TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing post-GFC housing affordability interventions
T2 - a qualitative exploration across five international cities
AU - Wetzstein, Steffen
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - This paper confronts one of the biggest contemporary public policy conundrums globally; the challenge of decreasing housing affordability for urban residents. Aiming to align the international literature with the multitude of policy responses following the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the paper explores ‘in-depth’, and via recontextualisation, the policy priorities and strategies designed to combat housing affordability challenges across five international cities from advanced economy countries–Berlin (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Singapore (Singapore), Sydney (Australia) and Auckland (New Zealand). Carefully guided by critical social science and heterodox political economy literatures, and based on an innovative multi-city comparative ethnography (MCCE) centred on 118 in-depth research interviews with key stakeholders, six approaches are singled out as especially prominent: (1) market-based housing supply; (2) direct price/rent control; (3) construction cost reduction; (4) non-market-based housing supply; (5) demand-side interventions; and (6) urban land market interventions. Whereas all strategies face serious tensions, contradictions and implementation barriers, the latter three interventions are more likely to have a positive and lasting impact. Based on these findings, there is a need for normative reorientation and intellectual innovation in order to expand understandings on those three interventions in the name of affordable housing for all.
AB - This paper confronts one of the biggest contemporary public policy conundrums globally; the challenge of decreasing housing affordability for urban residents. Aiming to align the international literature with the multitude of policy responses following the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the paper explores ‘in-depth’, and via recontextualisation, the policy priorities and strategies designed to combat housing affordability challenges across five international cities from advanced economy countries–Berlin (Germany), Vienna (Austria), Singapore (Singapore), Sydney (Australia) and Auckland (New Zealand). Carefully guided by critical social science and heterodox political economy literatures, and based on an innovative multi-city comparative ethnography (MCCE) centred on 118 in-depth research interviews with key stakeholders, six approaches are singled out as especially prominent: (1) market-based housing supply; (2) direct price/rent control; (3) construction cost reduction; (4) non-market-based housing supply; (5) demand-side interventions; and (6) urban land market interventions. Whereas all strategies face serious tensions, contradictions and implementation barriers, the latter three interventions are more likely to have a positive and lasting impact. Based on these findings, there is a need for normative reorientation and intellectual innovation in order to expand understandings on those three interventions in the name of affordable housing for all.
KW - comparative knowledge production
KW - critical evaluation
KW - global housing affordability crisis
KW - policy interventions
KW - urban housing markets
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85074936244&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/19491247.2019.1662639
DO - 10.1080/19491247.2019.1662639
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85074936244
VL - 21
SP - 70
EP - 102
JO - International Journal of Housing Policy
JF - International Journal of Housing Policy
SN - 1461-6718
IS - 1
ER -