City Futures Blog

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

City Futures Blog random header image

Entries Tagged as 'Housing'

Airbnb regulation needs to distinguish between sharing and plain old commercial letting

June 6th, 2018 · No Comments · Airbnb, Cities, Data, Housing, Housing supply, Law, Sharing, Sydney

Image: paul/Flickr, CC BY By Laura Crommelin, Chris Martin and Laurence Troy, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Airbnb and other short-term letting websites have been a hot topic of debate for some time. In New South Wales, it seems the state government is on […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

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 […]

[Read more →]

Tags:·

Homelessness: Australia’s shameful story of policy complacency and failure continues

May 15th, 2018 · No Comments · Affordability, Cities, Data, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Sydney

By Hal Pawson, UNSW and Cameron Parsell, The University of Queensland. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Exactly a decade ago in 2008, the Australian government committed to an ambitious strategy to halve national homelessness by 2020. Through stepped-up early intervention, better homelessness services and an expanded supply of affordable housing, […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

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 […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

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) […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

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 […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Grappling with housing disruption: how should planners respond to Airbnb?

May 1st, 2018 · No Comments · Affordability, Cities, Data, Economy, Government, Housing, Sydney

By Laura Crommelin. This article originally appeared in New Planner – the journal of the New South Wales planning profession – published by the Planning Institute of Australia.  The explosive growth of digital short-term letting platform Airbnb poses plenty of challenges for planners, with the impact being felt across both urban and regional areas. But what exactly is the […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

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 […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Wealthy landlords and more sharehousing: how the rental sector is changing

April 5th, 2018 · No Comments · Demographics, Finance, Government, Housing, Housing conditions, Marginal rental, Private rental, Tenancy, Uncategorized

By Chris Martin. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. More people are becoming heavily indebted by buying rental properties and shared accommodation is flourishing, as third party tech platforms help people find a place without a real estate agent. A new report from the Australian Housing and Urban Research […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Housing: New Reapolitik Needs a New Real Economics

March 22nd, 2018 · No Comments · Affordability, Cities, Economy, Government, Housing, Productivity

By Duncan Maclennan, Laura Crommelin, Ryan van den Nouwelant, Hal Pawson.  Originally published on John Menadue’s Pearls and Irritations. Managing the pressured housing markets of cities such as Sydney and Melbourne poses a major challenge to governments at both state and Federal levels. As has become increasingly clear, such trajectories are wreaking serious damage for younger […]

[Read more →]

Tags:·