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'

The big lesson from Opal Tower is that badly built apartments aren’t only an issue for residents

January 17th, 2019 · No Comments · Cities, Construction, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing conditions, Strata, Sydney

By Laura Crommelin, Bill Randolph and Hazel Easthope (City Futures Research Centre), and Martin Loosemore (Built Environment, UNSW Sydney). Originally published on The Conversation. The saga of Opal Tower, the 36-storey Sydney apartment building evacuated on Christmas Eve after frightening cracking, has helped to expose the deep cracks in Australia’s approach to building apartments. An interim […]

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There are lessons to be drawn from the cracks that appeared in Sydney’s Opal Tower, but they extend beyond building certification

January 11th, 2019 · No Comments · Construction, Government, Guest appearance, Housing conditions, Sydney

By Geoff Hanmer, Adjunct Lecturer in Architecture, Univeristy of NSW, Sydney. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The reasons for the cracked concrete that triggered the evacuation – twice – of residents from Sydney’s Opal Tower over Christmas and the New Year are unknown and will […]

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Inclusionary Zoning in Ontario

June 25th, 2018 · No Comments · Construction, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing supply, International

By Richard Drdla, Richard Drdla Associates, Toronto, Canada. Earlier this year Richard, an expert on planning for affordable housing in North America, wrote us a guest blog post about the Greater Sydney Commission’s affordable rental housing targets. This post discusses the latest developments regarding inclusionary zoning in Ontario, Canada. Richard is a guest speaker at the […]

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NSW is overselling its social housing commitment

May 8th, 2018 · No Comments · Construction, Government, Housing, Housing supply, Sydney

Photo: Zachary staines By Hal Pawson, City Futures Research Centre. Originally published on The Fifth Estate.  According to figures published this week the NSW government has over the past few years managed to build more public housing units than it has sold to raise revenue. As revealed by the figures, the NSW Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC) […]

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Sydney needs more boarding houses

April 9th, 2018 · No Comments · Construction, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing conditions, Housing supply, Marginal rental, Private rental, Sydney

By Matthew Benson, UNSW Built Environment Masters candidate and town planning consultant. Originally published in the Sydney Morning Herald. I was a town planner at the former City of South Sydney in the mid-nineties when brothels became legal. Brothel operators could apply to legalise brothels that had been operating for decades. I remember someone objecting […]

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Affordable housing policy failure still being fuelled by flawed analysis

March 15th, 2018 · No Comments · Affordability, Construction, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing supply

By Nicole Gurran, University of Sydney; Bill Randolph, UNSW; Peter Phibbs, University of Sydney; Rachel Ong, Curtin University, and Steven Rowley, Curtin University. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Australia has a housing affordability problem. There’s no doubt about that. Unfortunately, one of the reasons the problem has become so […]

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Six lessons on how to make affordable housing funding work across Australia

February 14th, 2018 · No Comments · Construction, Finance, Government, Housing supply, urban renewal

New affordable housing development in Melbourne. Image: Ryan van den Nouwelant By Laurence Troy, Bill Randolph, Ryan van den Nouwelant and Vivienne Milligan, City Futures Research Centre. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. A suitable construction funding model is the critical missing ingredient needed to deliver more affordable housing in Australia. Aside from short-lived […]

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‘Affordable Rental Housing Targets’ – How do the Greater Sydney Commission proposals match up to US practices?

January 22nd, 2018 · No Comments · Construction, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing supply, Sydney, urban renewal

By Richard Drdla, Richard Drdla Associates, Toronto, Canada. We asked Richard, an expert on planning for affordable housing in North America, for his views on the Greater Sydney Commission’s recent policy proposals for ‘affordable rental housing targets’ . Richard compares various aspects of the GSC proposals, as set out in its October 2017 ‘Information Note’, with the corresponding ‘inclusionary zoning’ (IZ) practices […]

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Visioning varieties of “mixed tenure” development  

December 1st, 2017 · No Comments · Construction, Housing, Strata, urban renewal

By Ryan van den Nouwelant and Hal Pawson, City Futures Research Centre. Originally published on The Fifth Estate. Mixed tenure – that is, mixing subsidised housing (social or affordable rental) with market housing – is an increasingly common feature of urban redevelopment. How best to do it, though, depends on what you are trying to […]

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Mounting housing stress underscores need for expert council to guide wayward policymaking

September 27th, 2017 · No Comments · Affordability, Construction, Data, Demographics, Government, Housing, Housing supply

By Hal Pawson, UNSW and Oliver Frankel, University of Technology Sydney. Originally published on The Conversation. A recent policy pledge by Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen has given fresh heart to campaigners for the restoration of the former National Housing Supply Council (NHSC). The Abbott government axed the council in 2013. With housing stress intensifying across […]

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