Housing supply and urban planning reform: the recent Australian experience, 2003–2012

Abstract

This paper examines the emergence in Australia of housing supply as a key consideration in urban policy and reform. Australia has experienced declining housing affordability over the past decade, and sluggish housing construction since the GFC. As in many other nations, there has been a growing emphasis on land use planning as the major supply constraint, resonating with theoretical debates about the legitimacy of planning and development control in the context of an ongoing neo-liberal campaign for deregulation across the Australian public sector. Through a detailed analysis of Australian government and industry discourse between 2003 and 2012, this paper finds the arguments for planning as the chief cause of housing market problems weak and contradictory, and heavily reflect the views of industry lobby groups. While not absolving planning as a potential supply side constraint, ongoing change to the planning system itself creates uncertainty and distracts from the range of positive policy levers that might be used to promote housing supply and affordable homes for low-and moderate-income groups.

An Analysis of Professional Perceptions of Criteria Contributing to Sustainable Housing Affordability

“…By 1990, "affordability" had become a common term in UK housing policy [1] and it has continued to be an increasingly important policy issue across the globe [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Nevertheless, although there is abundant discussion about housing affordability [11][12][13], a specific definition of the concept remains unclear and challenging in both academic and policy environments which means it is difficult to build consensus on the meaning.…”

Taking planning seriously: Compulsory purchase for urban planning in the Netherlands

“…Firstly, it is the analysis of 'ownership constraints' (Adams, Disberry, Hutchison, & Munjoma, 2001) that may disrupt development planning and impact the attractiveness of cities negatively. Secondly, it is the presentation of planning as harmful to property development, for example by reducing housing supply (Gurran & Phibbs, 2013). The present paper relates to the first line of analysis, by investigating if compulsory purchase potentially can address these ownership constrains in cases in which owners indicate that they are willing to implement the plan.…”

Housebuilding, demographic change and affordability as outcomes of local planning decisions: Exploring interactions using a sub-regional model of housing markets in England

“…Glaeser, Gyourko, & Saiz, 2008;Glaeser, Gyourko, & Saks, 2006;Gurran & Phibbs, 2013;Gyourko, Saiz, & Summers, 2008;Ihlanfeldt, 2006;Quigley & Raphael, 2005). Countries differ in their geographical context (how much space) and in the way land-use planning operates (e.g.…”