This document discusses the vision of the ULI Europe Residential Council on housing affordability issues in European cities. Key points include:
- Housing affordability is one of the most critical challenges facing European cities today, caused by factors like migration, insufficient affordable housing development, and lack of investment and land.
- A lack of affordable housing has negative impacts on quality of life, social inequality, and economic competitiveness of cities.
- The council is interested in exploring best practices for developing and preserving affordable housing, embracing densification and innovative solutions, and influencing public policy to promote affordable development.
- Housing affordability is important for city economic performance and competitiveness, as cities need a range of affordable options
Informe sobre el papel de las políticas públicas en desarrollo emprendedor y potencial innovador de los sectores culturales y creativos. En él reconoce a Conexiones improbables como ejemplo de Buenas Prácticas para la Unión Europea.
Blueprint Lisbon: Creative Economy (English Version).
- Creative Industries and creative Economy
- Why Cities?
- Why Lisbon?
- How valuable is the Creative Economy in Lisbon?
- Mapping the Creative Economy of Lisbon
- A Call for Action.
Project CYPRUS XXI: United States of Cyprus (USC)
One CYPRUS – SUSTAINABLE (GREEN SMART SOCIAL) NATION DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
An Integrated Policy, Growth Strategy and Investment Plan
The United Cyprus Sustainable Development Strategy is aimed to create an Eco-Smart Island of all-sustainable future society, with
smart citizens,
intelligent government,
integrated infrastructure,
innovative industry and green economy,
high quality eco tourism,
intelligent banking system and financial services,
progressive logistics and the maritime services,
smart ICT services,
world-class healthcare,
innovation education and research,
creative work and green lifestyle
The Med Island of Cyprus
I-Cyprus Investment Strategy
Smart Recovery Plan
Overcoming Mass Poverty, Unemployment and Corruption
State Restructuring
Cyprus Recovery Strategy
Smart Growth
Green Economy
Inclusive Society
Silk Road
New Maritime Route
Informe sobre el papel de las políticas públicas en desarrollo emprendedor y potencial innovador de los sectores culturales y creativos. En él reconoce a Conexiones improbables como ejemplo de Buenas Prácticas para la Unión Europea.
Blueprint Lisbon: Creative Economy (English Version).
- Creative Industries and creative Economy
- Why Cities?
- Why Lisbon?
- How valuable is the Creative Economy in Lisbon?
- Mapping the Creative Economy of Lisbon
- A Call for Action.
Project CYPRUS XXI: United States of Cyprus (USC)
One CYPRUS – SUSTAINABLE (GREEN SMART SOCIAL) NATION DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
An Integrated Policy, Growth Strategy and Investment Plan
The United Cyprus Sustainable Development Strategy is aimed to create an Eco-Smart Island of all-sustainable future society, with
smart citizens,
intelligent government,
integrated infrastructure,
innovative industry and green economy,
high quality eco tourism,
intelligent banking system and financial services,
progressive logistics and the maritime services,
smart ICT services,
world-class healthcare,
innovation education and research,
creative work and green lifestyle
The Med Island of Cyprus
I-Cyprus Investment Strategy
Smart Recovery Plan
Overcoming Mass Poverty, Unemployment and Corruption
State Restructuring
Cyprus Recovery Strategy
Smart Growth
Green Economy
Inclusive Society
Silk Road
New Maritime Route
ETTW - Ylva Tivéus, presentation Social, Cultural and Perception Aspects of M...euromonde
Mrs. Ylva Tivéus, Member of Board, Europeans Throughout The World
Social, Cultural and Perception Aspects of MObility
A European Year for Mobile Citizens
http://euromonde.eu
For the Final of the European Student Parliament in Copenhagen in June 2014, I created a preparation kit. My working group of around 10 young students from all over Europe was asked to develop new ideas for future mobility in cities.
In my overview I touched several topics, such as understanding cities, relevance of mobility, current challenges and perspectives for the future.
More information on my blog: hoffmannmartin.eu/youth-science-finals-of-the-european-student-parliaments/
FULL VERSION:
This report has been commissioned by the Future Cites Catapult as a collaborative undertaking with Dr Calzada, MACI Innovations and Translokal publishing to research the topic of Smart Infrastructure in nominated Cities in both the UK and Brazil.
Future Cities Catapult is a global centre of excellence for urban innovation and as part of this Collaborative Approach Research & Development work is being delivered to support the UK government Prosperity Fund.
The smart city landscape is broad and complex in nature. And even though there’s an unmistakable need to make urban environments smarter and more liveable, the great majority of cities have to deal with a history of ‘siloed’ approaches, blocking a more integrated and holistic way of approaching urban challenges.
The study commences an explanation and demonstration of the approach taken on how to structure the study and case studies themselves and proceeds to an in-depth review on how both the UK and Brazilian cities such as Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds, Belfast Sau Paulo, Brasilia and Belo Horizonte have been addressing the smart city theme, by looking into the way they approached the challenge locally.
This research is supported by expert contrast accounts and targeted interviews with key stakeholders in the smart cities arena, to gather insights on methodologies, current practices, and the impact of these approaches in the urban environment.
The final section of the policy explores a fresh new concept of how UK approaches can be applied to Brazilian Cities and develops a methodology for approaching change.
Successful smart city change programmes must first look to the nature of the recipient city or urban environment to understand the need, issues and opportunities. These are often found in the very essence of the place; its urban culture, nation tradition, heritage, and political landscape as well as any economic drivers/ aspirations, technological capabilities and the dynamics of society itself.
The emphasis on smart cities and technology must be firmly set in the context of the “place”. With this in mind, very rarely will single solutions be found and or developed that can deliver effective change that is applicable to all environments nationally or regionally and therefore a city approach must be adopted.
President's Challenge
Nation's Challenge
Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda
Smart World
Sustainable Nations,
Intelligent Countries
Smart State
Future Territories
State Intelligence Platform
ETT Jonathan Chaloff jmc Riga 11 5-15 Macro-Economic Aspects of Peoples Mob...euromonde
Macro Economic Aspects Of People's Mobility
Mr. Jonathan Chaloff, Administrator, International Migration Division,
Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, OECD
http://euromonde.eu
What happened in Quito: An account on UN Habitat 3Roberto Rocco
This is an account of the 3rd Un Habitat Conference in Quito and an analysis of the New Urban Agenda, made by Roberto Rocco and Ana Maria Fernandez-Maldonado (TU Delft)
Media Life is a course intended for undergraduate students across campus. Its goal is to make people aware of the role that media play in their everyday life. The key to understanding a "media life" is to see our lives not as lived WITH media (which would lead to a focus on media effects and media-centric theories of society), but rather IN media (where the distinction between what we do with and without media dissolves).
Engagement and Retention Guide packed with quick tips, article links, and how to drive engagement and retention today. Leaders' and Managers' how to guide for every day use.
ETTW - Ylva Tivéus, presentation Social, Cultural and Perception Aspects of M...euromonde
Mrs. Ylva Tivéus, Member of Board, Europeans Throughout The World
Social, Cultural and Perception Aspects of MObility
A European Year for Mobile Citizens
http://euromonde.eu
For the Final of the European Student Parliament in Copenhagen in June 2014, I created a preparation kit. My working group of around 10 young students from all over Europe was asked to develop new ideas for future mobility in cities.
In my overview I touched several topics, such as understanding cities, relevance of mobility, current challenges and perspectives for the future.
More information on my blog: hoffmannmartin.eu/youth-science-finals-of-the-european-student-parliaments/
FULL VERSION:
This report has been commissioned by the Future Cites Catapult as a collaborative undertaking with Dr Calzada, MACI Innovations and Translokal publishing to research the topic of Smart Infrastructure in nominated Cities in both the UK and Brazil.
Future Cities Catapult is a global centre of excellence for urban innovation and as part of this Collaborative Approach Research & Development work is being delivered to support the UK government Prosperity Fund.
The smart city landscape is broad and complex in nature. And even though there’s an unmistakable need to make urban environments smarter and more liveable, the great majority of cities have to deal with a history of ‘siloed’ approaches, blocking a more integrated and holistic way of approaching urban challenges.
The study commences an explanation and demonstration of the approach taken on how to structure the study and case studies themselves and proceeds to an in-depth review on how both the UK and Brazilian cities such as Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds, Belfast Sau Paulo, Brasilia and Belo Horizonte have been addressing the smart city theme, by looking into the way they approached the challenge locally.
This research is supported by expert contrast accounts and targeted interviews with key stakeholders in the smart cities arena, to gather insights on methodologies, current practices, and the impact of these approaches in the urban environment.
The final section of the policy explores a fresh new concept of how UK approaches can be applied to Brazilian Cities and develops a methodology for approaching change.
Successful smart city change programmes must first look to the nature of the recipient city or urban environment to understand the need, issues and opportunities. These are often found in the very essence of the place; its urban culture, nation tradition, heritage, and political landscape as well as any economic drivers/ aspirations, technological capabilities and the dynamics of society itself.
The emphasis on smart cities and technology must be firmly set in the context of the “place”. With this in mind, very rarely will single solutions be found and or developed that can deliver effective change that is applicable to all environments nationally or regionally and therefore a city approach must be adopted.
President's Challenge
Nation's Challenge
Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda
Smart World
Sustainable Nations,
Intelligent Countries
Smart State
Future Territories
State Intelligence Platform
ETT Jonathan Chaloff jmc Riga 11 5-15 Macro-Economic Aspects of Peoples Mob...euromonde
Macro Economic Aspects Of People's Mobility
Mr. Jonathan Chaloff, Administrator, International Migration Division,
Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, OECD
http://euromonde.eu
What happened in Quito: An account on UN Habitat 3Roberto Rocco
This is an account of the 3rd Un Habitat Conference in Quito and an analysis of the New Urban Agenda, made by Roberto Rocco and Ana Maria Fernandez-Maldonado (TU Delft)
Media Life is a course intended for undergraduate students across campus. Its goal is to make people aware of the role that media play in their everyday life. The key to understanding a "media life" is to see our lives not as lived WITH media (which would lead to a focus on media effects and media-centric theories of society), but rather IN media (where the distinction between what we do with and without media dissolves).
Engagement and Retention Guide packed with quick tips, article links, and how to drive engagement and retention today. Leaders' and Managers' how to guide for every day use.
We are very pleased to share the full report from our Future of Cities project – now available as PDF on SlideShare and as digital print via Amazon.
As previously shared in PPT format (https://www.slideshare.net/futureagenda2/future-of-cities-2017-summary), this is the detailed synthesis of insights gained from multiple discussions around the world. It brings together views on how cities are changing from a wide range of experts from 12 workshops undertaken over the past 2 years in Beirut, Christchurch, Delhi, Dubai, Guayaquil, Mumbai, Singapore, London, Toronto and Vienna.
Cities are where most of us choose to live, work and interact with others. As a result they are where innovation happens, where most ideas form and from which economic growth largely stems. They are also where significant problems can first emerge and where challenges are magnified.
This report explores some of the common challenges found in urban areas such as managing migration, countering inequality and sustainable scaling; highlights shared ambitions of having healthier, accessible and more intelligent cities; and also details some of the emerging concerns around creating cities that are safe, resilient and open to broader collaboration.
As a compilation of thoughts and ideas from a host of experts we would foremost like to thank all of the many workshop participants for their input. Without your views we would not be able to curate this synthesis. In addition we would also like to thank others who have added in extra content, shared reports and reviewed the core document. We hope that this reflects all your varied perspectives.
Going forward, we also hope that this will be of use to those leading cities, designing new districts, developing policy and exploring opportunities for urban innovation. We know that several cities are already using the insights as stimulus for challenging strategy and stimulating innovation. In addition, linking into to another Growth Agenda driven project looking at the Worlds Most Innovative Cities (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/innovation-hot-spots-countries-vs-cities-tim-jones), this is also being used as part of events designed to help future leaders identify how and where they can make most impact.
As with all Future Agenda open foresight projects the output is shared under Creative Commons (Non Commercial) and so we trust that you may find it useful. This PDF on slideshare can be freely downloaded and shared. If you want to print out the report, the easiest way is to order a digital hardcopy via Amazon (for which they unfortunately charge a fee) but this is a quick and high quality print.
Smart Cities - Why they're not working for us yet.Rick Robinson
My presentation to the April 2016 Eurocities Knowledge Sharing Forum in Rennes. My focus was on describing Smart Cities as an economic and political challenge; and exploring the policy mechanisms that could be used to incentivise private sector investments in business and technology to support local social, economic and environmental outcomes. Further description and supporting evidence for these ideas can be found at https://theurbantechnologist.com/2016/02/01/why-smart-cities-still-arent-working-for-us-after-20-years-and-how-we-can-fix-them/
“REINVENTING EUROPE THROUGH LOCAL INITIATIVE”: THE BOOK
(6 October 2014) - AEIDL has published a compilation of the findings and initiatives presented at the “Reinventing Europe through Local Initiative” conference held in Brussels on 19-20 February 2014 on the occasion of its 25th anniversary.
The 88-page illustrated publication presents the main findings and perspectives arising from the conference, as well as the presentations of each of the 25 “promising initiatives” selected by AEIDL to feature at the event.
Available in English and French, in print and electronic versions, the publication is a springboard of ideas to continue and deepen discussions initiated in February.
The printed version can be ordered from AEIDL.
Презентація "HOUSING in the new Urban Agenda" комітету житлового господарства ООН-ХАБІТАТ.
Доповідь з круглого столу «Кращі практики житлової політики та можливості їх застосування в Україні», проведеного Держмолодьжитлом за підтримки Секції по житловому господарству та землекористуванню ЕЄК ООН і Програми розвитку ООН в Україні 26 квітня 2018 року.
Creative Hubs: Understanding The New Economy (BC, 2016)Rony Octavianto
This report has been commissioned to better understand their diverse value, processes and motivations and in doing so, analyse how best to support and stimulate the wider creative economy they are rooted in, particularly in times of political and financial uncertainty.
Professor Katie Williams - Director of the Centre for Environment and Planning, UWE - delivers a speech to SWO Conference delegates on how through housing planners might help to 'realise prosperity'.
A collection of contributions of leading figures within the European third sector, who deal with five crucial challenges on a daily basis:
1. coordination
2. capacity
3. financial sustainability
4. governance
5. reputation
Their testimonies map out a range of ways in which these challenges can be addressed, and offer a personal view on how to survive and thirve as a leader in this new era.
English: Call for papers - the 2nd Latin American and Caribbean Forum of Adeq...Graciela Mariani
Request for the Presentation of Experiences
Monterrey, Mexico, May 6-8, 2015
I. Background:
The last several decades have seen significant changes in territorial, demographic, climatic, social, economic, technological and cultural dynamics, which have accelerated urbanization processes throughout the world. Insufficient policies and a shortfall of adequate housing interventions and development models have added to the arena high rates of exclusion, inequality, inequity and rights violations, as well as increases in the cost of land relative to income, precarious housing conditions and urban poverty. These changes, their related consequences and the various intents to address them are central to discussions surrounding development agendas.
For the first time in history, more than half of the world’s population resides in cities, and more than 90 percent of urban growth is occurring in developing countries.
Globally, approximately one billion people are living in slums. They lack access to basic services, suffer inadequate housing conditions and insecure tenure, and face issues related to environmental degradation, vulnerability and a host of social problems such as unemployment, violence and crime. Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is the developing world’s most urbanized region, with more than 75 percent of its housing in urban areas. We must work together to seek solutions that will help improve the housing conditions of more than 120 million Latin Americans.
The First Forum on Adequate Housing for Latin America and the Caribbean, “Shared solutions for inclusive cities," took place in Bogota, Colombia in 2012, with the objective of building partnerships and solutions to increase access to safe, adequate housing.
The Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, to take place in 2016, will lay out a “New Urban Agenda” focused on policies and strategies that will create more sustainable and equitable urban spaces. This New Urban Agenda will influence decisions and priorities over the next 20 years—both within the region and throughout the world. Accordingly, the Second Forum on Adequate Housing for Latin America and the Caribbean, “Housing for Life” (May 6-8th, 2015), will unite stakeholders from the various sectors (private, government, civil organizations and academia) that play a role in the region’s urban agenda to discuss ideas, experiences and proposals that turn innovative solutions and models into effective, multi-actor systems, and establish the pathways needed to institutionalize these systems and ensure the urban future we envision.
1. ULI Europe Residential
Council Vision Statement
February 2017
Author:
Amanprit Arnold, ULI Europe
Contributing author:
Lisette van Doorn, ULI Europe
3. The pan-European Residential Council’s mission is to share best practices, lessons learnt and innovative
solutions from a diverse group passionate about the creation, expansion and retention of high-quality
housing that is affordable for all and fits their living needs in our European cities as a key success factor
for vibrant, dynamic and economically successful cities.
The Council captures the views of both ULI members and experts in the field on all types of affordable
residential property across Europe and looks to share ideas and experiences from around the world to help
provide insights into best practice in housing well.
This paper lays out the vision of the Residential Council on "housing well”, which the Council interprets as
meeting the challenges related to affordability and flexible, "fit for demand" housing stock. The paper also
outlines the causes and consequences of housing affordability issues and provides aspirations for a future
programme of work that the Council wishes to undertake in Europe in the next 3 years.
• Development and preservation of high-quality affordable housing
• Housing affordability as a key success factor for keeping cities competitive
• Low-income, skillful workforce and mixed-income housing availability
• Sharing international and European best practices for housing affordability
• Tax credits and other public sources of capital and subsidies
• Private market investment initiatives, debt and subsidy sources
• For profit and non-profit development structures
• Explore and embrace effective densification and innovative housing solutions
• Housing design to follow the principles of good density
• Role of modern methods of housing construction (off-site manufacturing)
• Influencing public housing policy to promote affordable housing development
• Avoiding the build-up of asymmetric risks and address affordability from a long-term perspective
1 | ULI Europe Residential Council Vision Statement
Mission
Interest Areas
4. “An important issue is the fragmentation of housing market sectors
and what that means for understanding what housing affordability
now is. There are affordable housing rental sectors across Europe,
but they have come under so much pressure that accessing them has
become a problem.”
Professor Richard Ronald, University of Amsterdam
2 | ULI Europe Residential Council Vision Statement
Cities can be viewed as both the source of and
solution to many of today’s economic, social and
environmental challenges and they are evolving
as places for people to live, work and play and
for investors to invest in. However, many
European cities increasingly experience housing
affordability being one of the most critical
urban challenges in European cities today.
Housing affordability issues are caused by a
number of factors, including migration to cities,
insufficient delivery of affordable housing, issues
with the management of existing housing stock,
and the availability of investment and land.
Affordable housing shortages have many
negative impacts on cities from reducing quality
of life, increasing social inequality and
threatening national and international
competitiveness. Housing well is not just about
making cities affordable and inclusive for all but
also providing better ‘fit to demand’ housing
stock to suit people’s flexible living needs.
Many European governments and cities struggle
to find solutions, and the problem is made more
complex by the fact that experts use different
definitions of housing affordability. Concepts
of affordability tend to be relative and
context-sensitive, i.e. measured against other
economic variables such as distribution of
income, purchasing power, ability to borrow,
public policies affecting housing markets etc.
The most common approach to define housing
affordability is to consider the percentage of
income that a household spends on housing
costs. According to UN-Habitat, affordable
means a housing cost of no more than 30% of
household income.1
However, housing
affordability involves more than the often-used
simplified conception of housing cost to
household income. The highly complex nature of
affordability has so many components involved
that make it challenging to make that first step in
identifying solutions in tackling the affordable
urban living challenge. This is a key success
factor to keeping our European cities
competitive.
1. Europe’s housing challenge
Notably, the Council came up with different indicators on how to measure and
assess affordability:
• Size and availability of capital for deposit
• Ability to borrow and mortgage market entry. Accessing capital to buy (debt or equity)
• Rental costs on an ongoing monthly or yearly basis
• Mortgage costs on an ongoing monthly or yearly basis
• Capability to access social and affordable housing
• Indebtedness
“Living just enough for the city.”
Stevie Wonder
“Wohnst du noch, oder lebst du schon.”
IKEA
7. 5 | ULI Europe Residential Council Vision Statement
Global megatrends are re-shaping the world
economic order. From urbanisation, to the rise of
the global middle classes, ageing population and
technological trends, all pose major implications
for the built environment and the long run
demand for housing. As population growth
continues and the world urbanises, we face the
challenging question of how to accommodate
more people and their changing demographic
and social preferences such as one person
households, low-wage earners, individualisation,
growing families and an ageing population. This
all puts a lot of pressure on the housing market
yet we know affordable housing is a crucial part
of successful urban futures. These challenges
have been heightened in recent years as
reflected in Figure 2.
3. Causes of housing affordability issues
There is growing awareness among policy
makers of the links between housing and urban
economic development. Understanding this
relationship is particularly important at the
national and city level, as both vision and
strategy influences housing market dynamics
whether it is driven national housing supply
targets or local private rental market regulation.
You need to explore policies and address issues
both at the national and city level as this will be
the key success factor for improving housing
affordability and economic performance in cities.
However, important to note that national policy
do not always address housing affordability
challenges in cities as individual cities have their
own set of specific circumstances and market
structure that are unique to the city that it
Figure 2: Timescale of contributing factors to the current housing market picture
• Housing demand slowdown • New construction house building on hold
• Decrease in house prices • House sales decline
• Economic crisis • Housing market turnover decrease
Global financial
crisis (2007-2010)
Huge pressures on
housing (Today)
• Urbanisation accelerating
• Globalisation
• Demography: ageing and changing lifestyle preferences for millennial and ageing populations
• Increasing refugee inflows into Europe
• Rapid technological change and advancement: rise of the sharing economy
• Increase in different housing demand types e.g. senior living, co-living, single-person household.
National and local regulation not flexible enough to respond quickly; in order to
• Scale up construction
• Improve management of social and affordable housing to ensure better fit for need
• Cater for current and future housing demand e.g. micro-apartments, co-living, temporary pop-up
housing, student housing etc.
requires standalone city-level policies and
regulation whether it’d be planning or rental
market to create a balanced housing market.
There are varying geographical degrees from
global to city level that cause housing
unaffordability and these complex multi-layered
causes, drivers and factors that influence market
failure in housing are outlined in the below table
(Figure 3). See Appendix 2 for further
explanation on each listed cause.
Economic upturn
(2011 onwards)
8. 6 | ULI Europe Residential Council Vision Statement
Cause Global Europe National City
Global capital flows and investment into local cities x x
Mobility and migration to cities x x x
Megatrends x x x
i.e. demographics and disruptive technology
Social preferences and change x x x
i.e urban vs. suburban lifestyle
Limited land supply x x
Housing shortage and demand x x
Commodity prices x x
i.e. Construction material and labour costs
Regulation
• Planning and land use x x
• Building x x
• Environmental x x
• Tax and subsidies x
• Monetary and mortgage x x
• Private rental market x
Figure 3: Multi-layered geographical causes of housing unaffordability
Note: x symbolises the geographical level that creates the cause for housing unaffordability.
“Lifting a model from one housing system into another without
thought generally turns out to give you some fairly odd results.
For example, even though the Netherlands and UK learn a lot from
each other, they actually work in totally different ways and what
might work for the Netherlands may not necessarily work for the
UK. Housing systems are complicated. I wish they weren’t.”
Professor Christine Whitehead, London School of Economics
10. 8 | ULI Europe Residential Council Vision Statement
This paper provides only an introductory glance
at the ongoing housing challenges raised at the
global, European, national and city level, and
without question, housing affordability is
increasingly becoming a crucial topic for the
international real estate sector, both public and
private.
While countless studies, research projects, and
reports have been undertaken on individual
housing needs, projects, and programmes, no
contemporary studies have compared and
contrasted housing availability and affordability,
policies, and approaches in cities on a European
scale.
Although the size and overall characteristics of
the housing sector do vary markedly across
these European countries and cities, common to
all is the fact that developing and retaining
housing that fits demand and is affordable is a
serious problem for a large proportion of our
growing urban populations. Changing social
preferences and demographic changes in the
face of globalisation and urbanisation has meant
younger generations or migrants are unable to
5. Next steps and areas for further research
enter home ownership or find an appropriate
rental house. The increasing demand for housing
as a foreign financial asset and investment,
combined with declining government subsidies
for affordable housing provision, has
exacerbated supply pressures in the market.
When confronted with these pressures, there has
been intense focus on the role of the planning
system to encourage housing supply and relax
some of its planning and building regulations.
Yet at the local level, the policies of NIMBY-ism
(not in my back yard) where residents oppose
developments are thought to prevent diverse and
affordable housing, while the private sector
argues that urban containment policies constrain
the supply of land for housing, leading to density
and pushing up prices. From this story and
several other influencing drivers and factors,
the Residential Council are looking to address
the growing housing affordability ‘gap’ and
house well in cities through its mission and
interest areas outlined at the beginning.
ULI Europe (France, Ireland and Netherlands)
have recently been awarded an Urban Innovation
Grant from the ULI Foundation to commission
research through city gaming workshops, which
will engage multiple stakeholders in resolving
complex housing affordability challenges.
The game aims to
• Tackle and address the affordable housing
problem in Europe.
• Improve relationships between the public and
private sector in Amsterdam, Dublin and
Paris.
• Develop joint decision making and innovative
solutions to longstanding housing
affordability challenges in the three cities.
• Provide the opportunity to share housing
affordability good practice across Europe
and learn from other cities.
Going forward, the Council aims to look at the
measurement of affordability and best practice
housing affordability solutions across a selected
range of European cities. A suggested structured
research approach is outlined below in the next
3 years:
• Look at how policy has influenced in the past and has helped or hindered in these cities, and
where the unintended consequences have been, including the build-up of asymmetric risks.
Examine thoroughly the relationship between those problems and the national and local tax
and legal frameworks.
Third phase
• Best practice case studies on housing affordability solutions in 4-6 European cities including
1-2 site visits. Describe how each city/country tries to deliver homes at the lower end of
affordability scale. Also look at some of the international initiatives happening in the US,
Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore etc. and discuss what impacts they might have and where
they might be able to help.
Second phase
• Look at the metrics such as income, rent and value distribution; define the problem and the
range of problems.
First phase
Best
practices
12. 10 | ULI Europe Residential Council Vision Statement
Inflexible housing stock and costs
• Housing stock not suited to demand: Demographic and lifestyle trends mean there is a rise in single-person,
migrant, ageing households and there isn't enough nor suitable housing to accommodate these people.
• High household incomes spent on housing: Due to housing demand and limited new construction, rents or
house prices are pushed up leaving no choice for tenants and buyers to spend at least 50% of their incomes
on housing costs, leaving little disposable income. Citizens being pushed further out of the city to access
cheaper and larger housing.
• Rent versus buy: There is the challenge of spending a high proportion of income on rent and not being able
to save enough money as well as not being able to access the mortgage market due to lending regulations
such as minimum required deposits and salaries to qualify for a mortgage. Therefore we are seeing a rise
in “generation rent” – a generation of young adults who have little chance of becoming home owners.
City competitiveness
• Impact on employees and businesses: As low-income workers cannot afford city house prices and live
further out, they face longer commutes with high travel costs that negtively impacts productivity, affecting
business performance.
• Wage pressure and labour workforce drain: Downward pressures on wages and increasing house prices
encourage the movement of workers further out of the city or to a cheaper city, draining the workforce
impacting on city performance.
• Lost consumer spending power: As a large part of people's incomes is spent on housing, this leaves them
with less disposable income and a decline in real incomes means consumers will have to cut back on
spending, and this means less income for businesses.
• Loss of talent: Talented and skillful workers are under pressure to move out and businesses lose the best
employees, impacting city economic performance.
• Lack of liveability and city vibrance: Mixed populations including low-income and migrant workers
contribute to the 'authencity' of cities and a mixed-use environment is attractive both to residents and
tourists. Cosmopolitian populations contribute to city rankings and attractiveness.
• Hinders economic growth: While higher house prices may encourage national economic growth, it also
restricts city economic growth as houses become out of reach for certain urban populations.
Social cohesion
• Disparity/inequality: Housing segregation caused as a result of rising house prices causes social, income,
racial and wealth inequality widening the poor-rich gap which undermines diversity within cities.
• Existing residents cannot move up the property ladder: Existing tenants or potential buyers are priced out of
the market and are under pressure to look further out to make their next property step.
• Growing families moving out of cities: Families move to the suburbs with better housing stock that is
affordable with more space, and in search for a better environment and quality of life.
• New, especially young or migrant residents priced out of the housing market: Squeezed low and
medium-income wages cannot keep up with house prices widening the wealth gap.
Intra-urban travel
• Time and cost spent commuting: Workers face longer journeys commuting to work and pay increasing
transport costs to access a more active labour market in cities, affecting health and well-being.
• Affected business performance: Longer travel leads to shorter work times and lower productivity
• Carbon emission impacts: Travel, especially by car, is one of the largest generators of carbon emissions
which is environmentally unsustainable.
• Sprawl: Lack of land supply in cities encourages house building on cheaper available land encouraging
sprawl.
Housing
unaffordability
consequences
Appendix 1: Housing unaffordability consequences
13. 11 | ULI Europe Residential Council Vision Statement
Appendix 2: Multi-layered causes of housing unaffordability
Cause Further Explanation
Global capital flows and investment Global capital and foreign real estate investment into cities is more and more focused on investing in residential,
into local cities known for its non-cyclical character following megatrends such as urbanisation and demographics, which
puts pressure on house prices.
Mobility and migration to cities Migration flows within Europe and to Europe placing pressure on the housing market by increasing demand
for low-income housing while not enough affordable housing supply available.
Megatrends Increase in urban populations as young professionals and migrants move to cities for more readily available jobs,
i.e. demographics and disruptive technology people living longer, ageing population increases the demand for different housing types whether it is
micro-apartments or senior living. People are willing to move further and work from home due to technological
change and advancement which favours buying houses further away from the city, therefore demand for
suburban housing has also increased.
Changing social preferences More and more young professionals, families and retired people are attracted to the urban lifestyle and economic
i.e urban vs. suburban lifestyle opportunities cities offer whereas young families lean towards suburbia for a better quality of family living in
bigger, more affordable homes with access to good schools and greenery. Marriage and divorce are part of this
social change too. This creates different types of housing demands in selected locations whether in the city or
in the suburbs.
Limited land supply Cities have limited land supply and with high housing demand, this causes a market imbalance that creates lack
of affordable housing due to market forces.
Housing shortage and demand Housing shortage due to high demand makes homes unaffordable.
Commodity prices Increasing cost of construction workers that build homes due to a shrinking workforce and cost of materials push
i.e. Construction material and labour costs up cost of housebuilding, influencing house prices.
Regulation Given the era of rapid change we are experiencing now, regulation appears to react slowly to this changing
environment which leads to a low elasticity of housing supply. This then leads to increasing house prices,
low new construction, and social exclusion. If applied in the right way, it can help to control the housing
market such as capping rents to make housing affordable and appropriate for everyone.
• Planning and land use Such policies restrict the housing supply and urban density relative to what it could be in a free market, including
zoning. Yet they can encourage affordable housing by placing 70:30 or 60:40 affordable quotas for housing
developments.
• Building Current regulations are slow to respond to changing lifestyle preferences, such as micro-apartments and
co-living facilities. Minimum size building regulations make it challenging for housebuilders to create more
homes and better suitable houses, pushing the cost of homes per square metre/foot.
• Environmental Greenbelt restrictions affecting the supply of available land, pushing house prices up. Housebuilders are
required to undergo environmental assessments to build on new available land. Conservation and heritage
policies in place that housebuilders must comply to pushing the material costs up.
• Tax and subsidies Governments charge housebuilding, planning or land taxes increasing the cost of housing. However, they can also
provide tax relief and subsidies for low-income households e.g. low-income tax credit, social housing benefit,
housing allowance etc.
• Monetary and mortgage Limited regulation of the financial sector that partially led to the 2007-8 global financial crisis. Today, minimum
deposit requirements to qualify for a mortgage. However, with interest rates being low, this increases housing
demand that pushes prices up yet if rates rise, mortgage payments are too expensive leaving less disposable
income and owners may be forced to sell affecting the housing market.
• Private rental market Lack of private rented sector regulation with no rental caps and short tenancies that increases living costs
and creates financial insecurity. Some countries, mainly social housing, have housing right regulations in
place with rental caps and secured long tenancies making homes more affordable and secure.
14. 12 | ULI Europe Residential Council Vision Statement
1
UN-Habitat (2015) Housing at the centre of the New Urban Agenda. Available at: http://unhabitat.org/housing-at-the-centre-of-the-new-urban-agenda/.
2
Global Cities Business Alliance (2016) Housing for Inclusive Cities: the economic impact of high housing costs.
Available at: https://www.businessincities.com/publication/housing-for-inclusive-cities-the-economic-impact-of-high-housing-costs/.
3
Farmer, M. (2016) The Farmer Review of the UK construction labour model.
Available at: http://www.constructionleadershipcouncil.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Farmer-Review.pdf.
4
Urban Rigger (2017) Available at: http://www.urbanrigger.com/.
5
Urban Cribs (2017) Available at: http://urbancribs.se/en/.
6
Making Heimat (2017) Available at: http://www.makingheimat.de/en/refugee-housing-projects.
7
Office for National Statistics (2016) House price index, UK: April 2016.
Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/housepriceindex/april2016.
8
PwC (2015) UK housing market outlook: the continuing rise of Generation Rent. UK Economic Outlook July 2015.
Available at: https://www.pwc.co.uk/assets/pdf/ukeo-section3-housing-market-july-2015.pdf.
9
Ibid.
10
Ibid.
11
Devaney, B. (2015) ‘In Amsterdam, most rests are capped, revenge evictions illegal and affordable housing quotas are enforced’. CityMetric.
Available at: http://www.citymetric.com/politics/amsterdam-most-rents-are-capped-revenge-evictions-illegal-and-affordable-housing-quotas-are.
Accessed 19 January 2017.
12
I amsterdam. (2017) Amsterdam housing policy. Available at: http://www.iamsterdam.com/en/local/live/housing/rental-property/housing-policy.
13
Savage, M. (2016) ‘The city with 20-year waiting lists for rental homes.’ BBC Capital. Available at:
http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20160517-this-is-one-city-where-youll-never-find-a-home. Accessed 19 January 2017.
14
Ibid.
15
I amsterdam. (2017) Amsterdam housing policy. Available at: http://www.iamsterdam.com/en/local/live/housing/rental-property/housing-policy.
Notes
15. Urban Land Institute
50 Liverpool Street Tel: +44 (0)20 7487 9570
London Email: ulieurope@uli.org
EC2M 7PY Web: www.europe.uli.org
United Kingdom