Theory and practice of urban sustainability transitions, Oct 28, 2017
This chapter considers the idea of destabilising the current high-carbon regime and establishing ... more This chapter considers the idea of destabilising the current high-carbon regime and establishing the preconditions for a new sociotechnical regime in Australian suburban cities. It does this in the following four sections. The first section argues that cities can be the site of sociotechnical regimes. In this case, the focus is on the suburbs as a sociotechnical regime within Australian cities. The second section describes the pattern of direct and indirect household energy consumption in large metropolitan cities, which are overwhelmingly suburban cities. This urban/suburban location of high energy-intensive household living is an integral element of the high-carbon sociotechnical regime. The third section argues that the underlying ‘lock-in mechanisms’ producing and reproducing the suburbs have at times been destabilised and reconfigured. It is important to understand what made the new ‘lock-in mechanisms’ viable because this can inform strategic thinking about future change. The fourth section draws a set of preconditions from the history of change in ‘lock-in mechanisms’ that should be considered in the development of transition to low-carbon suburban suburbs. It presents them at three levels – macro, meso and micro – as a means for clarifying the way different types of power is exercised in the making and remaking of energy intensive suburbs. The challenge is how might households live in and remake their cities while they continue to be suburban so that they are more sustainable.
A first homeowner grant is a form of fiscal assistance paid by government to assist a household w... more A first homeowner grant is a form of fiscal assistance paid by government to assist a household with the purchase of their first dwelling. These grants are a demand-side subsidy that increases the purchasing power of the household within the owner-occupied housing market. The design of homeowner grant programmes differs across time and space. These differences are evident in the detail of programme rules and programme objectives introduced by national and subnational governments during the post-Second World War in homeownership societies. They continue to be a feature of housing policy in a small number of these homeownership societies, especially in Australia.
The Editorial Board of Urban Policy and Research would like to thank the following people who hav... more The Editorial Board of Urban Policy and Research would like to thank the following people who have assisted with the production of the journal during 2005.
This final Inquiry report informs a strategy to facilitate circular economy housing: from constru... more This final Inquiry report informs a strategy to facilitate circular economy housing: from construction, through operation to demolition. It draws on four coordinated research projects. The gravity and urgency of the climate emergency and the housing affordability crisis together warrant a significant, coordinated national effort to recalibrate the housing industry and ensure its sustainable future.A comprehensive CE strategy will:- lift sustainability as a priority- shift market processes- tilt incentives to attract the appropriate investment- build capacities towards circular and sustainable outcomes.An effective CE strategy must include a politically astute vision; robust legal footing; industry-relevant application; and be capable enforcement. Specialist in-depth investigation of Australian institutional settings, market processes and stakeholder capacities are now required to reflect and propose suitable instruments adapted to local conditions.The research makes five high-level recommendations to inform a CE housing strategy, including providing a picture of what needs to change and four recommendations showing how change might occur. Effective change requires measures that actively shift perceptions of value and priority-framing in decision-making to those that favour CE housing outcomes. Housing industry organisations cannot meet this challenge without purposeful public intervention and stakeholder cooperation. Regulation is essential to shape housing markets to reinforce CE approaches, from the micro level of building materials to construction and ongoing maintenance, to the macro level involving precinct-level spatial planning. Alongside legislative reform, clear targets and performance standards need to be enforced by monitoring, as well as being made accountable using reporting systems that sustain improving practice. These include energy efficiency and zero-waste policies; better regulations on material flows; upscaling technological improvements; and CE conditions in contractual arrangements.
Abstract The late 1990s saw the beginnings of a decline in Australia's high ... more Abstract The late 1990s saw the beginnings of a decline in Australia's high rate of home ownership. This trend, especially among younger people, appears to be driven by a complex of economic, social and demographic forces. The paper looks at this ...
... new household formation, as they live longer in the family home and shared accommodation. ...... more ... new household formation, as they live longer in the family home and shared accommodation. ...housing market also impacts more broadly on the general economy: both home‐equity lending ... withdrawal' [the increase in mortgage debt in excess of new housing investment] has ...
Page 1. Chapter 10 Trading on Housing Wealth: Political Risk in an Aging Society Mike Berry and T... more Page 1. Chapter 10 Trading on Housing Wealth: Political Risk in an Aging Society Mike Berry and Tony Dalton 10.1 Introduction ... 10.2 From Pyramid to Coffin The age structure of the Australian population is in the process of changing from a pyramid-shape to a coffin-shape. ...
Allowing borrowers to draw on their super to pay the mortgage is bad policy, write Anitra Nelson,... more Allowing borrowers to draw on their super to pay the mortgage is bad policy, write Anitra Nelson, Tony Dalton and Mike Berry THE AUSTRALIAN Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has very strict criteria for allowing inividuals to gain early access to a portion of their superannuation. The amount and number of successful requests has increased over the last six years, alongside higher interest rates for households, and financial commentators have speculated that the main reason was a rise in requests from people having trouble covering their home mortgages. A freedom of information request we made recently as part of a project looking at mortgage defaults in Australia, funded by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, reveals that they were right. During 2003–04, 4019 successful mortgage assistance claims already accounted for almost half of all claims for early access to super – over $26 million of a total of $55.5 million. Over the past five years, from 2004–05 through to 2008–09, with the overal number of claims growing significantly, the 35,000 successful mortgage assistance claims accounted for over half the total ($372.2 million of $673.7 million). Given that a proportion of two of APRA’s other categories involve mortgage assistance too, the real drain is greater. But surely avoiding repossession is a legitimate use of super funds? If mortgagors default on their home loans – and they need their lender to provide that evidence – they can claim for early release of super funds to avoid losing their homes through repossession. But many financial counsellors are concerned that such payouts often simply delay and deepen the financial burden of severely distressed borrowers, while severely reducing their future retirement incomes. Many borrowers are so overcommitted that they still lose their homes, and face having lost super funds in the process. Thus it is lenders who end up pocketing borrowers’ super. APRA claims are time-consuming, too. Borrowers can waste precious time hoping and waiting for their problems to be solved by a superannuation payout, only to find their request only partially approved or even rejected altogether. Sometimes court processes are quicker than APRA’s decision on their request, and so they can lose their homes anyway and the lender might claim the money to cover outstanding costs after a sale fails to cover the loan amount. Early release of super in such circumstances is counterproductive. The APRA data also reveal that very few borrowers were unsuccessful in applying for early release of super funds for mortgage assistance. A much higher proportion of applicants for funds to cover other purposes – including medical costs, home and vehicle modifications to accommodate severe disability, and palliative care and funeral expenses – failed. While the data do not show how many who applied specifically for mortgage assistance were only partially successful, in the 2008–09 year over a third of all “successful” applicants received less than they applied for. These partial payments might not have helped borrowers avoid repossession. Interviews and a survey of home borrowers in receipt of claims of possession on their homes indicate that many borrowers enter a deep spiral when they face difficulties in mortgage repayments, running up credit card debt and refinancing over and over again. In short, the great Australian dream of home ownership entices households into too much borrowing and mortgagors go to great lengths to avoid losing their homes. If they seek early advice from independent financial counsellors, though, they may be able to sort through whether using super funds might be a useful crutch or simply throwing good money after bad. In ‘The Great Australian Nightmare’ paper presented to the 6th National Housing Conference in Melbourne last month we confirmed that severe mortgage stress is set to heighten during 2010, and default and repossession rates will follow suit. That’s because interest rates, unemployment and underemployment are all predicted to rise. So it looks like dipping into super funds will increase too. • Senior Research Associate Dr Anitra Nelson, Professor Mike Berry and Professor Tony Dalton all work in the AHURI–RMIT Research Centre in Melbourne investigating a range of housing and urban planning issues. Photo: iStockphoto.com
Theory and practice of urban sustainability transitions, Oct 28, 2017
This chapter considers the idea of destabilising the current high-carbon regime and establishing ... more This chapter considers the idea of destabilising the current high-carbon regime and establishing the preconditions for a new sociotechnical regime in Australian suburban cities. It does this in the following four sections. The first section argues that cities can be the site of sociotechnical regimes. In this case, the focus is on the suburbs as a sociotechnical regime within Australian cities. The second section describes the pattern of direct and indirect household energy consumption in large metropolitan cities, which are overwhelmingly suburban cities. This urban/suburban location of high energy-intensive household living is an integral element of the high-carbon sociotechnical regime. The third section argues that the underlying ‘lock-in mechanisms’ producing and reproducing the suburbs have at times been destabilised and reconfigured. It is important to understand what made the new ‘lock-in mechanisms’ viable because this can inform strategic thinking about future change. The fourth section draws a set of preconditions from the history of change in ‘lock-in mechanisms’ that should be considered in the development of transition to low-carbon suburban suburbs. It presents them at three levels – macro, meso and micro – as a means for clarifying the way different types of power is exercised in the making and remaking of energy intensive suburbs. The challenge is how might households live in and remake their cities while they continue to be suburban so that they are more sustainable.
A first homeowner grant is a form of fiscal assistance paid by government to assist a household w... more A first homeowner grant is a form of fiscal assistance paid by government to assist a household with the purchase of their first dwelling. These grants are a demand-side subsidy that increases the purchasing power of the household within the owner-occupied housing market. The design of homeowner grant programmes differs across time and space. These differences are evident in the detail of programme rules and programme objectives introduced by national and subnational governments during the post-Second World War in homeownership societies. They continue to be a feature of housing policy in a small number of these homeownership societies, especially in Australia.
The Editorial Board of Urban Policy and Research would like to thank the following people who hav... more The Editorial Board of Urban Policy and Research would like to thank the following people who have assisted with the production of the journal during 2005.
This final Inquiry report informs a strategy to facilitate circular economy housing: from constru... more This final Inquiry report informs a strategy to facilitate circular economy housing: from construction, through operation to demolition. It draws on four coordinated research projects. The gravity and urgency of the climate emergency and the housing affordability crisis together warrant a significant, coordinated national effort to recalibrate the housing industry and ensure its sustainable future.A comprehensive CE strategy will:- lift sustainability as a priority- shift market processes- tilt incentives to attract the appropriate investment- build capacities towards circular and sustainable outcomes.An effective CE strategy must include a politically astute vision; robust legal footing; industry-relevant application; and be capable enforcement. Specialist in-depth investigation of Australian institutional settings, market processes and stakeholder capacities are now required to reflect and propose suitable instruments adapted to local conditions.The research makes five high-level recommendations to inform a CE housing strategy, including providing a picture of what needs to change and four recommendations showing how change might occur. Effective change requires measures that actively shift perceptions of value and priority-framing in decision-making to those that favour CE housing outcomes. Housing industry organisations cannot meet this challenge without purposeful public intervention and stakeholder cooperation. Regulation is essential to shape housing markets to reinforce CE approaches, from the micro level of building materials to construction and ongoing maintenance, to the macro level involving precinct-level spatial planning. Alongside legislative reform, clear targets and performance standards need to be enforced by monitoring, as well as being made accountable using reporting systems that sustain improving practice. These include energy efficiency and zero-waste policies; better regulations on material flows; upscaling technological improvements; and CE conditions in contractual arrangements.
Abstract The late 1990s saw the beginnings of a decline in Australia's high ... more Abstract The late 1990s saw the beginnings of a decline in Australia's high rate of home ownership. This trend, especially among younger people, appears to be driven by a complex of economic, social and demographic forces. The paper looks at this ...
... new household formation, as they live longer in the family home and shared accommodation. ...... more ... new household formation, as they live longer in the family home and shared accommodation. ...housing market also impacts more broadly on the general economy: both home‐equity lending ... withdrawal' [the increase in mortgage debt in excess of new housing investment] has ...
Page 1. Chapter 10 Trading on Housing Wealth: Political Risk in an Aging Society Mike Berry and T... more Page 1. Chapter 10 Trading on Housing Wealth: Political Risk in an Aging Society Mike Berry and Tony Dalton 10.1 Introduction ... 10.2 From Pyramid to Coffin The age structure of the Australian population is in the process of changing from a pyramid-shape to a coffin-shape. ...
Allowing borrowers to draw on their super to pay the mortgage is bad policy, write Anitra Nelson,... more Allowing borrowers to draw on their super to pay the mortgage is bad policy, write Anitra Nelson, Tony Dalton and Mike Berry THE AUSTRALIAN Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has very strict criteria for allowing inividuals to gain early access to a portion of their superannuation. The amount and number of successful requests has increased over the last six years, alongside higher interest rates for households, and financial commentators have speculated that the main reason was a rise in requests from people having trouble covering their home mortgages. A freedom of information request we made recently as part of a project looking at mortgage defaults in Australia, funded by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, reveals that they were right. During 2003–04, 4019 successful mortgage assistance claims already accounted for almost half of all claims for early access to super – over $26 million of a total of $55.5 million. Over the past five years, from 2004–05 through to 2008–09, with the overal number of claims growing significantly, the 35,000 successful mortgage assistance claims accounted for over half the total ($372.2 million of $673.7 million). Given that a proportion of two of APRA’s other categories involve mortgage assistance too, the real drain is greater. But surely avoiding repossession is a legitimate use of super funds? If mortgagors default on their home loans – and they need their lender to provide that evidence – they can claim for early release of super funds to avoid losing their homes through repossession. But many financial counsellors are concerned that such payouts often simply delay and deepen the financial burden of severely distressed borrowers, while severely reducing their future retirement incomes. Many borrowers are so overcommitted that they still lose their homes, and face having lost super funds in the process. Thus it is lenders who end up pocketing borrowers’ super. APRA claims are time-consuming, too. Borrowers can waste precious time hoping and waiting for their problems to be solved by a superannuation payout, only to find their request only partially approved or even rejected altogether. Sometimes court processes are quicker than APRA’s decision on their request, and so they can lose their homes anyway and the lender might claim the money to cover outstanding costs after a sale fails to cover the loan amount. Early release of super in such circumstances is counterproductive. The APRA data also reveal that very few borrowers were unsuccessful in applying for early release of super funds for mortgage assistance. A much higher proportion of applicants for funds to cover other purposes – including medical costs, home and vehicle modifications to accommodate severe disability, and palliative care and funeral expenses – failed. While the data do not show how many who applied specifically for mortgage assistance were only partially successful, in the 2008–09 year over a third of all “successful” applicants received less than they applied for. These partial payments might not have helped borrowers avoid repossession. Interviews and a survey of home borrowers in receipt of claims of possession on their homes indicate that many borrowers enter a deep spiral when they face difficulties in mortgage repayments, running up credit card debt and refinancing over and over again. In short, the great Australian dream of home ownership entices households into too much borrowing and mortgagors go to great lengths to avoid losing their homes. If they seek early advice from independent financial counsellors, though, they may be able to sort through whether using super funds might be a useful crutch or simply throwing good money after bad. In ‘The Great Australian Nightmare’ paper presented to the 6th National Housing Conference in Melbourne last month we confirmed that severe mortgage stress is set to heighten during 2010, and default and repossession rates will follow suit. That’s because interest rates, unemployment and underemployment are all predicted to rise. So it looks like dipping into super funds will increase too. • Senior Research Associate Dr Anitra Nelson, Professor Mike Berry and Professor Tony Dalton all work in the AHURI–RMIT Research Centre in Melbourne investigating a range of housing and urban planning issues. Photo: iStockphoto.com
The experience of marginal rental housing in Australia, 2013
Goodman R, Nelson A, Dalton T, Cigdem M, Gabriel M and Jacobs K (2013) The Experience of Marginal... more Goodman R, Nelson A, Dalton T, Cigdem M, Gabriel M and Jacobs K (2013) The Experience of Marginal Rental Housing in Australia (Final report No. 210) [140 pages] Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Melbourne. ISSN 1834-7223 — https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/210
This report attracted much media, appearing in the ‘Top 5’ downloads from the AHURI site, April 2... more This report attracted much media, appearing in the ‘Top 5’ downloads from the AHURI site, April 2010, when first published.
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