Private Sector Housing Research Articles

Housing, the state and the market in Thailand: Enabling and enriching the private sector *

Housing has never been high on the political agenda in Thailand. Except in the late 1970s and early 1980s when the National Housing Authority built low-cost rental apartments, successive governments have not much interfered in the land and housing market, but allowed supply and demand to meet. When it played an active role, the government would facil- itate private-sector housing development and keep interest rates low to support homebuyers. However, over the years, the number of slum dwellers in Bangkok has not decreased, while government policy may have benefited private developers more than it benefited low-income homebuyers. This paper discusses the role of the state and the market in the provision of housing for low-income groups in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region of Thailand. Successive governments in Thailand had no comprehensive and integrated housing policy; they merely launched disjointed programmes to assist low-income groups to improve their housing. More importantly, the state created conditions that enabled the private sector to produce housing at lower costs. This hands-off approach has had both positive and negative consequences. This paper reviews the roles and contributions of the various public- and private-sector actors involved in housing production in Thai- land, particularly in Bangkok. The focus of this paper is on the Bangkok Metropolitan Region, because it is by far the largest and economically most important urban area of the country.

US AID’s private sector housing programme in urban Zimbabwe: examining the terrain from the terraces

This paper discusses the role of the United States government’s Agency for International Development (US AID) in housing provision in Zimbabwe. While emphasizing that much of the Agency’s support has helped expand and improve housing for low-income urban groups, it also describes how a US AID-funded project in Harare contradicted the Agency’s own principles of good governance since it was developed without the approval of the local authorities and used a steel-frame technology that had not been approved. This technology subsequently proved to have many disadvantages and the participants in the project find themselves with mortgage repayments that they have difficulty meeting, and poor quality houses within a neighbourhood that the city authorities will not recognize as a legal development.

US AID's private sector housing programme in urban Zimbabwe: examining the terrain from the terraces

US AID's private sector housing programme in urban Zimbabwe: examining the terrain from the terraces

The economic impact of reducing on-base naval housing

This article develops a methodology for estimating the impact on rents and home prices from a hypothetical reduction of on-base naval housing from 56 naval bases in the United States. Based on data from the Center for Naval Analyses and the U.S. Census of Housing, and response coefficients from housing economics literature, illustrative estimates are presented of the short-run and long-run and long-run impact of reducing naval housing. Key factors determining the increase in rents and home prices include (1) the increase in demand for housing in the private sector resulting from the reduction of on-base naval housing, (2) the short-run and long-run elasticities of supply of private sector housing with respect to housing prices, and (3) the elasticity of demand to live in a defined housing area with respect to housing prices. We find that the effects on rents and home prices are in most cases small in the short run and negligible in the long run. The median first-year rent increase in the 53 counties is estimated to be 0.90%, with only 9 of the counties still expected to experience rent increases of as much as 4%. In the long run, the median rent increase is estimated to be only 0.10%. Because the purchase of a home is a long-term investment, we find that the impact on home prices is negligible, similar to the long-run impact on rents.

Grants to Home-owners: A Policy in Search of Objectives

This paper examines the policy of providing capital grants to home-owners in England and Wales for repairs and improvements to their properties since its origins in the late 1940s. Such grants have been the major mechanism for delivering state support to home-owners with repairs and improvements and at times have formed a major component of public spending. Grant aid, usually covering 50 per cent of approved costs, was initially intended as an incentive to owners (mainly landlords) to install amenities and facilities which had not been provided when properties were constructed in the 19th century. With the growth of low-income home ownership, grants were extended to provide assistance with repairs and to cover a greater proportion of the costs of work. In some cases, 100 per cent grants under which the organisation of work was taken out of the owner's hands completely were provided in order to secure better works quality. Unfortunately these approaches coincided with financial retrenchment. From 1990, the government reaffirmed that repairs and improvements were primarily the responsibility of home-owners and grant aid was residualised, that is focused on the poorest households in the worst condition properties, leading to a dramatic reduction in the number of home-owners receiving state assistance. Subsequently other objectives such as community care, public health, energy efficiency and environmental concerns have further eroded the resources available for housing stock renovation. Despite the mismatch between the grant policy mechanism and available resources, there has been little progress in the development of a new philosophy defining the interest of the state in the condition of private sector housing and the respective responsibilities of the state and private owners and the introduction of alternative ways of helping low-income owners with repair and improvement.

Healthy housing: the role of the environmental health officer.

The relationship of health and housing has been well documented. There is less said about action that can be taken to deal with poor housing conditions. Environmental Health Officers in UK Government are key actors enforcing legislation relevant to housing conditions. Despite a century of legislative intervention in private sector housing conditions, the English House Condition Survey continues to report an excessive amount of poor conditions, and a particular decline in quality amongst the most disadvantaged in society who are increasingly accommodated in the private rented sector. This paper examines the role of poor housing in ill health and the difficulties faced in enforcing largely reactive legislative, arguing that wider changes are needed if the link between poor health and housing is to be broken.

Assessing influences upon the housing market in Northern Ireland

Initially, this paper reviews the relationship between the private housing sector and the macroeconomy. Attention focuses upon the divergent behaviour of the housing market at a regional level, using the case of Northern Ireland, relative to that for the national United Kingdom market. Econometric modelling indicates that the primary factor influencing performance within the province is disposable income, with risk arising from political instability a secondary factor. It is argued that lower price elasticities have been instrumental in producing a regional housing market which exhibits counter-cyclical tendencies relative to the national perspective.

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.

INVESTIGATING URBAN POVERTY: THE IMPACT OF STATE INTERVENTION AND HOUSEHOLD CHANGE

Following a review of recent literature on the social and spatial distribution of income inequality, this paper examines a number of methodological issues affecting the measurement of urban poverty. In particular the paper highlights the roles of changing household composition, the location of public housing, and the dynamics of urban fringe growth in the spatial distribution of urban poverty. Using Census data the analysis shows that between 1986 and 1991 there were opposing trends in Melbourne and Sydney. Different processes of concentration and dispersion of low income families were at work in the private and public housing sectors of these two cities. Whilst the concentration of low income families in Sydney is greater overall than in Melbourne, the gap between the two cities is narrowing. However, it is argued that interpreting conventional measures of concentration and dispersion as indicators of the creation of urban ghettos is problematic.

The Rates Revisited? A Geographical Reassignment of Property Valuations and Local Tax Burdens under the Council Tax

In this paper the detailed patterns of British property valuation and local revenue raising under the council tax are compared with those prevailing under the domestic rates. The results of matching individual council-tax valuations with rateable values for the 47000 domestic properties that make up the Inner Area of Cardiff, Wales, are reported. A geographical information system is used to identify the disaggregate pattern of properties which have been assigned higher or lower relative values after the abolition of the domestic rates. The findings are seen as significant in describing the intraurban geography of property values in Britain: properties constructed by local authorities now attract significantly lower relative valuations; pre-1919 private-sector housing is now more highly valued; and different construction types (for example, purpose-built flats, converted flats, and ends of terraces) attract quite different valuations under the two regimes. Overall, the distribution of rateable values vis-à-vis that of council-tax bands is likely to have had a multifaceted effect upon local revenue raising, and the authors begin to explore its changed geography in some detail.

Periods and demand for private sector housing refurbishment

This study is written to illuminate the role of durability failures as primary reasons for the decisions to carry out refurbishment projects. The refurbishment project is seen as a commodity that can be obtained from the market at a certain price and accordingly the reasons for the decision to initiate a refurbishment project are seen as a basis of the demand. The phenomena causing refurbishment are classified into five categories as follows: failure in the building due to deterioration; change in use; optimization of economic factors; subjective features of the decision maker; and change of circumstances. The significance of each category as a primary source of demand for refurbishment projects is quantified by the use of empirical data. In the empirical findings, only 17% of the refurbishment was initiated primarily on the grounds of deterioration. Obsolescence was found to be an overwhelmingly more important basis for refurbishment than deterioration. The pleasure seeking aspirations of the decision maker are an especially important source of the demand for refurbishment projects. According to the empirical findings, obsolescence based refurbishment clearly occurs earlier (on average after 20.6 years of use) then deterioration based refurbishment (which occurs on average after 28.7 years of use).

The rent (Agriculture) Act 1976: A forgotten solution to a housing problem? - some research findings

Abstract The Rent (Agriculture) Act 1976 did not abolish the agricultural tied cottage system, but did remove automatic loss of accommodation on termination of employment by giving qualifying farmworkers Rent Act-style security of tenure. This was coupled with a mechanism guaranteeing them local authority accommodation if the farmer/landlord could show agricultural need for the tied dwelling. It failed to sever the nexus between employment and housing but did achieve housing security, ultimately at the expense of the local authority. The duties on farmer/landlords and local authorities to house tied farmworkers are unique and have survived despite radical changes to public and private sector housing policy. After summarizing the background and the statutory framework, this article will report on research findings from a project investigating how the Act operates in a changed housing market, and consider its impact on the social relations between farmer and worker

Finnish Homes—Through Passages or Traps?

This is a study of tenure choice, housing demand and mobility in the submarkets of the Helsinki metropolitan area. The empirical analysis is based on data on households, type of tenure, housing characteristics and mobility for a sample of Helsinki residents at the end of 1980s. According to our results the probability of owning is affected not only by user costs of alternative tenure forms but also by permanent income and demographic variables. Results from the tenure specific housing demand models indicate that there are non‐neutralities in the housing markets. Permanent income elasticities of housing demand are clearly positive in owner‐occupied sector and systematically higher than in the rented sector. The demand for owner‐occupied housing depends very strongly on the age of the household head. User cost per housing unit affects housing demand negatively in both tenure forms. Effective demand is greater in private housing sector. The results suggest that owner‐occupied living is preferred with heavily subsidized households the least likely to move. In the rental sector, where the probability of moving is higher, it is also true that the most heavily subsidized households are the least likely to move.

Determinants of construction duration

This paper probes the range of factors affecting construction project duration through a literature review and a pilot survey in Hong Kong. Time-cost models previously proposed in Australia and the UK are compared with data obtained in Hong Kong and similarities are noted. The 111 responses to the detailed questionnaire issued in Hong Kong and the follow-up interviews also indicate other factors that may significantly affect project duration. Of these productivity is examined here, while other factors will be probed in the second phase of this investigation. Time-floor area relationships are also examined and found to be significant. Projects are classified as public or private sector housing and other buildings, roads and other civil engineering projects. Larger samples in each category of construction project will be targeted to test the validity of the models and their parameters in Hong Kong as derived from the pilot survey. It is noted that standardization in public housing projects (as in Hong Kong ...

Performing for whom? An evaluation of the welsh housing management performance indicators regime

Over recent years the World Bank and the United Nations Centre for Human Settlement have developed a range of global housing performance measures (World Bank, 1992a)1. These performance measures have been grouped into six performance indicator modules: housing affordability, housing finance, housing quality, housing production, housing subsidies, and regulatory audit. In total, these comprise 45 indicators (Priemus, 1992). Data on these indicators has been collected in 52 countries and analysed to produce comparative league tables of housing market performance (World Bank, 1992b). Performance measurement regimes have also been developed within individual countries, over the last decade with specific reference to publicly provided services (Carter et al., 1992). These regimes have been extended to include housing. Their aim is to clarify the performance of housing management in the public sector (for example, Department of the Environment, 1990; Department of Housing and Urban Developent, 1992a; National Federation of Housing Associations, 1992; Welsh Office, 1991a). The development of performance regimes for particular sectors of the housing economy highlights a weakness in the World Bank/United Nations approach. The underlying assumption behind the World Bank model is that markets can be enabled to provide solutions to 'housing problems'. However, in countries with complex housing markets, there is often significant intervention by the state in the form of non-market, or public-sector, housing (see Maclennan and Gibb, 1993, for a more detailed argument). Housing is also used as a tool of broader economic policies. For example, in England and Wales, the 1992 Autumn Public Expenditure Statement allocated £612 million for housing associations to purchase second-hand owner-occupied properties. This initiative was primarily aimed at aiding recovery in the private-sector housing market; it was not solely designed to expand the supply of socially rented housing. These externalities have to be taken into account when attempting to analyse the performance of the housing policies of different countries, and particularly when comparing them. This problem is witnessed in the World Bank/United Nations research

Subsidized elderly housing: public-private partnerships on the brink.

Starting in the early 1960s, the federal government joined with the private-sector housing developers in a partnership: in return for subsidized mortgages and tax benefits, developers would rent to low- and moderate-income tenants. Today, many elderly people live in these "publicly subsidized" units. The initial agreement, however, held out an escape clause: after 15 to 20 years, for-profit developers that wanted to end the partnership could prepay their mortgages, leaving tenants in those buildings "at risk" of rent increases and/or evictions. This article discusses that partnership, its options for dissolution, and the current solutions to the problem of the expiring agreements, including a moratorium, vouchers, and incentives. The compromise legislation responds to all interested parties--owners, current and would-be tenants, local governments, tax-payers--through a multi-stage sequence of dissolution, yet such a finely tuned, acutely sensitive legislative solution may not work easily or efficiently.

Violence, racial harassment and council tenants: Reflections on the limits of the disputing process

Abstract This paper outlines a recently completed study of racial harassment on council estates in an area of East London. The study is based on a wide ranging assessment of the effectiveness of anti‐harassment procedures operating in the London borough of Newham, a borough in the forefront of innovation in anti‐racism procedures in both the public and the private housing sector. The centrepiece of the study is an analysis of the experiences of a group of 30 families living in Newham council accommodation, through a series of open‐ended interviews carried out by researchers from the ethnic minorities, attached to the project, over an 18 month period. The 30 families were members of diverse ethnic minorities ‐Punjabi, Gujerati, Bengali, Afro‐Caribbean ‐ all of whom had experienced prolonged and serious racial violence in and around their homes. What the families shared in particular was a refusal to suffer in silence. Living in a borough with a strong commitment to protecting its tenants from racial harass...

Housing Finance Agency Allocations

At the height of the recession in the early 1980s, a multitude of state and locally sponsored housing finance agency programs were legislatively introduced in response to populist pressure. Many of these controversial programs utilized lower cost municipal bonds to subsidize private sector housing programs and had remarkable diversity in their stated objectives. This study focuses on one of these programs, the Ohio Housing Finance Program, which purported to address the needs of mainly first‐time home buyers. Housing program evaluations,while rarely done, are very important where publicborrowing is used to support them. Using county‐level demographic data for 1983, the empirical results suggest that the Ohio program’s target clientele, first time homebuyers, were the major beneficiaries of the program.

Private Sector Housing in Ghana: Some of the Legal Aspects of State Control since 1982

This article examines the use of the law by the state to achieve its aim of social justice. It focuses on how, through a series of laws, the state has endeavoured to regulate private sector residential rents at the lower end of the market (up to a ceiling of 1,000.00 cedis) and the occupation of residential accommodation. An analysis is thus given of the nature of the laws in question as well as the institutions and organs of the state that were either set up, or had the scope of their powers broadened, in pursuance of the state's objectives.On 31 December, 1981 a military junta, the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) assumed power in Ghana. It had as one of the cornerstones of its political agenda the establishment of “true democracy” for all Ghanaians who, according to the new rulers, had been denied this right by previous civilian and military regimes. As a consequence, the PNDC enacted Law 42 which encapsulated in part the Directive Principles of State Policy (hereinafter the Directive Principles).

Helping Home Owners to Help Themselves? Recent developments housing renewal policy in housing renewal policy

This paper reviews developments in private sector housing renewal policy in England and Wales in the 1980s, and looks forward to the 1990s in the light of new legislation which came into operation in July 1990. Initially the paper looks at evidence on the condition of housing stock and at demographic, economic and social trends affecting dwelling stock condition and the ability of households to repair, improve or maintain their dwellings. It then examines government policies to privatise both the administration of housing renewal and the financing of investment during the 1980s and examines the reasons for the failure of these policies. The paper discusses the provisions of the 1989 Local Government and Housing Act relating to housing renewal and concludes that the new framework is too limited in the help which it provides and that the resources available are inadequate. If low income home owners trapped in poor housing conditions are to be helped with the repair and maintenance of their home sit will be necessary to develop a range of other measures. These may include subsidised loans, equity sharing mechanisms, savings and insurance schemes, and the provision of practical help through home improvement agencies. A better understanding of how people make investment decisions is also needed. Finally the government should take steps to regulate the building industry and to increase the supply of skilled labour and competent firms working in the housing renewal sector.