Recent modelling developments in the housing economics literature are reviewed and drawn on to construct a national housing model for Singapore. An econometric approach was adopted and a system of equations was formulated to explain the behaviour of the private owner-occupation housing market in Singapore. The model is estimated on quarterly data over the period 1975-1995. The estimation and simulation results are good. On the basis of the results it is concluded that Central Provident Funds policies on promoting home ownership, directed at lowering the cost of housing capital, exert a strong influence on housing demand and house prices. Finally, some areas for future improvements in data construction and model specification are identified.

This thesis set out to find the correlation between social values and standards in social housing in two major milestones in the developments in state-provided housing. The new spirit of optimism after the Second World War was developed by the latter part of the 1960s into the influential Parker Morris report. Having been commissioned by a Conservative Government in 1959 it was made obligatory for social housing in 1967 by the Labour Party in government. The post-war years that heralded the inception of the welfare state in Britain and are often referred to as the Consensus years, are investigated here and found to be centered on a social democratic agenda. In contrast with the above period, the post-1979 years became identified with their embrace of a liberal agenda, formulated by neo-liberal thinkers and politicians. This period which has the hallmarks of what has been referred to as a neo-liberal consensus was identified by the state efforts to reverse the social democratic agenda of the post-war years. Substantial social policy changes can be identified in the two contrasting periods, manifested particularly in the adoption of the universalist approach to social policy in the former with the selectivist approach in the latter period. This thesis investigates the factors that led to changes in standards in social housing in the two periods by searching for correlations between policy changes from universalism to selectivism and the dominant social values of the time. A number of housing estates were selected and the space and environmental standards in them were compared to verify the changes in standards. The political Party manifestos, policy documents, committee papers and recommendations were analysed to find indications of the state’s ideological stance at the given periods. The policy statements and social and housing policies were also analysed to find the correlation between the string of factors that lead from the state to the final built artefact in the form of social values, social policies, housing policies and social housing standards. In order to verify the findings of the research, semi-structured informal interviews were conducted with prominent actors in provision of social housing. In addition two housing estates were studied in detail as case studies of each period. The research found that the periods of ascendancy of social democratic ideology in the state, and social values based on the significance of the collective society and the equality of all citizens led to higher space standards in social housing, while the periods of ascendancy of neo-liberal ideology in the state, and social values based on the significance of individual action based on dominance of market relations led to a drop in social housing standards. A significant finding of this research was the importance of individual actors involved in the provision of social housing and their role in interpreting regulations in favour (or against) promoting higher or lower standards.

The undersupply of housing in England has created a pervasive sense of crisis about the delivery of sufficient new dwellings. Alternative forms of housing provision therefore merit further exploration, particularly those that can deliver low cost, stable accommodation in good condition. Potential remedies may be found in various models for collective ownership of housing. Housing collectives are organisations controlled by their members and residents, operating in a defined geography, which collectively own and manage land and housing for the benefit of a designated group. But why have such organisations consistently been a marginal form of provision? And do the patterns of benefits and costs they create make their future expansion desirable? Significant gaps in knowledge emerge in attempting to answer such questions. Furthermore, the relationship between the benefits and costs arising within collectives, and the form and function of these organisations, is poorly understood. Three housing collectives were studied intensively to address these gaps in knowledge. Ideas from realist social science and analytical sociology are brought to bear on processes of change. The study finds powerful constraints and enablements in the internal workings of collectives, as well as a series of external constraints and enablements arising through the structure of relations around the collectives. Residents and members of the collectives identified a range of costs and benefits. Causal mechanisms are introduced to show how these perceived outcomes are, in part, attributable to collective form and function. The rules governing collective forms blend with internal regulation, to generate certain costs and benefits. Furthermore, the history of each collective tends to shape current behaviours to preserve original ideals and achieve desired outcomes. The lessons from this research are far reaching for activists, support agencies and governments, revealing forms of agency and state intervention which can affect the conditions for future collectivism.

This thesis examines the role and value architectural design and experiences in occupancy can play in creating sustainable housing; as a liveable house and a homely place. Sustainable housing is a relatively new field, but is starting to move into mainstream housing. However, current sustainable literatures specifically in architectural design predominantly focus on adopting a technological perspective to creating sustainable housing. Alongside this, whilst post-occupancy evaluations are becoming increasingly widespread in this field, little is known about how people feel living in sustainable houses. This work questions these issues and addresses the gap in current knowledge. Central to this work are the processes and practices of designing these houses, the practical and emotional factors of liveability and homeliness and the impact of including new technologies on living in sustainable housing. The perceptions of architectural design in sustainable housing are explored from the perspective of housing professions involved in creating these houses. Occupants' experiences are also examined to determine a more involved perspective of living in these houses as homes. The research is framed around a qualitative inductive investigation, which used specific case studies to explore a range of experiences in sustainable housing; in both commercial housing development and one-off projects. Data was collected from interviews and observations with Architects, developers, housing industry representatives and occupants of existing sustainable houses. As a result, this research argues that the housing industry needs to look beyond quantifiable factors of achieving efficient, technical solutions and consider the wider social and creative possibilities available within sustainable housing. Discussions will show that understanding the experiences in design and occupancy is critical in advancing current sustainable practices and enabling this field to evolve into mainstream housing, as homes people want to live in.

The failure of the conventional top-down approaches in human settlement development in Third World has resulted in the increased numbers, sizes and densities of informal settlements. This has resulted from the increasing majority of Third World populations finding shelter in informal housing. Being informal, these settlements are not provided with urban services and infrastructual facilities by the Central and local Governments. This results in the urban low income groups having no option but to cater for their own needs. Therefore, the urban poor have come up with viable solutions, outside the formal or legal ways of acquiring land, developing houses and providing urban services and infrastructural facilities. It is this dynamism shown by the urban poor in organising the construction of their own housing and providing related urban services and infrastructure which, in the 1970s, resulted in the recognition and appreciation that informal housing was less of a problem and more of a solution. These solutions take the form of participatory initiatives which involves the undertaking of the development process by the low income groups themselves. The above recognition and appreciation, resulted from the realisation that, when solutions to shelter for low income groups in Third World countries take into consideration the involvement of the community, be they top-down or bottom-up, and where the community are fully involved in decision-making in the various stages of the projects, there are significant impacts on the improvements of shelter. For purposes of this study community participation results when the community mobilises itself to solve common problems or undertake certain activities spontaneously with or without external assistance. They do so by being involved in the decision-making, implementation and the continued management of the projects.

This study investigates the transformation process of housing policies in Taiwan as the state underwent democratization.

Housing markets are complex and dynamic entities. They are fragmented across space and their structure and functionality alters over time. This complexity makes monitoring and steering markets difficult and is one of the reasons that planning for housing is analytically and technically challenging. To analyse housing effectively, it is widely held that we should conceptualise the market as a part of a system of linked but spatially coherent Housing Markets Areas, comprising internally of inter-linked submarkets that are over time subject to changes in configuration and function. In response, this thesis adopts a systems approach to frame the analysis of housing market dynamics (O’Sullivan et al, 2004). Within this framework, the study aims to understand the spatial and temporal dynamics of the Greater Manchester housing system in recent years. The analysis seeks to demonstrate the usefulness of a market systems approach that employs visual data analytical methods to provide insights into market processes. Specifically the thesis analyses housing search, migration and house price and offers a case study that explores the interactions between HMAs, and submarket connections within an HMA. The major contribution is to highlight the importance of considering a housing market as a system of linked HMAs and submarkets, to illustrate the useful insights that might be generated using visual data methods and to provide a novel analysis that combines role of housing search, migration and house price data in gaining a better understanding of how a local housing market works. In doing so, the study is at the forefront of the emerging literature that uses new micro-datasets to analyse search information.

No description available.

In 2011 England experienced the worst outbreak of urban unrest in a generation (Newburn, 2015). The cost to the public purse was significant, lives were lost and property destroyed. Immediate political pronouncements and media coverage reporting the disorder painted a picture of lawlessness and anarchy. The focus of responses from political figures and in mainstream media was on the declining moral and respect of those involved (Flint & Powell, 2012). The day before the riots the Department for Communities and Local Government launched a consultation seeking views on extending the powers of possession to social housing providers to make the process of eviction easier and more flexible. This consultation was updated on the 10 August 2011; just four days after the riots had begun, to reflect the disorder. Within this consultation a question was added as to whether more eviction powers needed to be given to housing providers to deal with situations such as riots. Despite vociferous contestation from organisations such as Shelter, the proposals passed into legislation under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act (2014). To this day there remains little evidence about the actual housing tenure of the rioters. Very little has since been discussed about the use of housing-related mechanisms as a suitable way of dealing with urban unrest. Housing has remained relatively elusive in the discussion about the riots despite new powers of possession specifically geared towards social housing tenants as a result of the 2011 disorders. This study seeks to address this gap. The exploration of the housing-urban disorder nexus is the thread running through this thesis, and it examines how the responses to the riots demonstrates contemporary rationalities for governing marginal populations and explores the apparent shift towards a more punitive society. Empirical data has been collected from 30 frontline practitioners working in housing, behaviour control and policing roles. These practitioners work in cities across England for organisations of various scales. Establishing a practitioner view was important, as these are the actors who sit between national level policy frameworks and the tenants whose day-to-day lives are governed (to a certain extent) by housing management practice. The aim of this study is to explore and attempt to understand from the perspective of one-the-ground officers and authorities why such a housing-related response to the disorders materialised, to what degree it is believed that these mechanisms are appropriate and a useful part of the behaviour-control arsenal and what, if anything, this might change for the future of governing populations.

The tenants’ movement in English social housing has been institutionalised by technologies of collaborative governance and eclipsed by the rituals of public participation. Once characterised as an urban social movement, it is now fragmented and co-opted, enabled by the managerial strategies of housing organisations and appearing to exist only as the outcome of tenant participation policies. This study, however, evidences the continuing contentions of collective action within this ‘domesticated’ social movement and charts the resurgent challenge it presents to the imposition of consensus around a new social settlement and a restructured welfare state. In a radical inversion of the traditional narrative of movement institutionalisation, pushing forward the boundaries of governance theory, and uniting social movement theory and housing policy for the first time since the 1980s, this research demonstrates how a contentious movement emerges from the regulated practices of participation and evidences the construction of oppositional identities and new articulations of social citizenship. It advances the understanding of tenant collective action in social housing and provides a challenging study of the ability of contemporary social movements, especially ‘poor people’s movements’, to shape the debate around public services and engage with the unfinished project of welfare reform.