Re-assessing the Post-War Housing Achievement: the Impact of War-damage Repairs on the New Housing Programme in London

This article contrasts the well-documented difficulties of thepost-war housing drive in 1945–48 with the little-knownachievements of the programme of war-damage repairs. Focusingon London in the first three critical post-war years, it showshow the drive for new housing was slowed by the resources requiredfor repairs, a policy justified because repairs provided morehouses with less labour than the new housing programme. Thearticle concludes by asking why the 110,000 previously unoccupiedhouses that were repaired cannot be part of a more positiveassessment of the housing achievements of the immediate post-waryears. ^* noab100{at}cam.ac.uk     

The Financialisation of Rental Housing 2.0: Releasing Housing into the Privatised Mainstream of Capital Accumulation

This article presents two cases of listed real estate companies that operate in the Ruhr metropolitan region of Germany. The first is Immeo Wohnen, a subsidiary of the French real estate investment trust (REIT) Foncière des Régions that was previously owned by a US hedge fund. The second is Vonovia, Germany's largest real estate company, originally a subsidiary of a British private equity firm. Both examples embody what we call the shift from financialisation 1.0 to financialisation 2.0, i.e. the transition from pure speculation to long‐term investment. We show that long‐term investment strategies are used by REITs and listed funds in order to release housing into the privatised mainstream of capital accumulation. With the advent of the financialisation of rental housing 2.0, the long‐term investment focus of these funds paradoxically enables a short‐term investment focus by buying and selling shares in these funds on the stock exchange.     

Housing Culture of Dongba

In late June of 2002, when I stayed in the Zuogong County seat with Tugar,chief editor of Records of Qamdo,we drove to Junyong Village, which is the site of the Dongba township government,along the Yuqu River Valley. The flourishing trees in the village provided a sharp contrast with the surrounding bare mountains.     

Housing Renovation in the Old Town of Lhasa

The old town of Lhasa has seen the passage of some 1,300 years. In old Tibet, the gov-ernment invested much in the development of religion instead of development of the social econo-my and towards raising the people‘s living standards. The narrow streets were lined with rows of small, low, dark and damp houses that, from a living point of view,were utterly unspeakable. After so many centuries, by the middle of the 20th centu-ry, the town was definitely showing its age.     

Housing Market Dynamics Under Stochastic Growth: An Application to the Housing Market in Boulder, Colorado

Recent housing-market studies have modeled slow stock and price adjustment with some success. However, the empirical procedures used in these models break down if housing stocks or prices are driven by stochastic growth. In this paper I suggest an error-correction model for analyzing housing supply and demand under conditions of stochastic growth for a regional housing market. The model is applied to the housing market in Boulder, Colorado from 1981 through 1995—a period of rapid growth in housing values in the area. Long-run housing supply and demand are shown to be inelastic with respect to changes in the price of housing. The results indicate that developers respond more accurately to housing-market disequilibrium attributable to supply-side disturbances than to disturbances generated by changes in the demand for housing. On the other hand, price appreciation is driven primarily by demand disturbances.     

Workers' Housing in Essex

Abstract

This paper derives from a survey carried out to identify and quantify surviving sites and structures, and assess their historic and architectural significance. The information gathered has been used to enhance the County Historic Environment Record by providing detailed records of each site and structure, a comparative assessment of their significance and prioritised recommendations for their future management and statutory protection. When a site or structure becomes the subject of development proposals, an informed response can, therefore, be made. Through such management strategies and statutory protection, landscapes and structures of significance and hence the historic and architectural character of the County can be protected for present and future generations to understand and appreciate. The survey report considered the sites and structures on an individual basis; the aggregation of structures in a particular settlement for the purposes of considering Conservation Area status; and takes a county-wide view on the comparative significance of individual sites within a local, regional and national context. This article, however, will analyse the results of this survey in order to learn more about the reasons behind why the accommodation was built, where it was built and its design.     

Housing Developments in Moscow in the 1990s

Ownership of an apartment is fast becoming something that most Muscovites will have in common. The privatization of the housing stock has resulted in a highly speculative housing market, and the buying and selling of apartments is slowly altering the social geography of Moscow. The construction of Western-style housing catering to the newly wealthy, while still very limited, is nonetheless symbolic of the changes under way. Control over property, that is, land and buildings, is a highly contentious political issue in Russia. Land represents wealth, and in Moscow there is strong political resistance to allowing private ownership of it. This paper examines some of dimensions of the privatization of housing in particular, and the private and public sector interests involved in property development in general. 7 figures, 2 tables, 16 references.     

Induced Cooperation in Housing Development: Comparing Housing Schemes in Four European Countries

In the development process of housing at a local level, several actors are involved. As a result, there is a need for coordination between the actors. The market can take care of this coordination. However, housing is generally considered to be, at least partly, the responsibility of the public sector. Leaving the development entirely to market forces is not an option for several reasons. But the other extreme, in which the public sector is entirely responsible for housing development is not considered a feasible option either. This paper investigates, using four case studies of housing development processes in different countries, what the role of the public sector, represented by the local planning authority, in such processes is, and how this can be put into effect. To that aim, the notion of 'induced cooperation' is introduced, as an approach for the local planning authority to pursue its housing and land use policy aims in an environment of mutual dependency.     

南京平民住宅问题补正

<近代史研究>2010年第4期所刊唐博<民国时期的平民住宅及其制度创建——以北平为中心的研究>一文,认为平民住宅最早兴建于1934年南京市政当局整顿市容,对此结论,尚可商榷. 国民政府奠都南京以后,该市人口年增长率达到14.2%①,随之而来的棚户数量的增加,成为一大社会问题.至1934年棚户总数已达29572户,占全市65482户的45.1%.②为此,市政府于1934年特组织成立"棚户住宅改善委员会",专门负责棚户住宅改造事宜③,始将棚户区的全面改造纳入市容整顿的规划中.市政会议议决通过改善棚户区的办法为"(甲)迁移,(乙)取缔,及(丙)建造平民住宅",并"觅定适当地点,与殷实商人及银行界官商合资起造平民住宅".④随后在和平门外、止马营、七里街等处筹建了多所平民住宅.但此次并非该市兴建平民住宅的开端,只是"于原有平民住宅外,加建一部分平民住宅,平价出租".⑤     

A Dynamic Household Model for the Housing Market of Amsterdam

This paper addresses the issue of incorporating household dynamics into operational dynamic urban models. Dynamic model approaches that can be used to model urban change are introduced and discussed. We conclude that these different approaches are best combined in an accounting framework. An example of an accounting framework for a dynamic model of Amsterdam is presented. The household submodel is discussed in detail and some preliminary results are given.     

Housing People in Medieval Greece

Despite the large number of publications related to house architecture in Greece, usually post-Medieval rather than Medieval, scholars have rarely examined domestic space as a boundary and, in particular, a system of activity organization. Architects, the scholars who most commonly investigate houses, have mainly been interested in the physical appearance of structures rather than the social and organizational aspects of housing in Greece. The goal of this paper is to look at the uses of space within houses in the Middle Byzantine and Frankish periods, reconstructed from excavation and survey plans.     

Housing Allowances: Emerging Answers

Katharine L. Bradbury and Anthony Downs (editors), Do Housing Allowances Work? (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1981), 419 pp; ISBN 0-8157-1052-6, $26.95. Judith D. Feins and Terry Saunders Lane, How Much for Housing? (Cambridge, Mass.: Abt Books, 1981), 208 pp; ISBN 0-89011-558-3, $19.00. Raymond J. Struyk and Marc Bendick, Jr. (editors), Housing Vouchers for the Poor; Lessons from a National Experiment (Washington, D.C.: The Urban Institute Press, 1981), 424 pp; ISBN 87766-280-0, $25.00.     

Public Housing and Intergovernmental Reform in the 1990s

The problem identified in this paper is twofold. One is the plight of public housing at the end of the decade, with State programs undermined by Commonwealth funding cuts; the other is the problem of intergovernmental reform and its consequences for discrete areas of policy such as housing. The paper traces developments in CommonwealthState housing arrangements, beginning with the reforms initiated through the Council of Australian Governments through to the still uncertain future of public housing under the Howard government. It examines a number of inquiries into housing and recommendations for reform which served the plans of reformist governments intent on separating out the functional roles and responsibilities of the Commonwealth and the States. In particular, these inquiries advocated an ‘affordability’s benchmark which sought to blur the distinction between public and private rental housing leading, inevitably, to the residualisation of the public housing sector.     

The Effects of Critical Habitat Designation on Housing Supply: An Analysis of California Housing Construction Activity*

Abstract. Under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is required to designate critical habitat (CH) for listed species. Designation could result in modification to or delay of residential development projects within habitat boundaries, generating concern over potential housing market impacts. This paper draws upon a large data set of municipal‐level (FIPS) building permit issuances and critical habitat designations (CHDs) in California over a 13‐year period to identify changes in the spatial and temporal pattern of development activity associated with CHD. We find that the proposal of the median‐sized CH results in a 23.5 percent decrease in the supply of housing permits in the short run and a 37.0 percent decrease in the long run. The results indicate the proposal of CH acts as a signal that all development in that FIPS will be more costly. We also find that the impact varies across the two periods in which CH is designated and by the number of years relative to when CH was first proposed.     

The Politics of Crisis: Deconstructing the Dominant Narratives of the Housing Crisis

This paper considers how dominant narratives of the housing crisis, since the 2008 banking crisis in England, have been created and what actions taken in its name. The paper deconstructs the term “crisis”, highlighting that its meaning has evolved from a critical moment to a protracted narrative which must be understood historically. Through discourse analysis into housing and party political policy, media and think tank reports, we argue that the employment of housing crisis by the government and others perceives it as an outcome of housing supply constraints and over-regulation—narratives that have justified subsequent policy actions aimed at propping up the housing and financial systems, opening new avenues for housing commodification, deregulation and financialisation and reproducing crisis anew. However, we note that these narratives can also break down and space can be created for the articulation of new narratives which refocus housing crises as emerging from inequality and class divisions.     

Capital's Metropolis: Chicago and the Transformation of American Housing Policy

The US economic recovery of the 1990s accelerated amidst privatization, selective devolution and the reinvention of the public sector itself. Simultaneously, mortgage finance and assisted housing policy were recast in terms of market processes, individual responsibility and private home-ownership, even as gentrification enjoyed a dramatic resurgence. The intersection of these seemingly unrelated processes signifies an important transformation of the American inner city. Nowhere are these connections more explicit than in Chicago, where newly devolved and flexible policy infrastructures are built on the ashes of prominent experiments of previous generations. In this paper we use Chicago as a context to explore the linkages between reinvestment, housing finance and the reinvention of assisted housing. We analyse local and federal developments in assisted housing policy and develop a multivariate analysis of mortgage loans in Chicago's neighbourhoods during the 1990s expansion. New constructions of scale in assisted housing, exemplifed by Chicago's Lake Parc Place and the federal HOPE VI programme, constitute a centripetal devolution mediated by the relationship between public policy and local private market forces. National changes in housing finance have altered historical processes of redlining, disinvestment, and gentrification. Mortgage capital, traditionally responsible for the creation or exacerbation of rent gaps, now lubricates the flow of capital into the gentrifying frontier of the inner city. The intensified market discipline of housing policy, based partly on theories incubated in Chicago, suggests a new regime of neighbourhood change in the American inner city.