Urban Housing Policy Research Articles

Comparative Analysis of Household Residential Preferences Across Neighbourhood Densities in Nairobi, Kenya

Rapid urban growth in Nairobi city outstrips demand and provision of adequate housing. The demand for housing in an area is dependent on the satisfaction of the resident’s needs and wants. This paper examines the residential preferences of residents in three residential estates, low, medium, and high densities in Nairobi City, Kenya. Data was collected by use of questionnaires that were administered to 267 households. Primary data was collected for this study. The data collected was analysed using factor analysis and ordinal regression. Data was presented in the form of tables. The results indicate residential preferences among high, medium and low-density areas vary. The most preferred factors for low-density residents were safety and security, open spaces and facilities; while the residents in high-density areas preferred housing diversity, local employment and close proximity to the workplace. The least preferred factor for low-density residents was close proximity to work place since they own cars hence they are more willing to commute while high-density residents prioritize proximity to work to minimize transportation costs. Residential preferences varied by density, age, gender, education and years lived in an estate. Preference for safer neighbourhoods with open spaces and facilities was high for residents in low-density areas while preference for neighbourhoods with housing diversity, local employment and close proximity to workplaces was high among the residents in high-density estates. These insights underscore the importance of addressing the varied needs and preferences of different demographic groups in urban planning and housing policy to create more equitable and livable communities in Nairobi in order to limit housing mismatch. This study contributes to the planning studies by firming up empirical evidence from developing countries that have high populations in urban areas

Back and Forth from Urban Renewal: The Spatial Parameters of Affordable Housing in Two Cities

This study examines the impact of spatial parameters on urban well-being by comparing the urban design and housing policies of Roosevelt Island in New York City and Bat Yam in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, Israel. Despite their distinct political and cultural contexts, these cities exhibit similar urban design approaches that integrate physical well-being parameters—such as density, building height, open spaces, and walkability—alongside social well-being parameters including age distribution, income levels, and ethnic diversity. The research traces the evolution of affordable housing through various historical phases, including Urban Renewal, Community Development, and Neoliberal Urbanism, and explores how different residential ownership structures have influenced demographic shifts, gentrification, and neighborhood transformation over the past decades. Using a mixed-methods approach that combines historical analysis with spatial and demographic data, this study highlights the contrasting impacts of Roosevelt Island’s affordable housing program and Bat Yam’s state-led urban renewal policies. The results illustrate how distinct housing models affect community resilience, social stability, and overall urban well-being. By uncovering parallel narratives and extracting valuable insights, this analysis offers lessons for other cities navigating similar market-led pressures and policy shifts. The findings underscore the importance of understanding the interplay between spatial design, housing policies, and ownership structures in shaping the long-term sustainability and quality of life in urban neighborhoods.

Supplementary rental supply? The digital market for low-cost and informal housing in Sydney, Australia

This article examines real estate platforms and the data they generate to provide new insights into housing markets and practices, focusing on lower-cost and informal sectors, where building or rental regulations are often bypassed or contravened. We examine online listings advertised in Sydney, one of the most expensive cities in Australia and the world, compiling data from four dominant platforms – Realestate.com.au, Flatmates.com.au, Gumtree.com.au and Airbnb.com – each of which offers a particular type of rental accommodation. Using these datasets, we identify a typology of lower-cost and informal tenures and dwelling units, ranging from secondary dwellings and illegally subdivided apartments to shared accommodation and precarious rental agreements. Our study highlights a supplementary supply of rental housing, operating within the conventional private rental market, accessed and made visible via the platforms we examine. Applying a statistical regression approach, we examine relationships between concentrations of informal housing supply and socio-economic variables. The findings reveal intersections between digital platforms and evolving informal market practices and have implications for urban planning and housing policy.

Housing, COVID & Climate: Urban Social Housing Post-COVID Climate Change Mitigation and Redress

This short paper, draws on 40 years of research and advisory work, rather than a single, short-term, finite research project. It examines recent and current examples of urban housing policies, programmes and projects in a wide range of countries in both the Global North and South in its aim order to meet its aim to stimulate and contribute to the search for strategic approaches to the production, maintenance and management of urban low-income group housing; it examines the historical, geographic, cultural/political and economic contexts within which they are set, laying some emphasis on the prevailing existential threats to humanity caused by: (1) global heating, and (2) the pandemic pervasiveness of viral pathogen transmissions and their social, economic and legislative impact on physical settlement planning and management. Emphasis is given to distinguishing between ‘public housing’, for which all governing decisions are unilaterally made by relevant state agencies and institutions, and ‘social housing’, in which non-governmental beneficiary households and enterprises, communities and organisations are engaged in risk- and benefit-sharing partnership with responsible state agencies at all levels of the governance and management of affordable and accessible urban housing. The paper concludes by drawing attention to the urgency of need to build the capability of the extensive range of actors and stake-holders, worldwide and calling for the initiation and dissemination of successful policy approaches and their administration.

The Political Outcomes of Housing Movements: Participatory Governance in Mass Housing Programmes

Research conducted over the past decade examining the impact of social movements on urban politics and housing policy has significantly enhanced our understanding of how these movements resist housing financialisation through direct action, social protest, and advocacy. However, further investigation is still required to comprehend the influence of housing movements on policy design and implementation, in order to understand the paths taken and how social movements shape housing and urban policies. This paper focuses on the self-management branch of the My House, My Life – Entities (Minha Casa, Minha Vida - Entidades), a mass housing programme in Brazil. The paper has two objectives. Firstly, it identifies the strategies that nationally organised urban and housing movements employ to advocate for the inclusion of housing self-management in federal mass housing programmes. Secondly, it examines the policy implications of implementing a participatory governance model (co-management) in national housing programmes, with an emphasis on policy lessons learned. To accomplish this, policy documents, housing movement reports, and news media items were utilised to systematically trace the trajectory to success and examine the policy lessons for participatory governance. This paper makes two contributions: it enriches the literature on social movements against housing financialisation by analysing citizen participation in housing policy design and implementation and it contributes to the field of research on the consequences of social movements by examining the influence of social movements in shaping and housing policies.

The contradicting state of urban housing and neoliberal policy in India: a macro analysis

The paper evaluates the adaptation of neoliberal policies in the Indian urban housing policy sector. While completing the objectives of this paper, the article also appraises the expression of neoliberalism as it unfolds in the literature. Neoliberalism is considered a loose set of philosophical, institutional, and political principles to safeguard individual and collective freedom like private property rights, goods and services exchange, movement of capital and labor, etc. Neoliberal policies promote open markets and trade to unbound creative potentials and entrepreneurial skills through efficient utilization of resources and upbringing of human well-being. In a neoliberal regime, cities compete to attract talented people, capital, and resources to achieve newer economic and social benchmarks. However, the constant pursuit of excessive achievements lets some negativities grow within. Large-scale inequality, deprivation, social unrest, and meager quality of life affect the sustainable and holistic development of seemingly most developed cities worldwide. Referring to literature from social sciences, urban planning, and development studies, this paper focuses on the consequences of neoliberalism and its impact on urban housing in India.

Houston, you have a problem: How large cities accommodate more housing

AbstractWe document how a select set of large and growing metropolitan areas have accommodated growth in their housing supply over 40 years. In particular, we examine how housing provision has evolved for the largest four metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in California and Texas. Despite differences in their topographies and regulatory environments, we find several common dynamics. As these MSAs grow, we see that fewer new net units are built at the periphery and a smaller share of the new units are built as single‐family detached houses. As a greater share of new net units are built in infill locations, more units are built using higher‐density—and more costly—multifamily housing construction techniques. Interestingly, we see these housing supply patterns in both “pro‐growth” MSAs and “highly regulated” MSAs. Among all of our sample MSAs, we also find a declining share of Census tracts that participate in accommodating growth. Our results are consistent with the existence of a convex housing supply curve. We believe that this secular trend will pose genuine challenges to many urban housing policies aimed at improving affordability.

The neighbor spectrum in community housing: Pro-social, anti-social and asocial neighboring in Vancouver

ABSTRACT This article presents focus group research with community housing residents in Vancouver, Canada, investigating the role, activities, and importance of neighboring to these individuals living in vulnerable situations. Neighborly relationships play a key role in connecting the private home with the larger urban community through processes of home-making, social inclusion and integration, but an increasing share of urbanites are excluded from the structural and social expectations of good neighboring. Although neighbors constitute weaker and different ties than friends and family, and although contemporary urban community housing situations present barriers to good neighboring, neighboring is nonetheless essential to urban quality of life. We propose a conceptual frame of a spectrum of neighboring and find that pro-social neighboring, anti-social neighboring, and a middle zone of asocial neighboring, all are important aspects of life in community housing that are also defined in a context-specific way by community housing residents. The outcomes of this research highlight the need for urban social and housing policy that addresses neighboring across the spectrum as an important part of social inclusion and well-being efforts in cities contending with increasing density, diversity, and vulnerability.

Formalization of Dwelling: A Study on Colonial Macau’s Urban Planning and Housing Policy Through the Development of Ilha Verde Area

<p>木屋棚寮問題貫穿澳門二十世紀的都市發展，其與澳門現代都市計劃的實踐、土地管理制度的改革、公共住宅制度的建立息息相關。其中位於澳門舊城區外西北偶的青洲地區，從非正式聚落到合法的木屋區，再變為經濟房屋預定地，更是反映殖民初期界務問題的政治角力、二戰前後的地區人口及產業結構變遷，以及葡萄牙對殖民地治理的態度轉向。青洲地區的木屋問題為非常處境下產生的例外狀態，既為澳葡政府都市發展計劃失序的外顯表象，亦是基層民眾應對都市生活實相的策略。而澳葡政府的殖民角色，以及木屋對澳門華人社群的緊密關聯，更是使木屋治理兼具都市空間治理與華人社群治理兩面向。本文以都市的非正式性作為解析都市發展議題的認識論，透過梳理青洲地區的發展史及與其相關木屋處理政策，揭示澳門都市化過程中的議題視域與焦點的調和，以及政策實踐的時空調配策略。期間，木屋問題朝向住宅問題轉型，而華人社群在與澳葡政府談判的過程中向上調整其議題視域，並推動澳葡政府向下調整其政策措施，使之更貼近都市生活實相。</p> <p> </p><p>Shanties have been a prominent issue in Macau’s urban development throughout the 20th century, closely related to modern urban planning, land management reforms, and the establishment of public housing. The Ilha Verde Area, located northwest of Macau’s old-town area, has transitioned from a Macau-Chinese informal settlement to an authorized shanty district and eventually became an affordable housing zone. This transformation reflects how the Portuguese colonial government struggles over urban spatial management and ethnic governance. This article employs the lens of informality to review Macau’s urbanization during the colonial era, focusing on the formalization of Ilha Verde Area’s shanties settlement, as well as its role in Macau’s overall shanties issue. First, it identified the dilemma of the shanties, pointing out that it was both a deviant of colonial Macau’s urban development scheme and a practical response to the unstable urban living realities during wartime. Then, it reveals the adjustment of issue scope and spatial-temporal coordination strategies during the formalization of shanties. As the process unfolded, Macau transitioned from a Portuguese colony to a territory temporarily under Portuguese governance, prompting a shift from addressing shanties to broader housing issues. Also, the Macau-Chinese community has adjusted its issue scope from personal living issues to overall housing issues which encourages policy adjustments that better reflect the urban living realities.</p> <p> </p>

Policy Actors Engaged in Urban Housing Policy Provision in Zimbabwe: Experiences from Harare

Policy Actors Engaged in Urban Housing Policy Provision in Zimbabwe: Experiences from Harare

Accessible and Affordable Housing for Urban MigrantWorkers: A Policy Perspective

Migrant workers face hardships in accessing better living conditions such as housing, water supply, and sanitation facilities. This is highly prevalent among construction workers and other manual laborers working in the manufacturing and service sectors. They live in poor conditions and face the threat of displacement and eviction. These people are vulnerable to harassment, especially women laborers and their children who are often the victims of trafficking and beggaring. Migrants also bear harsh conditions like long working hours, the nature and toughness of the work, and are prone to injuries, without any medical benefit. They are neglected and isolated without any social security benefits. This paper aims to study the policy problem related to housing for migrant workers and the challenges in its governance. To this end, this paper analyzes the provisions related to migrant workers in the Urban Housing Policy 2007, National Urban Rental Housing Policy 2015, and social housing policies of different state governments and the various schemes supporting it. To this policy analysis, the paper builds on the appropriate governance arrangement that can build equitable, inclusive, and sustainable policies to address the issues of migrant workers.

Understanding the land use intensity of residential buildings in Brazil: An ensemble machine learning approach

The verticalization of cities impacts the quality of urban life. The empirical investigation of the determinants of the floor-area ratio (FAR) of lots using the traditional econometric approaches, however, has little explanatory power, and research about it using machine learning (ML) is almost nonexistent. This study applies two ensemble machine learning strategies, random forest (RF) and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), to investigate the determinants of the FAR of all formally registered multifamily residential lots in the city of Recife, Brazil. Taking into account a collection of key determinants influencing the floor area ratio (FAR), which encompass structural, accessibility, environmental, amenity, and policy variables, the findings reveal that the ensemble random forest approach significantly enhances the explanatory ability of these determinants when compared to conventional strategies like ordinary least squares (OLS) or locally weighted regression (LWR). Although generally in line with traditional urban economic arguments, the evidence also reveals important non-linearities in the effects of the variables on the FAR that are useful for urban planning and public housing policy.

Social Equity and Urban Housing Policy Failures: Evaluation for Rehabilitation and Housing Resettlement Plans and Policies in Indian Cities

Today’s Indian cities are confronted with a wide range of problems due to social equity and urban housing policy failures, including rising populations, shifting family structures, increasing numbers of people living in informal communities and slums, inadequate urban infrastructure, growing environmental concerns, and an increase in migration. India has a severe housing shortage. A significant chasm separates housing demand from the supply. The discrepancy has led to the proliferation of urban slums, where millions of people are subjected to the lowest sanitation and hygiene standards. Housing policies in Indian cities include increasing taxes on unused or uninhabited land to fund the construction of low-cost dwellings, altering zoning laws to mandate that builders, and promoting higher densities of houses to spread out infrastructure costs among a larger population. Many people who have been the beneficiaries of land acquisition or other forms of forcible relocation are eligible for assistance through the Rehabilitation and Housing Resettlement Program. The proposed method included the city’s slums in the Advanced Smart Urban Missions (ASUM) planning process to overcome housing policy failures. A three-dimensional social equity framework with dispersion, identification, and protocol dimension aspects is applied to evaluate formal recovery plans’ objectives, priorities, and tactics. One of the most critical aspects of providing more housing alternatives for more people is ensuring everyone can afford it. Human rights, different perspectives, development initiatives in India, and policy inclusivity were also investigated. It makes suggestions for improving intelligent city policy that considers the needs of the city’s disadvantaged populations. This study looks into the problems that slum dwellers have with relocation and evictions and is limited to establishing various Smart Urban Missions. The research will help streamline the intelligent city development process sequentially, improving conditions for the urban poor and disadvantaged.

Housing affordability in the capital cities of three Northwestern China provinces

PurposePrevious studies on housing affordability in China were concentrated in China’s coastal and central regions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate housing affordability of urban residents in Northwest China. Moreover, this paper attempts to understand the consistency and influencing factors of various indicators on the evaluation of housing affordability.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses multiyear data on house sales, residents’ incomes and living expenses from 2011 to 2022. House price-to-income ratio, housing affordability index and residual income approach were calculated by using these data and used as the measure of housing affordability.FindingsThe results show that there are obvious differences in the housing affordability among the Xi’an, Lanzhou and Yinchuan during 2011–2022, and the housing affordability of residents in cities with small population and economic scale is better. The ability of most urban residents to afford suitable housing is still poor, and the ability to afford small-sized housing is better. Most families with below-middle income have poor housing affordability. It is also observed that although various indicators had similarities in the evaluation of residents’ housing affordability, the comprehensive evaluation results of multiple indicators were more reliable.Social implicationsThe research results provide a basis for the decision-making of the government’s urban housing policy and improvement of residents’ housing conditions.Originality/valueThe results have a clear understanding of the housing affordability of urban residents in Northwest China. The study found that the geographical location and topography of the city is also a factor affecting the housing affordability.

The production of socio-spatial injustice towards the Romani population during the franco regime: The neighborhoods of Lo Campano and los Mateos in Cartagena (Spain)

62.8% of the Romani population in Spain lives in settlements that are segregated from the urban center or in peripheral neighborhoods, a sign of their historical persecution and discrimination. Anti-Romani sentiment has been territorialized by eliminating autonomy and means of self-production of space, with urban planning and housing policies being a key element in the materialization of their urban segregation, particularly during the Franco regime. Identifying the Romani as a surplus element in urban space led to their expulsion from self-produced housing, relocating them to peripheral social housing neighborhoods. Through the case studies, this article analyzes the Lo Campano and Los Mateos neighborhoods in Cartagena, Spain, the production of socio-spatial injustice against the Romani during Franco's regime, using Nancy Fraser's (1996) definition of social justice, and Giddens' (1994) structuration theory, as an analytical framework. The results indicate that these policies formed the basis of an urban and housing necropolitical exercise against the Romani, identifying them as surplus to the urban space and expelling them from their self-built homes to peripheral social housing.

Social environments still matter: The role of physical and social environments in place attachment in a transitional city, Guangzhou, China

Place attachment, as an important emotional and functional bond between people and place, has received extensive attention in the early-21st century. This trend is especially evident in China, where rapid market transitions have fundamentally changed urban neighborhoods. Using a survey of residents in Guangzhou, China, remote sensing imagery, geographic information system (GIS) techniques, and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), this study investigates the role of physical and social environments in place attachment. Results indicate that commodity housing residents generally do not necessarily have strong place attachment. However, higher quality physical and social environments do contribute to stronger place attachment. Specifically, perceived housing conditions, social ties, sense of security, and lower floor area ratio (FAR) are positively associated with place identity, while perceived housing conditions, perceived neighborhood environment, social ties, lower FAR, and built environment quality are positively associated with place dependence. Social ties are the strongest predictor of place identity while housing conditions are the strongest predictor of place dependence. We conclude that social environments still matter as social and physical environments play different roles in place identity and place dependence. Based on the findings, we advocate that urban (re)development and housing policies should shift the focus from large-scale demolitions to micro-scale dwelling improvements; and in addition to objective measures, subjective evaluation by residents should also be used to evaluate urban (re)development projects.

Dynamics of development of urban housing stock and urban population

The development of urban housing policies needs to be correlated with the demographic development of the city. Demographic dynamics in the world, including Kyrgyzstan, is developing towards the urbanization of the population and the increase in agglomerations. Therefore, in this article, we study the degree of interdependence of urban population growth factors with the dynamics of the housing stock and the volume of commissioning of a new urban dwelling. In particular, the two largest cities of the Kyrgyz Republic were studied – the capital Bishkek and the southern city of Osh, in which more than 60% of the urban population concentrated. On the basis of the analysis, the aim is to establish a unified public housing and demographic policy for cities based on the mutual development of the urban population and urban housing stock. We have considered the historical development of these factors as well with subsequent justification of their prospective or prognostic development in the light of one housing and demographic policy for the strategic urban development plan. On the demographic side, we took indicators of the total permanent urban population and the dynamics of population growth in Bishkek and Osh; on the housing side, we took indicators of commissioning new urban housing, urban housing stock and the availability of housing per person in the city.

Necropolitics and the Covid-19 pandemic: evictions and removals that mark the recurrent housing problem in Brazil

This work aims to reflect on the impacts of COVID-19, a disease responsible for the pandemic worldwide status in 2020, on urban housing policies in Brazil, which has faced structural problems since the turn of the century. These problems were accentuated and evidenced with the onset of the pandemic. The paper sought to highlight the dismantling scenario and the setbacks of human rights that are expressed in the manner in which the federal government behaves in the face of the collapse caused by the health crisis. In addition to highlighting that, the housing problem has been sewn with patches that are not effective to supply the gigantic demand for housing in the country currently, besides they do not guarantee the security of tenure to the majority of families in socioeconomic vulnerability. In this context, the focus of the discussion is on the removals and evictions that have occurred during the pandemic, putting at risk an entire population historically neglected by the neoliberal policies of capitalism. Moreover, these policies have been accentuated as a reflection of the recent democratic inflection in the country, which has strongly threatened human and social rights, legitimized by necropolitics, during the pandemic (Mbembe, 2018). The text is presented as a theoretical study carried through an exploratory methodological structure, based on a bibliographic review and documentary analysis of the subject matter. This article does not intend to bring conclusions or final answers, but to present new elements for the debate on the dismantling of Brazilian housing policies, evidenced in the current scenario through the lack of access to decent housing or difficulty in keeping it, mainly for the lowest-income populations.

Cross-fertilizing knowledge, translation, and topologies: learning from urban housing policies for policy mobility studies

Abstract. Recently, urban housing policies in Europe have become more mobile, developing local responses to the housing question by building on examples from other cities. To understand the movement of policies, the policy mobility debate suggests sometimes irreconcilable concepts and we still need concepts that address the spatial dimension of how urban housing policies travel between places. The article reflects on the extent to which selected concepts – policy knowledge, translation, and topologies – allow an explicit treatment of movement and materiality in a geographical understanding of housing policy mobilities. To cross-fertilize these concepts, the article revisits how key definitions relate to each other, and assesses the extent to which these concepts allow to understand the mobilization and localization of urban housing policies in particular contexts. Overall, the article offers a nuanced conceptualization of interurban movements and the spatial–material dimension of housing policies, and thereby enhances future empirical studies on urban housing policy.

DECENTRALIZATION OF HOUSING POLICY FOR LOW-INCOME COMMUNITIES IN URBAN AREAS: AN ANALYSIS OF POLITICAL, FISCAL AND, ADMINISTRATIVE POLICY

The purpose of this study is to discuss housing decentralization policies for urban Low-Income Communities based on three decentralization issues, namely politics, fiscal, and administration, and to recommend the concept of housing decentralization as an instrument and housing policy reform. The idea of decentralization of housing policy can’t be separated from various problems such as the debate over the authority of housing policy, the dependence of the regional government's housing budget on the central government, and various other obstacles. This study employed academic literature review related to decentralization studies and housing policies. The results of the study show that the three decentralization issues that are correlated with urban housing policies for Low-Income Communities have not yet fully provided an optimal impact on the realization of the ideal and desirable urban housing policies for Low-Income Communities. However, the very strong relationship between the three issues of decentralization and urban housing policy can be an important idea and recommendation to promote housing decentralization as an instrument and direction of urban housing policy reform for Low-Income Communities in Indonesia in the future.