City Futures Blog

News and research in housing and urban policy, from Australia’s leading urban policy research centre.

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Entries Tagged as 'Construction'

Why the COVID Commission must back social housing stimulus

June 3rd, 2020 · No Comments · Climate change, Construction, Economy, Government, Housing supply, Pandemic, Sustainability

By Hal Pawson, City Futures Research Centre. The Prime Minister’s COVID Commission is supposed to be advising government on how to ‘facilitate the fastest possible recovery of lives and livelihoods’ after the pandemic. Yet it’s main focus appears to be the promotion of a fossil-fuelled medium-term industrial strategy tailored to mining interests. Advocacy for a […]

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Coronavirus lays bare 5 big housing system flaws to be fixed

May 12th, 2020 · No Comments · Affordability, Construction, Economy, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing supply, Pandemic, Tenancy, urban renewal

By Hal Pawson, City Futures Research Centre UNSW, and Peter Mares, Monash University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Australians had become used to walking past rough sleepers. Policymakers too, seemed unmoved by the people huddled in doorways or sheltering in parks under plastic sheets. […]

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Reassembling the City: urban renewal and collective property sales

March 9th, 2020 · No Comments · Cities, Construction, Housing, Housing supply, International, Strata, Sydney, urban renewal

By Alistair Sisson, City Futures Research Centre. Cities are constantly being built, unbuilt and rebuilt, at an increasingly rapid rate. City-dwellers all over the world will be very familiar with the experience of seeing a row of houses or old apartment block transformed to something much taller, wider, and bulkier. But the process of assembling […]

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Lack of information on apartment defects leaves whole market on shaky footings

November 21st, 2019 · No Comments · Construction, Data, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing conditions

By Martin Loosemore (University of Technology Sydney); Bill Randolph, Caitlin Buckle, Hazel Easthope, and Laura Crommelin (City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney). This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.   The litany of defects, poor building standards and regulatory failures has serious implications for apartment owners, occupiers and buyers alike. Fears […]

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Building defects: City Futures’ submissions to the NSW government

August 12th, 2019 · No Comments · Construction, Government, Housing, Housing conditions, Strata, Sydney

By Caitlin Buckle, City Futures Research Centre. The public discussion around building defects has been heating up lately. In response, NSW Fair Trading have proposed a number of reforms to the building process, and the NSW Parliament’s Public Accountability Committee commenced a parliamentary inquiry into the regulation of building standards, building quality and building disputes. […]

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Those left to pick up the bill shut out of building crisis debate

July 24th, 2019 · No Comments · Cities, Construction, Government, Housing, Housing conditions, Law, Sydney, urban renewal

By Prof Bill Randolph, Director, City Futures Research Centre. This article was originally published by the Sydney Morning Herald. The news that the Australian Building Ministers Forum is now acting on the recommendations of the Shergold-Weir report into building defects is a welcome sign that at long last the failings of the development industry to […]

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Build to rent could shake up real estate but won’t take off without major tax changes

July 8th, 2019 · No Comments · Affordability, Construction, Economy, Government, Housing, Housing conditions, Housing supply, International, Law, Private rental, Sydney, urban renewal

By Hal Pawson, City Futures Research Centre. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. In the wake of slumping demand for apartment building, it’s little wonder the multi-unit housing industry has been eagerly eyeing a possible new residential product: “build-to-rent”. In fact, the latest figures show that […]

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Chilly house? Mouldy rooms? Here’s how to improve low-income renters’ access to decent housing

June 5th, 2019 · No Comments · Affordability, Construction, Housing, Housing conditions, Law, Tenancy, Wellbeing

Too many Australians struggle to get their housing maintained and problems fixed. Trevor Charles Graham/Shutterstock By Edgar Liu, Chris Martin and Hazel Easthope, City Futures Research Centre. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. People’s quality of life, their health and their comfort can suffer when living in […]

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Build social and affordable housing to get us off the boom-and-bust roller coaster

March 15th, 2019 · No Comments · Affordability, Construction, Economy, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing supply

By Laurence Troy, UNSW; Bill Randolph, UNSW, and Ryan van den Nouwelant, Western Sydney University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Not long ago Australia’s housing boom was in full swing. Investors were betting on rising property values, which rose by 13% in Sydney and 15% […]

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Stay cool with revised house construction codes

February 15th, 2019 · No Comments · Climate change, Construction, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing conditions, Sustainability, Sydney, Wellbeing

By Professor Mat Santamouris, Built Environment, UNSW Sydney. This article was first published by the Sydney Morning Herald. For many Australian households, summer’s debilitating heatwaves will be felt well into autumn as the steep costs of airconditioning show up on household power bills. We shouldn’t have to live like this. Much of the punitive cost […]

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