, institutional development, and policy formulation that holds universal reference value.

Practice and Capabilities of Program Housing Policy Implementation in Ukraine

The need for the growth of housing construction is considered through the prism of increasing the affordability of housing for citizens, which is determined, in particular, by the development of preferential housing financing programs. Availability of housing is a primary socioeconomic task in the difficult conditions of martial law. State and local programs make it possible to purchase housing, creating additional demand for it on the part of the population of different income levels. The aim of the article is to systematize preferential programs within the state housing policy and analyze the capacity of the most significant mechanisms for their implementation, and to identify organizational forms of increasing housing affordability by applying a programmatic approach. The study was carried out on the basis of general scientific methods: generalization, analysis and systematization. To present the results of the study, statistical methods are used: groupings, comparisons, tables. The novelty of the study is in author s’ position on the issue and basic methods of application and implementation of the program approach to increase housing affordability for the population, in particular, an effective tool for attracting funds for the local investment projects – bonds of local development funds. The article systematizes the main goals, objectives, basic principles of preferential programs; the effectiveness of the most significant mechanisms for their implementation was studied, with the determination of urgent organizational forms of application of the program approach from the point of view of the availability of housing for the population. The banks’ participation in financing the construction of housing and other infrastructure facilities in the role of escrow agents that protect and defend the interests of future property owners was proposed. The importance of ensuring the availability of mortgage insurance in conditions of high war risks was indicated. In order to improve the situation with condominium lending, it would be important to strengthen the role of budget sources as a basic element of assistance, in order to encourage lower-level bud gets to increase their contribution to programs for providing housing to the population.

Approaches to assessing and increasing housing affordability in Russia

Improving the quality of life is one of the priority tasks of Russia’s social-economic development, which requires solving the housing problem, since housing is one of the basic human needs. Based on the generalization of various approaches to ensuring housing affordability, the article shows that, in addition to the study of social-political and economic aspects, a kind of sociology of housing develops. Based on the results of sociological surveys, the authors identify the preferences of different groups (parents with children and youth) in housing. Thus, 70 % of Russians are ready to use mortgage lending to solve the housing problem. There is a paradox: on the one hand, 66 % of multi-apartment houses cannot be sold; on the other hand, there is a low level of housing supply (lower than in Eastern Europe and some CIS countries) and a high level of dilapidated housing stock and communal infrastructure. Previously, housing conditions were improved mainly at the expense of the state, now the purchase or construction of housing is ensured mainly by the population’s savings and borrowed funds, primarily mortgage lending. However, despite the growth in the volume of mortgages and their improved conditions, the housing affordability coefficient for 2000-2022 indicates a deterioration in housing possibilities. This is explained, first, by the low level of incomes and their significant differentiation - only a small share of Russians can take advantage of mortgage lending; second, housing prices grow much faster than incomes and wages. In addition, the low quality of new housing and social infrastructure, a high share of dilapidated housing and of families in need of relocation, and a number of other factors must be taken into account when implementing housing policy and solving the housing problem. The empirical basis of the article is the data of the Federal State Statistics Service, Bank of Russia, National Bureau of Credit Histories and Accounts Chamber.

Methods and tools for improving the efficiency of the financial mechanism for solving housing problems in the subjects of the Siberian Federal District

The article deals with the issues of housing affordability for citizens of the Siberian Federal District, the implementation of existing mortgage and non-mortgage programs on its territory, the rating of the subjects of the Russian Federation on housing affordability is assessed; the results of calculations of housing affordability index according to the methodology of the Ministry of Construction and Housing and Communal Services of the Russian Federation (Ministry of Construction of Russia) are analyzed, the problems of insufficient measures by states to increase housing affordability.

The heterogeneous impacts of widespread upzoning: Lessons from Auckland, New Zealand

Zoning reform is increasingly recognised as an important strategy to increase housing affordability and environmental sustainability. Few cities have undertaken significant upzoning of low-density neighbourhoods, making the 2016 Auckland Unitary Plan (AUP) probably the most ambitious zoning reform in the world. Parcels zoned for single houses previously dominated Auckland, but three-quarters of them now allow multiple units. Existing studies have documented the building boom that followed this zoning reform, yet the relatively rare case offers additional insights. In this article, we use appraisal, census and zoning data on over 200,000 parcels in Auckland to answer three research questions about the heterogeneous impacts of the AUP. First, to what extent did upzoning increase the appraised value of properties’ redevelopment options? Second, did upzoning increase appraised property values to a greater degree in higher-income and more centrally located neighbourhoods? Finally, was zoning reform in Auckland significantly influenced by similar political pressures as in other countries? That is, was upzoning less likely (and downzoning more likely) in higher-income neighbourhoods? The answers to these three questions are substantially, it’s complicated, and yes.

DO INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS AND FINANCIAL BURDEN CONTRIBUTE TO HEALTH PROBLEMS? EVIDENCE FROM MALAYSIA

The rise in the cost of living is the leading cause of stress. Therefore, it is essential to investigate the impact of financial burdens on health. However, to date, limited studies have examined the relationship between financial burden and cardiovascular disease risk factors, the leading cause of death in the world, including Malaysia. Hence, this study examined the determinants of coronary heart disease (CHD). The study administered a questionnaire on CHD patients in Selangor, the most populated State in Malaysia. A total of 300 valid responses were obtained and analysed using multiple regression analysis. The results showed that accommodation cost, salary, smoking habit, age, residential area, marital status and education level are associated with CHD. Nevertheless, the study did not find support for the relationship between education expenses and employment status on CHD. Based on the results, this study recommends that the government and housing developers increase housing affordability, particularly for low- and middle-income earners. Besides, everyone should enjoy a high quality of life regardless of job type or salary. Health awareness, particularly CHD risk, should be promoted regularly in all communication media to target a wider group, particularly the elderly.

Why Did the “Missing Middle” Miss the Train? An Actors-In-Systems Exploration of Barriers to Intensified Family Housing in Waterloo Region, Canada

(1) Background: Missing Middle (MM) housing may be critical to address decreasing housing affordability and to achieve critical density in transit-oriented neighborhoods; however, its production is in decline. We report on a case study of housing development around a new light-rail transit line in the Region of Waterloo, Canada, investigating the puzzle of how a residential building boom coincided with decreasing housing affordability. (2) Methods: Following participatory co-creation and communication of background research characterizing housing demand with stakeholder partners, we created a data narrative arguing that MM housing was desired by residents and profitable for developers and then used it to guide semi-structured interviews with planners and real estate industry stakeholders. Based on these interviews, we developed a qualitative system map and causal loop diagrams that demonstrate interactions between key actors (residents, brokers, planners, developers, and investors) as mediated by boundedly rational real estate demand expectations. (3) Results: Our interviews identify multi-faceted barriers, beyond demand perception, to MM housing development. Systems analysis illustrates how high-density, small-unit high-rise development can become locked in, concurrently locking out MM housing. (4) Conclusions: Our research identifies barriers to MM housing supply by articulating the systemic feedbacks between the planning and land/housing market realms and reveals key leverage points, empowering planners to develop policies that catalyze hoped-for housing market supply responses to increase housing affordability. Based on these findings, we suggest targeted interventions: multi-unit base residential zoning, MM site plan typologies, non-profit and co-op financing, unit-mix requirements, pre-build MM condo purchase by municipalities or non-profits, and MM demonstration projects.

Housing Affordability and Economic Growth

The U.S. has a chronic shortage of reasonably-priced housing. Decades of policy and program intervention at federal, state, and local levels has not substantively alleviated this problem. Consequently, alarmingly high proportions of the population spend over 30% of their income on housing costs and are deemed housing cost-burdened. Housing cost-burdened households have a much lower quality of life than those that are not. Thus, the housing affordability problem is a serious social concern. Is this problem also holding back the U.S. economy? I explore whether the lack of reasonably-priced housing adversely impacted per capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the 100 most populous metro areas of the country. I use publicly available data for three time points (2000, 2010, and 2015) and changes in the proportion of cost-burdened households in metros as the experimental variable. I find that decreases in housing affordability had a statistically significant negative effect on economic growth in these metros. Over 80% of the national GDP is generated in U.S. metros, and increasing housing affordability there may help grow the U.S. economy. Therefore, policies to increase housing affordability, long seen as a social imperative, may well be an economic imperative also.

Eviction, intimate partner violence and HIV: Expanding concepts and assessing the pathways through which sexual partnership dynamics impact health

Over 2 million renters in the United States are legally evicted annually, and even more renters experience other landlord-related forced moves each year. While past research has documented an association between legal eviction and HIV risk, no studies have examined the relationship between forced moves and sexual partnership dynamics longitudinally, or the pathways through which forced moves impact such risk. Addressing this gap is imperative, particularly given inequities that place Black renters and women at disproportionate risk of eviction.This study leverages data from a longitudinal cohort study of 282 adults in New Haven to examine whether landlord-related forced moves reported at baseline (including, but not limited to, legal eviction) is associated with HIV sexual risk reported six months later. We use bootstrapped path analyses to examine intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization and perpetration as potential mediators.One-fifth of participants (21.2%) had experienced a landlord-related forced move at baseline. At follow up, nearly two-thirds (63.8%) reported at least one HIV sexual risk factor, one in seven (14.2%) reported IPV victimization, and one in ten (10.3%) reported IPV perpetration. Individuals who reported landlord-related forced moves were more likely to report IPV victimization (standardized β = 0.19, SE = 0.08, p = .02) and IPV perpetration (β = 0.25, SE = 0.09, p = .003). Both IPV victimization and perpetration mediated the association between landlord-related forced moves and HIV sexual risk (indirect victimization effect, β = 0.09, SE = 0.05, p = .06; indirect perpetration effect, β = 0.16, SE = 0.07, p = .02), though IPV victimization was only marginally significant.In conclusion, IPV is itself a negative consequence of forced moves that also contributes to other negative health effects, like HIV risk. Therefore, providers should offer violence screening and referral for clients who have recently faced a forced move. Simultaneously, policy-level solutions to prevent eviction and increase housing affordability are urgently needed to address the rising burden – and inequitable distribution – of evictions among low-income renters.

How to Increase Housing Affordability? Understanding Local Deterrents to Building Multifamily Housing

How to Increase Housing Affordability? Understanding Local Deterrents to Building Multifamily Housing

Experimental Investigation on Effect of Partial Replacement of Cement with Bamboo Leaf Ash on Concrete Property

Ethiopia’s construction industry is aggressively expanding than ever before. Cement is the most essential and expensive material in this regard. Cement takes 10%–15% by volume of concrete. Nowadays, the construction industry is challenged by the scarcity of cement and price escalation of the cement market. However, scholars try to replace cement with pozzolanic material. Besides this, they investigated that bamboo leaf ash possesses pozzolanic properties. Ethiopia has about 850,000 hectares of lowland bamboo, so it is good to utilize bamboo leaf ash as a replacement material for cement. In this study, the capability of lowland Ethiopian bamboo leaf ash as a partial substitute for cement in C-25 concrete production with 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% replacement of OPC by BLA with 0.49 percent water-to-cement ratio was investigated. This study examines the chemical properties of BLA, physical properties of cement paste, workability, compressive strength, water absorption, density, and sulfate attack of concrete. The chemical composition of bamboo leaf ash was examined, the summation of SiO2, AlO3, and FeO3 is 76.35%, and the ash was classified class N pozzolan. The normal consistency percentage of water increases as the BLA replacement amount increases, and both initial and final setting time ranges increase as the BLA replacement amount increases. The compressive strength of concrete for 5% and 10% BLA achieves the target mean strength (33.5 MPa) on the 28th day, and on the 56th day, 5% and 10% replacements increase the concrete strength by 1.84% and 0.12%, respectively. The water absorption and sulfate attack have significant improvement of the BLA-blended concrete on 5% and 10% BLA content. According to the findings, bamboo leaf ash potentially substitutes cement up to 10%. The outcome of the study will balance the cement price escalation and increase housing affordability without compromise in quality.

Recent Relocation Patterns Among Older Adults in the United States

Problem, research strategy, and findings Residential relocation is a way for older adults to cope with income changes, health changes, and other life cycle events such as the loss of a partner. The number of movers aged 60 and older increased by 1.4 million from 2010 to 2019 in the United States. Therefore, it is timely to examine older adults’ recent relocation patterns. Using multiple national-level data sources, we asked two questions: First, who are movers among older adults, and why are they moving? Second, what are their destination regions and neighborhoods? Results show that movers tend to be renters, those with lower incomes, those with higher housing cost burdens, and those who live alone. Although older adults’ primary reason for relocation is to live closer to their families, baby boomers younger than 70 have more heterogeneous moving reasons than older cohorts. We classify older adult movers into three types: aging adapters (56.9% of movers), suburb lovers (37.5% of movers), and long-distance movers (5.6% of movers). Takeaway for practice Our findings suggest short- and long-term strategies for planners to help older adults meet their heterogeneous residential needs. Practitioners should take steps to increase housing affordability for older adults, such as through changes in land use controls, by creating more age-restricted and age-inclusive communities to accommodate the diverse needs of movers among older adults, and by promoting age-friendly ride-hailing and public transit systems.

Self-Build and Custom Housebuilding Registers in England: A Transaction-Cost and Effectiveness Analysis

The development of the self and custom housebuilding sector can work towards increasing the supply of housing and alleviate some of the strain on the housing market in England. Although it is not a solution for everyone, improving self and custom housebuilding can add diversity to the market, increase housing affordability, and produce sustainable homes. This has been recognised by the UK Government, which has introduced legislation which aims to assist self and custom builders on the journey to building their own home. The goals of the legislation are to ensure every local authority in England keeps a register of individuals who want to build their own home, to consider this register when carrying out other planning functions, and to grant sufficient planning permissions for those on the register. This paper evaluates the ‘self-build and custom housebuilding registers’ from the perspective of transaction costs and perceived effectiveness. This is achieved through semi-structured interviews with local authority planners, private-sector planners, property developers, and national bodies. The findings of this study identify that the primary transaction costs occur in the eligibility tests stage of the register application and relate to the uncertainty felt by applicants post application. The paper concludes that these could be rectified by implementing a more consistent and fair system. The perceived effectiveness of the register varies considerably. The paper determines that the policy requires significant change in order to meet the goals it set out to achieve, which includes model Supplementary Planning Guidance documents and a robust support system for applicants.

MORTGAGE LENDING AS A WAY TO INCREASE HOUSING AFFORDABILITY IN RUSSIA

This article discusses the issue of bringing the indicator «Housing Affordability Ratio» to an indicator that would reflect the number of years required to buy a home. A statistical analysis is carried out on the modifications of the indicator «Housing affordability coefficient», on the demand for mortgage loans in the regional context. The analysis of the demand for mortgage loans, as well as the level of housing security of the population in the regional context, is carried out. The relationship between the mortgage rate and the level of housing prices is analyzed. An assessment of the impact of the policy to reduce the interest rate on mortgage loans on the level of housing prices is given. The following problems of housing security in the Russian Federation are identified: regional disparities in housing security, the growth of investment demand for housing in the context of macroeconomic instability as a factor of slowing down the growth of housing security, threats to the implementation of targeted measures to support the provision of housing for the population. Possible ways to increase housing affordability are analyzed.

The effect of housing policies on housing segregation in Indonesia

Housing segregation has occurred in urban areas in Indonesia. Spatial segregation is shown by the phenomenon of gated community and social segregation is indicated by the absence of social relations among the groups. This housing segregation endangers the unity and integrity of the community. It is far from the ideal goal in housing development, i.e. to create harmonious community. This problem can be caused by the housing policies. Therefore, this study aims to identify housing policies that affect housing segregation in Indonesia. The methods used in this study were: 1) compose the conceptual framework of the emergence of segregation based on the results of the research article review; 2) collecting policy texts in the form of laws and regulations at the national level (constitution, government regulation, and ministerial regulation) for the past ten years; 3) review and map the contents of the policies following the conceptual framework; 4) analyze the mapping and look for policies relating to segregation. The results of the policy mapping show that although there are many policies to increase housing affordability and harmonious housing (diversity and balance), there is a clause in a balanced housing policy which states that the construction of simple housing for low-income groups may not be in the same location with the moderate and luxury housing has triggered the emergence of spatial segregation. Thus, it can be concluded that housing policy influences the occurrence of housing segregation in Indonesia.

ОСОБЕННОСТИ СТРОИТЕЛЬНОЙ ОТРАСЛИ В АРХАНГЕЛЬСКОЙ ОБЛАСТИ

The role of construction in the development of the economic system of the state, regardless of the level of development, population and other characteristics, can hardly be overestimated. Construction is one of the most important sectors of the economy, since no industry can function without new and reconstruction of existing facilities. The terminological analysis of the concept of “construction industry” has shown that domestic and foreign authors characterize this industry as an independent one, which is associated with the commissioning of new production and non-production facilities, which includes capital and current repairs of buildings and structures, as well as their reconstruction and restoration. An urgent problem for the population of Russia is the availability of housing. By Order No. 161-r of January 27, 2021, the Government approved the list of objects that should be financed under the federal Housing project of the state program “Providing affordable and comfortable housing and communal services to Citizens of the Russian Federation”. However, it should be noted that neither new programs to increase housing affordability, nor an increase in the pace of construction can fully solve the problem of housing shortage. In 2020, 1121.6 thousand new apartments with a total area of 82,2 million m2 were built in Russia at the expense of all sources of financing, which amounted to 100,2 % by 2019. In the North-Western Federal District of the Arkhangelsk region (without auth.) in 2020, it took the 5th place in terms of the total area of residential premises (351,8 thousand m2), which is 109,2 % by 2019. For the further development of the construction industry in the Arkhangelsk region due to the possible increase in the volume of construction of residential buildings, as well as due to the transition of construction companies to escrow accounts, it is necessary to reduce the cost of housing. The likely expectations from the introduction of escrow accounts are the impact on the volume of supply and the reduction of risks for buyers by transferring these risks to developers and banks.