Search Results (16)

As a globe leader in tourism, Spain relies on this sector as a key economic pillar, contributing over 12% to its GDP. The hospitality industry has expanded steadily in response to growing demand. In parallel, recent years have witnessed an exponential rise in tourist accommodations, such as privately owned properties repurposed for short-term rentals, largely facilitated by digital platforms. This study explores the evolution and spatial distribution of these accommodations, assessing their share within the overall housing stock across different scales. The focus is on Andalusian municipalities, a region characterized by both its geographical diversity and its significant tourism footprint. This study highlights two primary areas of concentration: the region’s Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines (most notably the Costa del Sol, centered in Malaga) and internationally renowned heritage cities such as Seville, Granada, and Cordoba. By applying quantitative methods, this research assesses the clustering of tourist accommodations in relation to major cultural landmarks, including several UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The findings provide an analysis of the implications of this trend, shedding light on the challenges and opportunities it presents within the tourism sector, particularly against the backdrop of mounting criticism surrounding the sustainability and socio-economic impacts of this evolving model of tourism. Full article

Australia’s housing affordability crisis has deepened despite extensive policy intervention, with the private rental sector experiencing unprecedented pressure. This study proposes that affordable housing should guarantee low and moderate-income households their fundamental right to access secure and safe dwellings, enabling these households to meet essential needs and maintain quality of life without enduring housing stress. Despite significant public investment, a critical housing shortage persists across the nation with a need to build 640,000 homes annually. This crisis is exacerbated by ineffective public–private–community partnerships (PPCP) and the absence of a unified national housing policy. This study critically examines the NRAS to understand why market-based interventions have consistently fallen short of addressing housing affordability challenges. Through empirical analysis of 31 in-depth interviews with senior stakeholders across public, private and community sectors, this research identifies five systemic barriers: definitional inconsistencies in affordable housing policy; inflexible strategic frameworks; misaligned investment incentives; geographical inequities in resource allocation; and fragmented governance structures. The study introduces the Personal and Collective Will in Policy Implementation (PaCWiPI) framework as an innovative approach integrating Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs with Henderson’s Poverty Line metrics. Our findings demonstrate that effective housing policy requires a fundamental shift from rigid, standardised approaches towards adaptive frameworks that are responsive to diverse market conditions. This research advances housing policy scholarship by providing empirical evidence of implementation barriers while offering practical recommendations for future initiatives, relevant to the current Housing Australia Future Fund and other regionally-related housing policies. Full article

Build-to-rent (BTR) is an important pathway for rental housing supply across the cities of Australia. The discourse has become more prevalent as stakeholders seek government support to expand the sector to provide, amongst other reform measures, affordable rental accommodation. This paper examines the effectiveness of BTR as a pathway to affordable housing supply in Australia and identifies the additional reforms needed to increase that supply further. Interviews with key stakeholders were used to assess the success of the asset class to date and how it is likely to perform in increasing affordable rental housing supply, as well as what additional reforms may be required to expedite supply. The paper found that while BTR aims to scale up rental housing supply, its limitations in its present form demonstrate the need for additional reforms. At present, unfavorable taxes, inner-city locational attributes, and ultramodern services make the asset class a high-end housing model. Experts posit that BTR rental prices are justified given the quality amenities and the 24/7 onsite professional management. While it is a premium product, several BTR projects in Australia have included portions of those projects for affordable housing. The study concluded that BTR can generate affordable housing outcomes in Australia. As more developments take place across the private sector, several regulatory reforms in land release and taxes are needed to produce a sizable portfolio of affordable BTR. Without government support and regulation through additional supply-side incentives, development and recurrent holding costs will remain high, making BTR unaffordable to many urban residents. Full article

Rent regulation has a significant impact on tenant–landlord relations and the overall functioning of the private rented sector. Different forms of rent regulation—in relation to rent levels, rent increases, security of tenure, etc.—also affect the quality, the social composition and, ultimately, the size of the private rented sector. Together they affect the character of much urban regeneration and renewal. The introduction in Portugal of more flexible rent regimes that aimed to gradually replace open-ended tenancies with freely negotiated contracts led researchers to classify the country as a free market system. In this paper, by using a mixed methods approach that combined desk-based research with census data and in-depth interviews, we test the) classification of Portugal’s rented sector as a free market against empirical evidence and examine the impacts of the main rent regulation regimes on social sustainability-oriented urban regeneration. Our results show that open-ended contracts, which were signed before the 1990s, still account for a significant part of the private rented sector, thus the classification of Portugal’s rent regulation regime as a free-market system does not capture the country’s most significant features. This is particularly evident in inner-city Lisbon, where various extreme rent regimes (in terms of contract duration, tenant security and prices) coexist, giving rise to tensions between housing quality and demographic shifts that threaten the overall social sustainability of the city. Full article

Young people around the world are facing similar housing challenges, trapped between a costly and unaffordable homeownership sector and an unstable (private) rental sector. China has opted to promote renting as an alternative to homeownership to alleviate the housing difficulties of young people in big cities. However, the influences of promoting rental housing on the subjective well-being of different groups have not been well understood. Therefore, this study examines the mediating role of housing tenure in the relationship between individual attributes and subjective well-being. The study is based on 1,149 questionnaires conducted on the housing situations of residents in Guangzhou, and 618 samples were extracted for analysis based on the purpose of this study. It is found that individual, marital status, (local/nonlocal) hukou status, and income level have significant indirect effects on subjective well-being, with housing tenure as the mediator. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the influencing mechanisms of subjective well-being associated with housing tenure and human heterogeneity and specifies the key points for future research and policymaking. Full article

The tendency of enterprises to use open innovations can be seen in the literature in many areas of research and practical application. However, the use of the concept of open innovation in local administration entities is less noticeable. The research gap in this area prompts the authors to examine such a tendency among city representatives in the example of the Tourism Friendly Cities (TFC) group. TFC is a group of nine tourism destinations that are also European cities struggling with the impact of modern tourism. They take part in the URBACT program under the European Territorial Cooperation program. The goal of the article is to identify the basic problems of TFCs with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and to assess the propensity of TFC representatives to transfer innovative solutions in the form of open innovation. The article presents findings based on interviews with 104 experts from these cities, consisting of representatives of the public and private sectors. Research results indicate that the key problems of modern tourism in TFCs include constraints related to the lack of parking spaces, high rents and high prices of land, and short-term rental housing. The experts recommend measures to increase resilience and competitiveness initiated by business owners and at the initiative of the local administration. Key tools in this regard include and local community communication and engagement, creating attractions that benefit both residents and visitors, and measuring and monitoring tourism. In all, 92.8% of the experts believe that the right solution for the development of methods and tools for stakeholder cooperation in TFCs is to share the developed solutions in the form of open innovation. Full article

The current young generation in Australia is increasingly facing issues around housing, and the demand for affordable and personalised housing alternatives to suit the needs of the younger population has given rise to a variety of housing options. The Build-to-Rent (BTR) housing supply model is one such option that was recently introduced with the aim to provide diversity and choice within the private rental sector (PRS). Although the idea of building housing infrastructure to rent is not new, the formalisation of the BTR concept is currently underway and requires a comprehensive understanding of the various factors influencing its successful adoption. With the introduction of big market players such as institutional investors, understanding the critical success factors (CSFs) for producing successful BTR projects is crucial for its adoption as a feasible option for housing provision, especially for the younger population. Through a systematic literature review approach using the Web of Science and Scopus databases, recent literature from 2011 to 2021 were reviewed to identify CSFs related to the BTR housing model. These CSFs help distinguish the BTR paradigm within the general housing market system. A total of 32 CSFs were identified through the review process. Major factors relate to investors’ interest and willingness, affordability, and housing reforms and awareness. These CSFs identify the key areas of interest within the BTR research which can help create a comprehensive understanding of the current BTR scheme, along with providing a baseline for future research. Full article

An important part of the multi-family housing stock in Sweden was built during the record years 1961–1975 and is in need of extensive renovation to be modernized. The stock is also at the center of political discussion of how to sustain ‘good housing for all’, especially in the rental sector. These renovation needs coincide with present energy targets and provides an opportunity to combine renovation with energy efficiency measures. Common for many of these buildings are that neglected maintenance has led to technical shortcomings, such as high energy use and low thermal comfort due to bad insulation, unsatisfactory air tightness and leaky windows, inefficient heating systems and insufficient ventilation, and moisture damage due to leaking building envelope and leaking pipes. However, the people living in these buildings are not willing to or cannot afford to pay the higher rents that extensive renovations would entail. Earlier research has highlighted the broader societal problem of energy renovations, but also that of housing companies’ priority of measures with short payback times, and those that give the possibility to raise rents. However, recent observations indicated a tendency towards more holistic approaches to housing renovation, and this study was initiated to investigate how public and private housing companies deal with renovation levels, rent increases and related social problems. The main conclusions are that sustainability and social responsibility are moving up on agendas in the public sector, but also, apparently, in the renovations strategies among the private companies. What is also seen is a trend moving from extensive total renovations to more tenant-adapted and step-by-step renovations. Renovation options which do not entail such large rent increases are increasingly being seen. Implications are that housing owners favor gentle renovation with reasonable rent increases of 10%–20%, which at the same time, may be a drawback for reaching energy efficiency targets. Full article

A common barrier to achieving design intent is the absence of comprehensive information about operational performance during design development. This results in uninformed decision-making which impacts on actual building performance, in particular Whole Life Costs (WLC). It is proposed that Building Information Modelling (BIM) has the potential to facilitate a more comprehensive and accurate design approach from the initial stages if the model can utilize reliable and robust cost and performance data from buildings in use. This paper describes the initial findings of a research project that has investigated the integration of WLC estimation into BIM processes. The study focusses specifically on the rapidly emerging Private Rental Sector (PRS) as the build-to-rent market has repeatable tasks and similar workflow patterns, roles and responsibilities, but impacts of WLC can significantly influence the business model. The study adopted a mixed method approach for the development and validation of a structured standardized process for timely WLC estimation through BIM. The research identified a number of barriers. These included varying definitions of WLC calculation methodologies; the availability and standards of data sources, in particular, the misalignment of coding systems for identification and classification of components at various levels of development, proprietary ownership of data, lack of knowledge and skills in team members to produce and/or utilize data sources, and limitations of software. However, the research proposes that these may be addressed by a reverse-engineered systematic process that uses the Integrated DEFinition (IDEF) 3 structured diagramming modelling technique that can be incorporated into a software model and has developed a model for a systematic approach for BIM-enabled WLC assessment based on CE principles which would include access to live data streams from completed buildings. The paper describes this model development which has the potential to enhance BIM lifecycle management through an augmented decision-making approach that is integral to the natural design development process. Full article

Public rental housing (PRH) in China is mainly invested by the government at present. The huge capital demand brings it great pressure and a series of problems appear meanwhile. Public–private partnership (PPP) has been regarded as a way to solve the funding dilemma of PRH. However, the PRH project is not attractive for the private sector since the expected profit seems unsatisfactory based on traditional valuation methods. To improve this situation, this paper proposed an investment valuation model from a real option perspective. For the private sector, three types of options, including deferral option, abandonment option, and expansion option, were identified during the concession period of a PRH PPP project. On this basis, a two-stage binomial tree model was constructed for estimating the investment value. Then, the proposed model was tested in a hypothetical example of a typical PRH PPP project in Chongqing, China. The result shows that great potential value can be excavated through flexible strategies and adaption to uncertainties. This paper provides a deep analysis on the gaps of the real option application in public housing investment assessment, which is meaningful for improving the supply efficiency and financial sustainability of PRH. Full article

Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme Specialist Disability Accommodation (NDIS SDA) program anticipates new, disability specific, housing stock being built by private investors incentivized by cash payments and rental income. To date, very few new SDA dwellings have been constructed and the majority of the research and analysis of the program’s potential has been in the context of apartment construction in major capital city markets in Australia. This paper uses a hypothetical case study of building SDA accommodation in a discrete regional Indigenous community, Yarrabah, in Queensland. It investigates underlying assumptions within the scheme, particularly around the relationship of land to investment outcomes, as well as cultural considerations. An important aspect is to test how effectively the design guidelines associated with the scheme translate into an appropriate built form that is culturally and environmentally appropriate in locations outside major urban centres. The results suggest that housing actors from the not-for-profit sector may benefit from the SDA at the expense of profit-driven, market-based housing developers, and that the SDA design categories offer limited flexibility for participants with changing care needs, potentially restricting resident continuity in occupancy and ongoing return on investment. The work offers an early assessment on the workability of the SDA in the context of housing investment in a new market for the private housing industry. Full article

The purpose of this paper is to explore and simulate the barriers of transaction costs to public rental housing (PRH) exits in China. The two-period model of household consumption utility, with the constraints of transaction costs, is employed to conduct our analysis. The overall results show that if transaction costs go beyond the tenants’ ability to afford them, the tenants will continue to live in the current PRH units, resulting in an obstruction of PRH exits. When the rent ratio in the two periods is higher than 1 and continues to rise, a higher proportion of transaction costs for household consumption contributes to a greater impeding effect, so the barriers’ effect with regards to concurrent changes in rent and income is similar to that of changes only in rent. We observe a close relationship between the acceptable maximum transaction costs and the variety of housing rents. If the tenants cannot afford the maximum transaction cost or housing rent in the private market, they will stop searching for a more advantageous housing and will prefer living in the current PRH units. Moreover, the proportion of maximum acceptable transaction costs does not vary with the changes in the expected household income; income growth only increases the absolute value of transaction costs, not the relative one. Therefore, the government should not only provide housing search services to help tenants leave the public rental sector, but should also adjust the supply of affordable housing for households with housing stress. Full article

In New Zealand, as in many other countries, housing in the private-rental sector is in worse condition than in the owner-occupier housing sector. New Zealand residential buildings have no inspection regime after original construction signoff. Laws and regulations mandating standards for existing residential housing are outdated and spread over a range of instruments. Policies to improve standards in existing housing have been notoriously difficult to implement. In this methods paper, we describe the development and implementation of a rental Warrant of Fitness (WoF) intended to address these problems. Dwellings must pass each of 29 criteria for habitability, insulation, heating, ventilation, safety, amenities, and basic structural soundness to reach the WoF minimum standard. The WoF’s development was based on two decades of research on the impact of housing quality on health and wellbeing, and strongly influenced by the UK Housing Health and Safety Rating System and US federal government housing standards. Criteria were field-tested across a range of dwelling types and sizes, cities, and climate zones. The implementation stage of our WoF research consists of a non-random controlled quasi-experimental study in which we work with two city-level local government councils to implement the rental WoF, recruiting adjoining council areas as controls, and measuring changes in health, economic, and social outcomes. Full article

The occupancy rate of Public Rental Housing (PRH) in China is relatively low due to the unreasonable rents. At the same time, the development of PRH using Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) increases the complexity of the rents. Therefore, the critical factors influencing the rents of PRH delivery by PPPs should be identified. Based on the comprehensive literature, this article identified a conceptual model for the factors influencing the rents of PRH delivery by PPPs in China, composed of 14 factors grouped in three factor packages, and discussed the relationships among three factor packages. A survey based on Nanjing was conducted to assess the relative significance of 14 factors. According to the results, six critical factors were identified: construction costs, household income, floor area and structure, transportation, market rents in the same district and public facilities. In addition, the proposed conceptual model had a good fit. The results also supported two hypothetical relationships among three factor packages: (1) the increase of the affordability of the target tenants had a positive effect on the increase of profits of private sectors; and (2) the increase of the affordability of the target tenants had a positive effect on the increase of level of the characteristics of PRH units. For future research, six critical factors and the relationships among three factor packages can be used to determine the reasonable rents for PRH delivery by PPPs in China. Full article

In recent years, Chinese governments have launched ambitious plans in developing public rental housing (PRH), which are almost impossible to accomplish without the involvement of the private sector. Yet, very few quantitative studies have been carried out to evaluate the financial sustainability of PRH projects in China, especially from the perspective of the private sector. This knowledge gap is bridged through the evaluation of the financial sustainability of a hypothetical privately owned PRH project in Nanjing, China as a case study, utilizing data of a state-owned PRH project and the classic discounted cash flow method. The results indicate that the studied project is financially infeasible, which means that private companies would not be willing to participate in the provision of public rental housing, if they merely focus on profits. Then, the most cost-effective optimization measure of the studied case is quantitatively selected from four possible optimization scenarios, leading to a financial balance. This paper presents the current financial status of Chinese PRH projects, thereby providing policy makers with useful references to effectively accelerate the private sector’s provision of PRH in China. Full article