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 'Economy'

Australia’s housing system needs a big shake-up: here’s how we can crack this

February 17th, 2020 · No Comments · Affordability, Economy, Finance, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing supply, Tenancy

By Hal Pawson, UNSW; Judith Yates, University of Sydney, and Vivienne Milligan, UNSW. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Despite two years of housing market cooling in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia stayed near the top of the global unaffordability league in 2019. And with prices rebounding […]

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Why adequate and affordable housing matters to productivity

January 21st, 2020 · No Comments · Cities, Economy, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Productivity

By Wendy Hayhurst, CEO Community Housing Industry Association. Originally published on John Menadue’s Pearls and Irritations. A growing body of research is demonstrating the adverse productivity impacts of inadequate or unaffordable housing in Australia (and elsewhere). These include impacts on human capital through the mismatch between the availability of suitable housing and employment, and the distorting […]

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Private renters are doing it tough in outer suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne

July 31st, 2019 · No Comments · Affordability, Economy, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Private rental, Sydney, Tenancy, Wellbeing

In low-rent outer suburbs, almost one in six households could not afford to keep their house cool and went without meals. ChameleonsEye/Shutterstock By Alan Morris, University of Technology Sydney; Hal Pawson, UNSW; Kath Hulse, Swinburne University of Technology, and Violet Xia, University of Technology Sydney. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons […]

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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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Australia’s social housing policy needs stronger leadership and an investment overhaul

June 26th, 2019 · No Comments · Economy, Finance, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing supply, Productivity

Energy efficient social housing in Tasmania. Xsquared, Hobart, Author provided By Julie Lawson, RMIT University; Jago Dodson, RMIT University; Kathleen Flanagan, University of Tasmania; Keith Jacobs, University of Tasmania; Laurence Troy, 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. […]

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Housing policy reset is overdue, and not only in Australia

March 15th, 2019 · No Comments · Affordability, Economy, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing supply, International, Law, Productivity, Tenancy

Duncan Maclennan, University of Glasgow and Hal Pawson, UNSW. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Federal and state elections in coming weeks provide a timely moment for Australians to reflect on the increasingly obvious failure of governments to manage the triple crises of inflated property prices, […]

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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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Last year’s affordable housing green shoots have withered

May 22nd, 2018 · No Comments · Affordability, Economy, Finance, Government, Housing

By Chris Martin and Hal Pawson. This article was originally published on John Menadue’s Pearls and Irritations. Budget 2018 fails the 1.5 million Australian households living in unaffordable rental housing or officially homeless, despite the urgent need for Commonwealth leadership on affordable housing policy. On Budget night 2017 Treasurer Morrison announced a ‘comprehensive plan to […]

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Zoning: impost, or necessary urban management?

May 14th, 2018 · No Comments · Affordability, Cities, Data, Economy, Housing

By Greg Paine, City Futures Research Centre. City Futures Research Centre and the Henry Halloran Trust recently hosted a seminar to review a Reserve Bank Australia discussion paper on zoning and house prices (see the video, and the CityBlog summary).  It was well-attended (the issue strikes a chord), and conducted in the best traditions of […]

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Can the cost of zoning in Sydney really be $489k per house?

May 4th, 2018 · No Comments · Affordability, Economy, Housing, Housing supply

By Laura Crommelin and Hal Pawson, City Futures Research Centre. Can landuse planning restrictions be fairly blamed for Sydney’s unaffordable housing? Around 200 people attended a spirited yet erudite debate on this subject jointly staged by Sydney University’s Halloran Trust and UNSW City Futures last week. At issue was the striking claim made in a […]

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