Research from across the globe is now available FREE for you on the issue of housing affordability.
Housing Supply and Affordabilty Issues 2012-13
(March 2013)
Lessons learned from the 2011 Census are a key focus of the report. Also looks at the results of scoping research undertaken by the Council on Baby Boomers’ present and future housing choices, migrants’ settlement patterns, and how housing supply and affordability affects household formation and consumption.
State of Australian Cities 2012
(December 2012)
Compiled by the Major Cities Unit, this is the latest ‘report card’ on the progress and performance of our 18 biggest cities.
Tomorrow's suburbs
(September 2012)
This report recommends ways to make our new suburbs, shopping centres and homes more adaptable to change, without imposing undue costs on current residents. We can do many things now to ensure that our newest suburbs are flexible enough to thrive for decades to come.
Drivers of Demand for Zero and Towards Emissions Residential Retrofits
(August 2012)
This roadmap is designed to engage industry and government to identify the steps needed to reduce the carbon footprint of new and established housing across Australia.
Housing Supply and Affordability Reform
(August 2012)
This COAG report publishes the findings of an examination of the housing supply pipelines and government policies that affect housing supply and demand.
Net Zero Emission Homes: An examination of leading practice and pathways forward
(June 2012)
This report compares leading Australian and international practice in the delivery of zero carbon homes. It also assesses how applicable these initiatives are to the broader Australian market.
Housing Supply and Affordability – Key Indicators, 2012
(June 2012)
This publication updates the National Housing Supply Council's analysis of underlying housing demand, supply, the balance between the two, and housing affordability, from the previous State of Supply Report.
Our Nation
(March 2012)
Using ABS data the Property Council has a developed a world-first modelling system to map the demand for services across 42 geographic locations over the next 40 years.
Development Assessment Report Card 2012
(March 2012)
The RDC/Property Council Development Assessment Report Card 2012 reveals that despite recent reforms, Australia is still not delivering efficient, fair and consistent planning and development assessment systems.
Housing Innovations
(February 2012)
This book showcases the designs by many of the builders and the ULDA that have been delivered at Fitzgibbon Chase, or are on the drawing board, to deliver diversity in housing to suit the life styles and budgets of our contemporary community.
Innovative housing designs
(February 2012)
In conjunction with architects DegenhartSHEDD, the ULDA has developed a range of new designs for homes that can be built on smaller lots, reducing the overall cost of a house and land package to help address housing affordability.
The Housing We'd Choose
(June 2011)
The Housing We’d Choose presents original research on the preferences of Australians to explore the relationship between the housing we want and the housing we have. A representative sample of more than 700 residents in Sydney and Melbourne was asked to make real-world housing choices, limited by their budgets.
7th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2011
(January 2011)
The Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey’s rate housing affordability, based on the Median Multiple – that is, the median house price divided by the gross annual median household income of specific urban markets, for the 3rd Quarter of the previous year.
8th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2012
(January 2012)
The Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey’s rate housing affordability, based on the Median Multiple – that is, the median house price divided by the gross annual median household income of specific urban markets, for the 3rd Quarter of the previous year.
State of Supply Report 2011
(December 2011)
In the National Housing Supply Council's 3rd State of Supply Report, the In this year’s report the Council has updated its projections for underlying housing demand and supply through to 2030, as well as its analysis of the gap between the two.
2010 State of Supply Report
(April 2010)
For this second State of Supply Report, the National Housing Supply Council has updated: its projections of underlying demand and land and housing supply over 20 years from 2009 to 2029; the gap between housing demand and supply; its Key Indicators 1–6 on demand, supply and affordability, especially for low-income renters.
Development Assessment Forum Reform Implementation Report Card
(January 2010)
The Development Assessment Forum Reform Implementation Report Card reveals that Australia underperforms in the delivery of efficient, fair and consistent planning and development assessment systems.
Guideline to deliver diversity in new neighbourhood development
(March 2010)
Residential 30 Guideline - outlining the techniques to assist designers and assessing authorities to ensure quality residential communities, delivering higher diversity, are achieved.
Australia on the Move 2009
Australia’s population is moving upwards at a historically rapid rate. The Residential Development Council has commissioned research into the demographic trends across the nation which identities the housing needs of future Australians.
WENDELL COX - QLD Downtown Luncheon
(15 June 2007)
The Consequences of Australian urban consolidation and the future of Australia. From urbanisation trends & ideology, housing affordability & planning, urban transport and the importance of affluence - world renowned demographer and urban planner Wendell Cox provides some insight into the urban consolidation vs. urban sprawl debate.
BEYOND REACH - A workforce housing crisis in the making QUEENSLAND REPORT(June 2007)
Housing affordability in Queensland has hit crunch time, with new research showing households earning less than $80,000 a year would struggle to find a home they could reasonably afford*. The research, commissioned by the Residential Development Council, examined the combined household incomes^ of six different household types across 12 Queensland locations.
Demographia
(2007)
The definitive world wide research into housing and population trends. Demographia is produced by the Wendell Cox Consultancy, and among the many findings are a world wide rating of housing affordability. Australian cities do not rate well on a global scale and it shows that the Australian public does not have much faith in the restrictive planning policies and restrictions on the release of land for housing development that are blamed for the problem.
Australia's Land Supply Crisis
(January 2007)
Released in January 2007, this summary report presents the key findings of the 115 page Australian Broad Hectare Land Supply Study, commissioned exclusively for the Residential Development Council and prepared by Macroplan Australia Pty Ltd. The report examines official land supply projections, concluding that there are serious supply side deficiencies, brought about by misguided public policy settings, the combination of which threatens to do significant damage to housing affordability in Australia.
Improving Housing Affordability in NSW
(December 2006)
In late 2006 the Property Council of Australia's New South Wales Division released this policy discussion paper into the problems of housing affordability in NSW. The paper received considerable media attention and makes a series of recommendations for policy makers to consider.
Solving Americas Shortage of Homes Working Families Can Afford: Fifteen Success Stories - (USA)
(2006)
This joint Urban Land Institute - Fannie Mae Foundation research report was sponsored and financed by the Fannie Mae Foundation and is the first publication in a series to be published by Homes for Working Families, a newly created US organization with the mission of demonstrating that the affordable housing crisis facing America is solvable and that solutions are available to concerned and committed communities.
Planning Institute of Australia Report Card
(November 2006)
The Planning Institute of Australia's 2006 report card into the quality of planning by State Governments was not positive. Governments are rated by Australia's professional town planners on a variety of criteria from transport to housing to infrastructure.
Housing Infrastructure Taxes
(October 2006)
Commissioned exclusively for the Residential Development Council, this 2006 study by Urbis JHD investigates the shift from public sector debt to new homebuyer debt via housing infrastructure taxes. The report concludes that there is little transparency in the way these new taxes are levied and also shows that the levels of taxes for infrastructure charged to new home buyers is well in excess of the actual costs.
Home Truths - Whatever Happened to the Great Australian Dream?
(October 2006)
Bob Day is former president of the HIA and a respected home builder. In this paper, Bob looks at the issue of housing affordability in Australia and concludes that politicised planning systems and artificial constraints on the release of land are having a dramatic impact on a generation of Australians who are being forced to struggle financially to pay for these policies.
Australias National Greenhouse Inventory by Economic Sector 2004
(2006)
Released in late 2006, this report by the Australian Greenhouse Office provides research showing the contribution of the total residential sector to greenhouse emissions is only 9% of the total.
Local Governments Role in Development Assessment
(March 2006)
This poll of over 1000 Australians was commissioned by the Residential Development Council and released in 2006. It shows that the Australian public does not have much faith in the role of local government politicians when it comes to development assessment, with an overwhelming majority believing that a system of third party professional assessment panels is a better way to go.
Reasons to be fearful?
(March 2006)
This is the summary of a detailed study into the impact of various Australian government taxes, fees, charges and levies imposed on housing. Prepared exclusively for the Residential Development Council by Urbis JHD, the findings show that anywhere from a quarter to over a third of the price of a new home can be sheeted home to the collective impact of government taxes and regulation.
State of the Land
(2006)
This 2006 study by the Urban Development Institute of Australia investigates land supply in Australia in the 1995-2005 period. It concludes that state governments have generally failed to release sufficient land to match demand, and that this restriction on land release has been a major contributing to worsening housing affordability.
The Tragedy of Planning
(2006)
Subtitled "Losing the Great Australia Dream" this paper by Alan Moran, Director of the Deregulation Unit for the Institute of Public Affairs, examines the relationship between land use policy, town planning and land/housing prices. The paper concludes that land use policies and prescriptive planning strategies are forcing housing beyond the reach of many Australians - a situation brought about by public policy and not by a lack of land.
The State of the Nations Housing - (USA)
(2006)
This publication by the USA Joint Center for Housing Studies (Harvard University's center for information and research on housing in the United States) covers a wide variety of aspects of US housing markets in 2006 from demography to market trends to rental housing, ownership trends and affordability. Executive Summary only as pdf file.
"Increasing the Availability of Affordable Housing" - (USA)
(2006)
United States Centerfor Housing Policy - "A Handbook of High Impact Stateand Local Solutions." This report was prepared for the US Center for Housing Policy, and recommends six strategies to improve the availability of affordable homes in the USA: expand the availability of sites; reduce red tape; harness strong house markets; generate capital for affordable homes; preserve and recycle resources; and empower residents to purchase market rate homes.
Boulevard of Broken Dreams
(2006)
The road to home ownership is now so strewn with public policy obstacles that it's more like a Boulevard of Broken Dreams - according to a new report by the Residential Development Council.
Planning Housing Energy Use: A Review
(March 2006)
Drawing on a broad range of research on the sustainable development strategies pursued in capital cities across Australia, this paper explores the environmental impacts of different types of residential housing. With inconclusive or inadequate research findings available across the board, the Report suggests that the environmental footprint of housing is difficult to gauge and that government regulatory measures such as BASIX are limited in their ability to understand household behaviour – the underlying key to ensuring residential developments are in fact sustainable.
The Challenge of Change: Australian Cities & Urban Planning in the New Milennium
(February 2006)
Overall, the metropolitan planning strategies suggest an inflexible, over-neat vision for the future that, however well-intended, sits dangerously at odds with the picture of increasing geographical complexity that emerges clearly from recent research on the changing internal structure of Australian cities since the early 1990s.
Water Use and The Built Environment: Patterns of Water Consumption In Sydney
(December 2005)
This Report explores the patterns of water consumption in different forms of residential development in a range of locations across Sydney. Concluding that per capita water consumption remains relatively uniform across detached, semi-detached and unit dwellings, a distinct increase in consumption could however be seen in more affluent areas. The Report also identifies a range of recommended solutions to government policy-makers for effectively regulating and reducing domestic water use across the city and these guidelines have broad relevance to metropolitan areas nationally.
Recent House Price Trends and Homeownership Affordability
U.S.A Department of Housing and Urban Development
Office of Policy Development and Research
(May 2005)
The purpose of this report is to shed light on these questions by reviewing past research on house prices, by providing new evidence on recent trends in prices and ownership affordability, and by offering suggestions for next steps in house price research.
Unaffordable Housing
(June 2005)
Prepared by the UKbased Policy Exchange, this study examines the relationship between town planning controls and housing prices in the UKmarket. It concludes that restrictive planning policies have had a major impact on housing prices in the UK.
Australia on the Move
(June 2005)
Commissioned by the Residential Development Council, this exhaustive analysis of population trends and forecasts for every region of Australia was prepared by KPMG's Bernard Salt. The highly detailed study highlights the winners and losers in the growth stakes, and predicts we will need an additional 4.6 million net new dwellings by 2030.
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Bigger Better Faster More
(June 2005)
This UK based think tank report examines issues of housing affordability in several nations, including Australia. It concludes that planning systems and a deliberate restriction on the release of land for housing development are contributing to worsening housing affordability. The paper was produced by The Policy Exchange.
Why Have House Prices Gone Up? - (USA)
(2004)
Paper by Edward L. Glaeser, Harvard University and NBER, Joseph Gyourko University of Pennsylvania and Raven E. Saks Harvard University.
Abstract: Since 1950, housing prices have risen regularly by almost two percent per year. Between 1950 and 1970, this increase reflects rising housing quality and construction costs. Since 1970, this increase reflects the increasing difficulty of obtaining regulatory approval for building new homes. In this paper, we present a simple model of regulatory approval that suggests a number of explanations for this change including changing judicial tastes, decreasing ability to bribe regulators, rising incomes and greater tastes for amenities, and improvements in the ability of homeowners to organize and influence local decisions. Our preliminary evidence suggests that there was a significant increase in the ability of local residents to block new projects and a change of cities from urban growth machines to homeowners’ cooperatives.
"Inclusionary Zoning: Housing Supply and Demand - Do Housing Mandates Work"? (USA)
(2004)
Inclusionary zoning fails to deliver sufficient 'affordable' housing and adds to the costs of housing for everyone else. These are just two of the findings of this paper by Benjamin Powell, Ph.D and Edward Stringham, Ph.D for the US based Reason Institute.
Energy Requirements of Sydney Households
(January 2004)
This paper undertakes a comprehensive analysis of energy use patterns across the 14 statistical subdivisions of Sydney. Clear correlations can be drawn between energy use and income, household size, age, and degree of urbanity. While traditional approaches to easing the environmental impacts of cities include recommendations such as urban consolidation, such measures are, in fact, missing the point completely. This analysis concludes that as growth in per-capita household income increases exponentially along with energy, land and water usage, it can be concluded that the more affluent the area, the greater the energy consumption and according to this analysis, it is within this relationship lies the solution.
Restoring Housing Affordability
(July 2003)
This HIA policy paper on housing affordability was released over three years ago but remains good reading. Even in 2003, this report warned that "house prices are being inflated on two fronts; by indirect taxes and by land shortages." It seems governments have not been listening because land shortages and rising housing taxes are only getting worse.
