Journal of Housing and the Built Environment最新文献

This study examines the influence of heterogeneous expectations between buyers and sellers on housing market cycles. We propose an agent-based model that integrates houses into a Sugarscape model for analyzing housing market dynamics. Our model incorporates spatial factors into pricing by requiring agents to evaluate a property’s value based on its location. Agents have limited information because they base their decision-making on spatial information. We investigate the impact of agents’ visual range and the heterogeneity of their expectations regarding housing prices. Our simulations with different vision levels show that as agents expand their field of vision, the housing market experiences heightened buying competition, thereby increasing both average housing prices and market volatility. Simulation results with different heterogeneity levels show that when people have more homogeneous expectations, the housing market becomes more volatile. As heterogeneity decreases, the volatility of house prices increases more rapidly, implying that agents’ homogeneous expectations reinforce feedback in the system, leading to higher volatility and more complex dynamics.

The residualization of public rented housing is a prevalent phenomenon throughout Europe, and strongly present in the small and strongly means-tested social housing sector in Norway. In this article, we discuss the contested geographical dimension of residualization. Scientific studies of the geographical and locational aspects of social housing are scare in Norway and modest internationally. Based on qualitative interviews with representatives of social housing administrators in the fifteen largest urban municipalities in Norway, this paper contributes to the literature by exploring how these social housing bureaucrats perceive, reflect on, and respond to, questions related to the spatial localization of residual social housing. Does it matter where social housing is located? What are the consequences of the geography of social housing for tenants, their neighbours, and the wider socio-spatial development of cities? These are questions pondered in the interviews. In our qualitative analysis, we identify three broad themes. First, the theme of the internal social milieu – inclusive communities versus neighbour complaints and conflicts in the public housing projects. Second, the theme of neighbourhood effects; how concentrated poverty is influencing the local community in general and the upbringing of children in particular. Third, the theme of response from external neighbours and communities, in the form of either predominantly exclusive strategies (NIMBYism – Not in My Backyard), but also less prevalent inclusive strategies like (PHIMBYism – Public Housing In My Backyard).

In many countries, rental housing is associated with insecure occupant rights and limited control for residents and homeownership is linked with ontological security. In the literature on homemaking, ontological security comprises a set of attributes, i.e., secure occupancy, autonomy and control, but these are often bundled, or treated jointly. In this paper we draw on the lived experiences of residents in Rental Housing Cooperatives (RHC) in Honduras and Australia, and ask how the experience of ontological security in RHC is shaped by its distinct characteristics? We argue that, if the experience of ontological security can be ‘unbundled’, wellbeing in rental housing, particularly for population groups increasingly locked out of homeownerships, can be advanced through housing policy innovation that enhances these, or specific, attributes of ontological security. Methodologically the paper draws on relational thinking, interview data (n = 15) and qualitative analysis of homemaking practices within RHC in Honduras and Australia. The paper utilises a four-quadrant qualitative assessment framework for evaluating occupants’ sense of security and autonomy/control, relative to their sense of home and simply being housed. Our results suggest that secure occupancy more fundamentally underpins a sense of home, than autonomy/control. Implications for rental policy and research are considered.

After its expansionist phase in the XX Century, in most countries public housing has incurred in a state of long-term crisis that still lasts until today. With long-lasting disinvestment in the Italian public housing, many dwellings and buildings are vacant or in decay. Public housing companies yet rely heavily on dismissal and sales to cover high overheads and low rents. In this context, there has been sporadic experimentation of partnerships between public authorities and cooperative actors in enacting hybrid forms of management as an alternative to the sale of public assets. The article uses the case study of the Quattro Corti project in Milan and experts’ panels in four Italian cities to explore potential innovation pathways for public housing in different contexts and to identify opportunities and challenges of the involvement of cooperatives through partnerships for hybrid management. A main question is whether such partnerships may be trojan horses for profit-actors or vehicles of housing commons. The article contributes to the emerging literature on the role of cooperative actors in public and social housing policies.

In recent years, gated communities have increasingly become an attractive lifestyle residence worldwide and in the Middle fostering security, privacy, seclusion, and exclusivity. Nonetheless, it seems that with these benefits, other impacts had unfolded and exposed the urban fabric to new attributes such as segregation, fragmentation, and social exclusion. However, gaps exist in the literature on comparative studies on gated communities in regions such as GCC (Gulf Corporation Council) countries and the Middle East (Glasze & Alkhayyal, 2002). This paper aims to examine the social impact of gated communities on the surrounding neighbourhoods through a comparative analysis of cases from the Middle East and GCC. The methodology was implemented to develop a qualitative framework of social segregation indicators to examine similarities and differences between the cases, aiming to identify patterns and gain insights to answer the article’s question of whether this phenomenon can be contagious in different settings. Findings reveal that gated communities can have negative and positive impacts on the social well-being of the surrounding neighbourhoods and may lead to social segregation and exclusion in different geographical settings despite their emergence motives. The paper concludes that isolation and lack of interaction between residents inside and outside the walls may have impacts on the social aspect of the surroundings.

It is recognised that migrants’ access to housing in destination cities is shaped by a number of factors. This paper takes as its focus the processes of housing allocation for low-income West African migrants in the Bronx, New York City. Drawing on 37 semi-structured interviews with housing providers and intermediary organisations that perform housing-related functions, the paper builds upon literature on migration industries and informal housing solutions among migrant communities, and reveals the formal and informal systems which migrants must navigate in order to secure housing. The specific roles which housing providers and intermediary organisations – including housing advocacies NGOs, public institutions, and religious groups – play are highlighted. The paper shows that informal processes operating in the low-income housing market in the Bronx mirror the operations of formal institutional structures, but instead of financial and legal grounds for housing allocation, informal migration industries are centred on social ties within the established migrant community. Such arrangements provide much-needed access to affordable housing for low-income tenants and facilitate further migration.

The significant influence of residential spaces on quality of life and social growth has constantly encouraged a desire for design quality in housing. This study delves into the complicated aspect of well-designed housing, driven by the need for liveable, eco-friendly, and aesthetically pleasing habitats. The study aims to analyze numerous aspects of housing quality using a systematic approach, considering the significance of the design quality of housing. The article discusses relevant research, consistent contributors, and keywords used in the field. To understand the design quality of housing, this study used a PRISMA technique for systematic literature search, VOSviewer for bibliometric analysis, and NVivo for thematic analysis. It highlights the necessity of user-centered, interdisciplinary design as well as suitable frameworks for quality evaluation. The research also emphasizes the significance of adaptable quality frameworks, holistic approaches, and the collaborative relationship between qualitative and quantitative assessment methods. This study also provides a global perspective on housing quality research. The comprehensive study encourages further research and development in the area and contributes to the current discussion on the design quality of housing.

Concern for unsustainable buildings has obliged the global construction industry to embrace energy-efficient building envelope. In Mauritius, building insulation like the eco-block technology was initiated to reduce energy consumption from air-conditioning, ensure energy cost savings and improve thermal comfort. An investigation of the factors which motivate society’s acceptance of the new building is important to enable its wider-scale implementation. Normally, the adoption decision-making process is a generic model to understand the different stages leading to the purchase decision of a specific innovation. However, the model is restricted in terms of obtaining an in-depth contextual understanding towards the selection process. The contribution of this research is, therefore, to develop a new adoption decision-making framework that aims to explore the contextual factors and examine Mauritians’ purchase decision of the eco-block building, filling the literature gaps. A survey questionnaire was designed and distributed to Mauritians based on the researcher’s judgment, where 257 responses were useful to undergo structural equation modelling. The findings revealed that dissatisfaction with the thermal comfort of existing buildings during hot season, importance to reduce energy, household size, internal product features, economic incentives and public education have significant influence on the building acceptance. Contrastingly, building age, awareness of building insulation alternatives, external product features and past experience have no effect on adoption decision. Accordingly, the predictor variables within the contextual model could satisfactorily explain 21.1% of the eco-block building purchase behaviour. The contextual framework can eventually assist building developers to use the research outcomes and formulate successful implementation strategies.

Numerous studies have explored the capitalization of property values due to convenient transportation. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 may diminish this effect. Furthermore, limited research has delved into the spatial heterogeneity of the impact of COVID-19 on the property market. Consequently, this study focused on Wuhan, one of the first cities in the world to experience the pandemic outbreak. We developed a series of DID Hedonic Price models to analyze the temporal heterogeneity of COVID-19's impact on property prices and used an EM clustering model to categorize metro stations for a more detailed examination of the spatial heterogeneity of COVID-19's impact on the implicit price of properties around different types of metro stations. The study reveals that COVID-19 has, on the whole, reduced the implicit price of properties around metro stations in Wuhan. However, this impact exhibits a lag effect, becoming evident only after six months of the lifting of lockdown. Additionally, this impact demonstrates spatial heterogeneity, as COVID-19 has reduced the implicit price of properties around 'employment-residential mismatched' metro stations, 'residential-oriented' metro stations, 'employment-oriented' metro stations, and 'employment-comprehensive' metro stations while increasing the implicit price of properties around 'residential-comprehensive' metro stations and comprehensive stations. Finally, our research indicates that, for cities severely impacted by the pandemic, such as Wuhan, the impact of COVID-19 on the implicit price of properties around metro stations may persist for an extended period.

Different styles of facades can have a satisfying or dissatisfying psychological effect on people. According to the literature on façade evaluation, perceptual dimensions are effective in façade aesthetics. In this research the effect of perceptual dimensions of familiarity, complexity, originality and excitement on the aesthetics of postmodern, neoclassic and late modern style façades have been investigated. Two groups of architects and non-architects assessed 15 images of the three-façade styles in the city of Tehran. The partial least squares structural equation modelling approach was used to test the model obtained from the research literature. A questionnaire was adopted to measure the perceptual dimensions effective in the aesthetics of fifteen façade images. 340 non-architects and 143 architects filled out the questionnaire. The results show that the structural model can be a valid framework upon which to evaluate the aesthetics of the facades by two groups of architects and non-architects. For both groups of architects and non-architects, the originality of the façade design has the greatest impact on the beauty evaluation of the facade. The originality and excitement perceptual dimensions mediate the relation between the complexity and beauty perceptual dimensions. The presented structural model can assist architects and policymakers on the perceptual dimensions significant to facade aesthetics. Furthermore, the empirical findings and the discussion presented on the perceptual dimension expand the theoretical background on facade aesthetics. The presented structural model can be used to evaluate the aesthetics of other façade types or apartment facades in other locations.