Search Results (59)

Research Objective: To explore governance pathways for small-property-right housing from the perspective of land appreciation revenue distribution, thereby promoting high-quality urban renewal. Research Methods: The study employs theoretical analysis, inductive summarization, and logical reasoning. Research Findings: (1) Land appreciation revenue consists of absolute rent, differential rent I, and differential rent II, corresponding respectively to land ownership, land development rights, and land management rights; (2) A framework for the distribution of land appreciation gains that “balances public and private interests and promotes multi-stakeholder sharing” is established, clarifying the revenue boundaries for entities such as the government, village collectives, and housing operators; (3) Two governance pathways are proposed: converting retained collective property rights into affordable rental housing, and categorizing and disposing of properties after government expropriation and conversion to state ownership. These are further refined into five implementation models. Research Conclusions: The rational distribution of land appreciation gains is key to resolving the governance challenges of small-property-right housing and coordinating the objectives of urban renewal with housing security. Full article

This paper investigates the role of financial institution development in promoting renewable energy generation in African economies. The paper is motivated by the increasing global emphasis on clean energy transition and the need to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those related to affordable and clean energy and climate action. It focuses on identifying the mechanisms through which financial development influences renewable energy outcomes. Grounded in the Schumpeterian theory of finance, the paper argues that financial institutions facilitate innovation and structural transformation by allocating resources toward productive investments, including renewable energy projects. The analysis examines whether credit to the private sector serves as a mediating channel in this relationship. It also evaluates the moderating roles of institutional quality and natural resource rents. Using a Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (PARDL) model within a dynamic fixed-effects error correction framework, the findings reveal a nonlinear relationship. Financial institution development initially promotes renewable energy generation, but its positive effect weakens beyond a threshold of resource dependence. Institutional quality strengthens the effectiveness of financial development, while credit to the private sector fully transmits its impact on renewable energy generation. The results highlight the importance of strengthening financial systems, improving governance, and enhancing private sector credit allocation to support sustainable energy development in Africa. Full article

Urban housing rents are central to socioeconomic dynamics and urban sustainability, shaping affordability and quality of life. Existing research largely relies on linear models and focuses on economic, demographic, and locational factors, often neglecting complex nonlinear interactions and the impact of human perceptions. This study introduces a comprehensive, multi-perspective framework that integrates housing attributes, living convenience, competition, location, accessibility, and quantified perceptual metrics using multimodal machine learning. Advanced techniques, including XGBoost, SHAP, Partial Dependence Plots (PDPs), Interpretative Structural Modeling (ISM), and Bayesian Network (BN), capture nonlinearities, interactions, and hierarchical dependencies among rent determinants. Housing attributes and living convenience indicators exert the strongest cumulative influence on rents, while perceptual variables rank third, providing significant, threshold-dependent contributions and explaining up to 21.66% of rent variation. Notable interactions are identified between accessibility, facility density, and perceptual quality. The ISM–BN analysis uncovers multi-level pathways, demonstrating how both environmental features and human perceptions jointly influence rents. This framework offers actionable insights for equitable housing and urban planning policies, supporting data-driven decisions in complex urban rental markets. Full article

California is currently navigating the confluence of two acute systemic challenges: a chronic housing affordability deficit and increasing grid instability driven by climate-induced volatility and the aggressive transition to variable renewable energy. This review posits that the answer lies in a novel technology convergence: the strategic integration of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) with residential Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESSs) utilizing the “Photovoltaic-Energy Storage-Direct Current-Flexibility” (PEDF) architecture. We identify this ADU + BESS + PEDF nexus as a critical innovation that transforms the dwelling unit from a passive consumption endpoint into an active highly efficient DC-coupled “prosumer” node capable of providing critical grid services. Unlike traditional AC-coupled systems, the PEDF framework minimizes conversion losses and maximizes grid-interactive flexibility, establishing the ADU as a decentralized asset for grid stabilization. To validate this paradigm, I employ a stochastic financial simulation using the RShiny framework to assess the economic viability of prefabrication-based deployment strategies under Senate Bill 9 (SB 9) provisions for three investment scenarios: Acquisition-to-Rent, Acquisition–Development–Resale, and Long-Term-Asset-Retention. Benchmarked against a baseline of traditional in situ constructions globally, our results indicate that modular prefabrication reduces project timelines by 30–50% and cradle-to-site embodied carbon by up to 47%. Furthermore, financial modelling—benchmarked at a 7.5% nominal discount rate without discretionary state incentives—confirms that “Acquisition–Development–Resale” strategies yield Internal Rates of Return (IRR) exceeding 20%, while “Long-Term-Asset-Retention” achieves stabilized positive cash flow, validating the economic competitiveness of sustainable densification. Despite identifying implementation barriers—specifically the “split-incentive” dilemma in rental markets and emerging data sovereignty constraints—this review concludes that the BESS-powered PEDF-architecture ADU represents the fundamental atomic unit of a resilient, low-carbon urban dwelling infrastructure, necessitating aligned policy support to achieve scalable deployment. Full article

In advanced economies characterized by sustained immigration, rising inequality, and chronically underdeveloped social housing sectors, demand-side welfare interventions risk being capitalized into higher rents rather than improving housing affordability. This study investigates how Spain’s welfare state transformation—particularly the rollout of IPREM-indexed policies such as the Minimum Living Income (IMV) and the Youth Rental Voucher—interacted with migration flows and tourism-driven housing competition to reshape private rental markets between 2008 and 2025. Using harmonized national data from OPI, Idealista, INE, and the Bank of Spain (2010–2024), we apply a descriptive time-series approach that combines structural break tests (Chow and Bai–Perron), pre/post-2021 correlation comparisons, regional heterogeneity analysis, and robustness checks (including Spearman correlations and jackknife sensitivity analyses). We identify a pronounced structural break in 2021: while consular visa issuances—a proxy for combined migration and tourism inflows—showed no significant association with advertised rental prices before 2021 (r ≈ 0.27, p = 0.41), a remarkably strong co-movement emerged thereafter (r ≈ 0.90–0.92). This shift aligns precisely with the nationwide implementation of IMV, institutionalization of the Youth Voucher, and disbursement of EU Recovery and Resilience Facility funds. The effect is most acute in regions with rigid housing supply and high exposure to tourist-use dwellings (VUT)—notably the Balearic Islands, Murcia, Cantabria, and Navarre—suggesting that increased effective demand may have been absorbed primarily through price increases rather than expanded access. While our observational design precludes causal inference and the findings should be interpreted as exploratory and hypothesis-generating, the convergence of timing, magnitude, and institutional context renders a policy-mediated demand channel plausible. The results caution that, without complementary supply-side measures—such as social housing investment, rehabilitation incentives, or VUT regulation—demand-side subsidies may inadvertently reinforce housing inequality and reduce fiscal efficiency, thereby undermining the sustainability goals they aim to advance. Full article

Understanding public service performance remains a persistent challenge, particularly when services are delivered through complex interorganizational networks. This difficulty is amplified in contexts addressing wicked problems such as homelessness, where needs are multifaceted, solutions are interdependent, and outcomes are hard to measure. In the United States, the Continuum of Care (CoC) system represents a federally mandated and HUD-funded network model designed to coordinate local responses to homelessness through collaborative governance. Despite its standardized structure and federal oversight, CoC’s performance varies significantly across regions. This study investigates the conditions that influence the CoC network’s performance, focusing on the delivery of Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) services, a critical intervention for addressing chronic homelessness. It applies to a theoretical framework that combines Ansell and Gash’s collaborative governance model with Emerson et al.’s integrative framework. This approach allows for a comprehensive assessment of internal network factors such as board size, nonprofit leadership, and federal funding, as well as external system contexts including political orientation, income levels, and rent affordability. Drawing on regression analysis of data from 343 CoCs across the United States, the study shows that federal funding, favorable political climates, and larger board size are significant predictors of PSH availability, while nonprofit leadership and income levels are not. Findings highlight the importance of aligning internal governance and external context to improve network outcomes. Full article

Soaring housing prices worldwide are compromising housing affordability, potentially leading to significant economic, social, and health repercussions. Understanding the price discovery process within the real estate market is therefore crucial for policymakers. While the relationship between land and housing prices in urban residential markets has been widely examined in the literature, the results are often context-specific, leaving the question of whether the land market leads the housing market or vice versa open to debate. Saudi Arabia, with its rapidly growing real estate market, evolving demographics and urbanization trends, and transformative regulatory reforms, presents a compelling context for revisiting the land–housing nexus. This study examines the long-term relationship between land and housing markets and investigates the short-term price dynamics with the ultimate goal of understanding the price formation in the housing market. The study dataset comprises quarterly time-series price indices published by the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) in Saudi, representing the nation-wide price movements of residential lands and villas from 2014Q1 to 2025Q1. The study employs the Johansen cointegration method and the Granger causality testing. The results of cointegration analysis confirm a significant long-run equilibrium relationship between the two markets, while the error correction model reveals that both land and housing prices adjust to restore this equilibrium. Granger causality test results show a unidirectional relationship, where land prices predict future housing prices, consistent with the neoclassical rent theory. These findings reinforce the long-term, intrinsic link between land and housing markets observed in prior studies. The dynamics in the Saudi market are likely shaped by rapid urbanization that intensified speculation in the land market, and also the prevalence of self-building enabled by government-supported financing. This study underscores the importance of striking a delicate balance between supply and demand side policies in the real estate market while monitoring the impact of these policies on housing affordability. Full article

Widespread job losses and economic disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic led to significant housing payment insecurity, disproportionately affecting various demographic groups and regions across the United States (US). While previous studies have explored the pandemic’s impact on housing insecurity, they all focused on specific periods, populations or areas. No study has yet provided a comprehensive analysis of inequality in housing insecurity throughout the pandemic, particularly in terms of spatial disparities. Our study addresses this gap by analyzing individual-level and aggregated data from the Household Pulse Survey (HPS) (N = 2,062,005). The findings reveal heightened vulnerability among individuals aged 40–54, those with lower education and income, Black and Hispanic/Latino populations, women, households with children, individuals who experienced job loss, the divorced, and larger households. Renters experienced greater housing insecurity than homeowners. A hotspot analysis identified the southeastern US as a region of acute housing insecurity, revealing that insecurity cannot be solely measured by affordability. The regression results show that poverty is the main reason for differences in housing insecurity across places, and rent burden is also important. The geographically weighted regression (GWR) model shows stronger coefficients in southern states, highlighting that poverty and rent burden are particularly influential factors in these areas. This study shows the multifaceted nature of housing insecurity, calling for targeted group or location policy interventions. Full article

To solve the present housing crisis, the Support for Access to Housing Program, in the context of PRR, mainly focuses on social housing to be built or on housing of social interest to be regenerated. To approach this problem, a research question was raised: “What is the significance of the existing cooperative housing in solving the current housing crisis?” To analyze this issue, a multiple case study was adopted, comparing a collective dwelling of cooperative promotion at controlled costs in Caselas (1980s–1990s) with Expo Urbe (2000–2007) in Parque das Nações, a symbol of the new sustainable cooperative housing, which targets a population with a higher standard of living and thus is excluded from the PRR plan. These cases revealed the discrepancy created by the Cooperative Code of 1998 and its consequences for the urban regeneration of this heritage. They show that Caselas, built in a residential urban neighborhood, is strongly attached to a community, provides good social inclusion for vulnerable groups at more affordable prices, and it is eligible for urban regeneration and reuse (for renting or buying). However, the reuse of Caselcoop’s edifices cannot compromise their cultural and residential values or threaten the individual integrity. Full article

This study investigates the evaluation of housing policies for migrants in China, focusing on the interplay between rental and purchase decisions under the rent-and-purchase policy (RPP) framework. Employing a system dynamics model, we simulate migrant housing choices from 2001 to 2023 and forecast market trends from 2024 to 2030. The results indicate that RPPs significantly improve housing quality and reduce costs for migrants by mitigating institutional disparities and market distortions. Scenario analyses demonstrate that a coordinated approach combining supply-side interventions (e.g., affordable housing expansion) with rights-based policies (e.g., equalizing renter and buyer rights) effectively balances affordability and demand stability. The findings emphasize the critical role of addressing rights inequalities and advocate for a holistic policy framework to tackle migrant housing challenges, offering actionable insights for policymakers in system science and urban planning. Full article

The ageing population and rising housing costs in Switzerland are increasing the number of older adults facing financial housing concerns. Older women have particularly limited housing choices because they, on average, earn less, live longer, and are more likely to live alone. This study explores potential levers to alleviate housing-related financial fears among baby boomer women (aged 55–75) living alone in Switzerland, a subject with limited academic coverage. Using regression and random forest models on unique 2023 survey data ($N=371$), we examine the influence of socio-demographic, financial, well-being, and housing factors on fears related to affordability, price increases, and lack of housing supply. Key findings show that ownership status, perceived financial situation, and concerns about maintaining one’s lifestyle significantly drive these fears. The fear of unsuitable housing strongly influences perceived lack of supply. These results highlight the importance of retirement planning and support the consideration of measures such as reverse mortgages, co-housing, subsidies, and rent-controlled units. Full article

This study examines housing affordability trends in Central Europe, focusing on the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, and Poland, in the wake of recent global disruptions including the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021–2022 energy crisis, and the war in Ukraine. These events have intensified housing affordability challenges by driving up property prices, rental costs, and energy expenses. Using data from December 2022 to March 2023, the paper analyzes wage levels relative to housing costs in major cities—Prague, Brno, Bratislava, Vienna, Graz, Warsaw, and Kraków—through price-to-income and rent-to-income ratios. The findings reveal that affordability is most strained in Czech cities, particularly Prague, where property prices outpace wages, while Vienna demonstrates better affordability due to higher average incomes. The study integrates real estate platform data with official statistics and employs spatial mapping and exploratory econometric testing to identify affordability patterns and disparities. It concludes that affordability outcomes are shaped by wage dynamics, housing supply constraints, migration pressures, and policy responses. The study underscores the importance of targeted housing policies and wage interventions to address these challenges and highlights the need for cross-country policy learning and regional coordination to improve housing affordability and market resilience across Central Europe. Full article

The global economy faces a critical challenge: balancing economic survival through natural resource utilization with the imperative of long-term environmental sustainability. Green innovation presents a viable solution, yet its effectiveness hinges on establishing well-structured legislative frameworks. This study, covering the period 1996 to 2022, examines the moderating effect of green innovation on the relationship between natural resource rents and ecological footprint while also considering the roles of globalization, financial development, and energy transition in the ten most resource-abundant countries. Utilizing the augmented mean group (AMG) estimator, the findings indicate that natural resource rents significantly contribute to ecological footprint, reinforcing concerns about resource-driven environmental degradation. However, green innovation mitigates these adverse effects, promoting sustainable resource management in alignment with SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production). Additionally, renewable energy and globalization positively influence environmental conditions, reinforcing the drive toward clean and affordable energy (SDG7), while economic growth, financial development, and non-renewable energy exacerbate environmental harm. Furthermore, foreign direct investment (FDI) increases ecological footprint, reinforcing the Pollution Haven Hypothesis for resource-rich economies. Rigorous robustness checks using CCEMG, FMOLS, and DOLS methodologies, along with country-specific analyses, affirm the empirical validity of these results. In light of these conclusions, the paper advocates for legislative reforms to enhance sustainability and optimize resource utilization, ensuring a balanced approach to economic development and environmental preservation. Full article

This study examines access to rental housing in the metropolitan area of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, linking it to socio-economic inequalities and the increasing precarization. In recent years, housing affordability has worsened due to rising rents, stagnant wages, and speculative dynamics—particularly those linked to tourism and platform-based economies. Drawing on official data from the State Reference System for Rental Housing Prices (SERPAVI) and income statistics at the census tract level, this research quantifies housing affordability and spatial disparities through indicators such as economic effort rates. The analysis identifies patterns of exclusion and urban fragmentation, showing that large sectors of the population—especially those earning the minimum age—face severe barriers to accessing adequate housing. The findings highlight the insufficiency of current public policies and propose the expansion of social rental housing and stricter rental market regulation as necessary steps to ensure fairer urban conditions. Full article

This study analyzed citizens’ subjective perceptions and attitudes toward housing development in Norwalk, Connecticut, employing structural equation modeling (SEM) and machine learning techniques. A survey of 580 residents was conducted to study the relationship between the willingness to buy or rent from housing projects in Norwalk and perceptions of risks, benefits, and sustainability beliefs. SEM identified latent variables influencing attitudes, including perceived risks (e.g., overcrowding and the loss of historical character), benefits (e.g., enhanced infrastructure, and job creation), and sustainability beliefs. The results revealed that perceived benefits have a stronger positive impact on citizens’ attitudes than risks, mediated by sustainability beliefs in this city. Machine learning via random forest highlighted key predictors of willingness to buy or rent, such as affordability, walkability, and public infrastructure improvements, with affordability being the most influential factor. These findings emphasize the importance of framing housing projects to align with citizens’ priorities, especially through campaigns emphasizing economic and environmental benefits. The integration of SEM and machine learning offers a robust approach to understanding citizen preferences, ensuring greater support and citizens’ acceptance for sustainable housing initiatives. These findings provide actionable insights for urban planners to understand the interrelations between concerns, perceived benefits, and beliefs to foster the social acceptance of sustainable urban policies. Full article