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 'urban renewal'

Facts sink glib housing supply mantra – the focus must be on affordable rental

November 21st, 2017 · No Comments · Affordability, Cities, Finance, Government, Housing, Housing supply, Sydney, urban renewal

By Hal Pawson, UNSW. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. As everyone supposedly knows, fixing housing unaffordability is simply a matter of boosting housing supply. But wait! With their just-published report on house-building and population growth, ANU academics Ben Phillips and Cukkoo Joseph have blown yet another hole in that […]

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Why investor-driven urban density is inevitably linked to disadvantage

August 23rd, 2017 · No Comments · Affordability, Cities, Construction, Housing, Housing conditions, Housing supply, Sydney, urban renewal

By Bill Randolph, UNSW This article is the third in a series based on new research into the place of lower-income and disadvantaged households in a compact city. Originally published on The Conversation. The densification of Australian cities has been heralded as a boon for housing choice and diversity. The up-beat promotion of “the swing […]

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It’s not just the buildings, high-density neighbourhoods make life worse for the poor

August 22nd, 2017 · No Comments · Affordability, Cities, Demographics, Housing, Public space, Sydney, urban renewal

By Laurence Troy, UNSW; Hazel Easthope, UNSW, and Laura Crommelin, UNSW This article is the second in a series based on new research into the place of lower-income and disadvantaged households in a compact city. Originally published on The Conversation. Last year marked the first time that construction began on more higher-density housing in Australia […]

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This is why apartment living is different for the poor

August 21st, 2017 · No Comments · Affordability, Cities, Housing conditions, Strata, urban renewal

By Hazel Easthope, UNSW; Laura Crommelin, UNSW, and Laurence Troy, UNSW This article is the first in a series based on new research into the place of lower-income and disadvantaged households in a compact city. There’s been a lot of talk about apartment living of late. Whether it’s millennials who can’t afford to buy a […]

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Saving Sirius: why heritage protection should include social housing

July 28th, 2017 · No Comments · Government, Law, Sydney, urban renewal

By Chris Martin, UNSW. Originally published on The Conversation. Campaigners to save Sydney’s landmark Sirius building from demolition had a significant legal win this week. Last year, the then state heritage minister, Mark Speakman, refused to list the Brutalist block of public housing apartments on the New South Wales Heritage Register. Doing so would reduce the […]

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Sydney must heed lessons of London affordable housing fiasco

July 20th, 2017 · No Comments · Government, Housing supply, Sydney, urban renewal

By Hal Pawson, Associate Director, City Futures Research Centre. A recent Sydney Morning Herald feature on urban renewal in London shone an interesting and quite revealing spotlight on a high profile project with a major Australian connection. Crucially, though this rather uncritical account completely missed the aspect of the story with the greatest direct relevance […]

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Compact for Renewal Project: what tenants want from social housing renewal

June 6th, 2017 · No Comments · Tenancy, urban renewal

By Bernie Coates, Visiting Fellow, City Futures Research Centre. Prior to retiring in 2015, Bernie was Director of Community Renewal in the Renewal Division of the NSW Land and Housing Corporation (formerly Department of Housing), and has worked in social and community housing for 40 years. In early 2016, Shelter NSW, the Tenant’s Union of […]

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Budget 2017 charts new social and affordable housing reform agenda

May 12th, 2017 · No Comments · Finance, Government, Housing, Housing supply, urban renewal

By Chris Martin, UNSW and Hal Pawson, UNSW. Originally published on The Conversation. Under pressure to tackle deepening housing affordability problems, Treasurer Scott Morrison has included various housing policy measures in his budget, some relating to Australia’s small sector of social and affordable housing. One headline-grabber is the creation of a new entity, the National Housing […]

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Unpacking Urban Renewal in Australia: politics, policies…and polarisation?

April 5th, 2017 · No Comments · Government, Housing, Sydney, urban renewal

By Laura Crommelin, City Futures Research Centre. A trio of new research papers from the City Futures team are now available online, each of which sheds light on a different aspect of the complex process of urban renewal. Together the papers identify the politics that drive urban renewal, examine the policies used to implement it, […]

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Too little…but not too late?

November 29th, 2016 · No Comments · Cities, Housing supply, Planning reform, urban renewal

by Judy Stubbs, Judith Stubbs Associates Like most public policy announcements, the Greater Sydney Commission’s recent release of its six Draft District Plans has some good news, and some news that housing researchers and public interest bodies would likely regard as not so good. GSC District Plans – two steps forward In many ways, the […]

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