Public Housing Design 101

Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) is a multi-disciplinary approach to deterring criminal behavior through environmental design. CPTED strategies rely upon the ability to influence offender decisions that precede criminal acts. As of 2012, most implementations of CPTED occur solely within the built environment. By changing the areas we reside in to deter criminals from committing acts in our communities is the main goal of CPTED. Urban design and the planning that goes in to the creation of new and reformation of older communities, citizens in these neighborhoods and places of business can feel safer at all hours.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_prevention_through_environmental_design

The rise of social housing movement in Taiwan: dec 06

Unlike the developmental model in Singapore, public housing in Taiwan has been neglected overtime by the government in periods of rapid economic growth.  Most public housing units were built for and sold to the public servants and the people in the military sector instead of socially and economically disadvantageous people. Nowadays, public rental housing for disadvantaged people only occupies 0.09% of the total housing stock.  Therefore it could hardly play the role as social safety net when the Taiwan society experiences economic fluctuations.  At the same time, the skyrocketing price of housing has made purchasing a housing unit an unreachable dream for young people.  In addition, discrimination in the housing market also leads to the difficulties in housing searches for disadvantaged people such as elderly singletons, the disabled, and poor people.

 To address this situation, two years ago a movement urging the government to provide public rental housing emerged.  It could be viewed as a reincarnation of the housing movement in Taiwan from late 1980s to early 1990s.  However, this time the appeal of the movement has changed from government intervention in leveraging housing prices in the private market to more public housing or social housing for rental based on people’s housing rights.  This talk introduces the history of the two periods of housing movements in Taiwan, and gives an overview of the achievements as well as unachieved agenda of the recent movement for social housing in Taiwan.

For more information contact: fasrda@nus.edu.sg

Venue: FASS, NUS, at the AS7 Shaw Foundation Building, level 6, in room 06-42, the Research Division Seminar Room.

Charter Cities by Paul Rommer

Q: Would the government in the city subsidize the housing for the workers? 

A: The government can’t give residents in a city a higher standard of living by charging higher rent for the land and then giving renters their money back as a housing subsidy. People who work can afford to pay rent.

Q: If charter city residents live in small apartments with few amenities, would life there be any better than life in a slum?
A: In a charter city, all residents would have access to utilities like safe municipal water at costs below those that they would pay in a slum. They would not be subject to arbitrary relocation by predatory officials or gang leaders. They would live in a place with no tolerance for violence and crime, a place where people have to follow formal rules, rules that prevent harmful activities like dumping garbage in the street or building unsafe structures.

Q: Would housing in a charter city be constructed according to building codes?
A: Possibly. The people who rent apartments can’t verify after the fact that the building where they will live was constructed to be safe. Building codes are one way to solve the informational asymmetry. Efficient building codes can ensure safety without restricting the supply of small, low cost apartments.

http://chartercities.org/faq/11/faq

Growing housing opportunities in Africa: Encouraging investment / Growing the Market

A joint conference offered by the African Union for Housing Finance 

and the Bank of Tanzania’s Housing Finance Programme

 8 – 10 October 2012

Bank of Tanzania Conference Centre, 10 Mirambo Street, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Africa’s rapidly developing economies and cities offer tremendous opportunities, and challenges, for housing development and investment.  Urbanisation rates in Africa are the highest in the world, and positive growth over the last decade has put many countries in a position to assertively address the housing situations of their populations. While the mortgage sector remains small, developments in many countries suggests that this is changing.  Housing practitioners across the continent are beginning to grapple with and understand the opportunities available and are developing precisely targeted products and projects.  Their work begins to chart pathways for new entrants into the sector, and this will contribute towards the growth of the housing sector across the continent.  Governments, too, are recognising the integral role of housing in overall economic growth, and are addressing the regulatory and policy constraints to housing investment, opening up further opportunities for growth.
To showcase and promote these opportunities, the African Union for Housing Finance and the Housing Finance Programme of the Bank of Tanzania have joined forces to offer a conference with the theme “Growing Housing Opportunities in Africa: Encouraging Investment and Growing the Market”. 

It is fortuitous to offer the conference in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development and the Bank of Tanzania are working together in a partnership with the World Bank, and with the private sector, to grow housing opportunities in a focused way.   Tanzania’s experiences in growing its mortgage market and promoting the delivery of affordable housing, while also actively addressing the market where mortgages cannot go, will be showcased.  The experiences in Tanzania will be of particular interest to other countries exploring the potential of a mortgage liquidity facility, or who have already ventured on this path and wish to consider alternative approaches to the concept.  The first day will focus on ways to encourage investor interest, through the development of sustainable investment models, the collection of data and the development of lender track records.

The focus of the second day is on growing the market through the development of niche market interventions and products that meet the breadth of the housing need. The day starts with a showcase of successful developments in progress – delegates will be invited to choose four, of up to ten projects, which will be presented simultaneously in a “housing developments marketplace”.  This is followed by a session exploring different ways in which the needs of the low-income population can be served – from the provision of micro-mortgages through to sustainable housing microfinance.  The different examples offer housing practitioners useful insight into opportunities for their own growth and development.

This conference will enable delegates to define their own role in growing housing opportunities in Africa.  Whether delegates are government officials, investors, developers, lenders or members of civil society, the conference will offer each participant useful insights and evidence for promoting housing in their own local contexts.

Hong Kong plans to ramp up new flats to 50,000 a year

HONG KONG - Space-starved Hong Kongers could see a steep ramp-up in the number of new flats built - to the tune of 50,000 a year, if a key aide to new leader Leung Chun Ying has his way.

If realised, it will be the highest number seen in Hong Kong over the past two decades, and will certainly bring to a screeching halt the spike in property prices, which have soared 80 per cent in the last three years alone.

It marks a huge jump from the 18,000 flats that were built in the last fiscal year ending March, and outstrips the 35,000 goal set by the previous Donald Tsang government for the coming years.

In an interview with The Straits Times, Mr Barry Cheung, who chaired Mr Leung's election campaign and is now a member of his executive council, said: 'I think we have to provide significantly more flats than what we did in the last five years.

'We need to get it up to at least 50,000 a year.'

Mr Leung has made housing a key platform of his government and has pledged to release more land. But he has not said how many homes they will provide for.

Mr Cheung's view - he is also the chairman of Hong Kong's Urban Renewal Authority - provides a hint of the parameters that the new administration is considering.

But flooding the market with 50,000 units a year invokes fears of plummeting property prices.

In 1997, Hong Kong's first chief executive Tung Chee Hwa promised to build 85,000 flats annually - reportedly Mr Leung's idea. But the policy collapsed when market sentiment went south and Hong Kong was hit by the Asian financial crisis.

Mr Cheung says that what is needed this time is for the government to step in with more public housing to buffer private home owners from the impact.

Private homes comprise over half - 52 per cent - of the market in Hong Kong. About 30 per cent live in public rental flats, while the remaining 18 per cent live in flats the government sells at discounted prices.

Of his proposed pipeline of new homes, less than half - about 20,000 - would be private homes. The rest would be public housing.

At the bottom, more rental flats would be built - some 176,000 applicants are now on the waiting list. The government will build 15,000 such flats a year.

The second tier is the subsidised homes under the Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) for low-income families earning below HK$30,000 (S$5,000) a month. There is a planning target of 5,000 a year.

Mr Cheung says that a third tier needs to be created, for what he calls 'the typical middle class' - those who earn too much to qualify for HOS but cannot afford private homes. This way, needs can be met 'without necessarily bringing down the private market'.

It will take three or four years to realise this plan of building more flats, but genuine buyers will be able to enter the market before then, he adds.

'If investors see that down the road, there will be increased supply, they will be less inclined to speculate and that takes demand out of the market today. So more end-users would be able to go in,' he notes.

Such a proposal would benefit the many Hong Kongers - about 100,000 live in homes such as garrets and bed-space flats - on the hunt for affordable homes.

But it raises the ire of developers like Mr Steward Leung, chairman of the Real Estate Developers Association executive committee, who calls it 'irresponsible'.

'If all 30,000 are for public rental housing, we developers of course welcome that. But if they are for HOS flats, then the market will be shaken, definitely.'

Dr Edward Yiu of the Hong Kong University worries about a possible unintended impact of having the public sector expanding its role - a 'polarised housing market'. He says: 'Developers would want to maximise their profits with the less land given, and so will turn them all into luxury flats.'

source: http://www.stproperty.sg/articles-property/foreign-property-news/hk-plans-to-ramp-up-new-flats-to-50000-a-year/a/73057

CEMEX: mexican case study

MUCH MORE THAN A HOME

 http://www.cemex.com/SustainableDevelopment/cases/MoreThanHome.aspx

Malaysian - My First Home Scheme

Skim Rumah Pertamaku (SRP) - My First Home Scheme was first announced in the 2011 Budget by the Malaysian Government to assist young adults who have just joined the workforce, earning RM3,000 per month or less to own  their first home.

The Scheme allows young adults to obtain 100% financing from financial institutions, enabling them to own their 1^st home without the need to pay a 10% downpayment. This is in line with the Government’s aspirations of increasing home ownership amongst the “rakyat”.

In the 2012 Budget, it was announced that the maximum property value be increased from RM220,000 to RM400,000, effective from 1 January 2012.

Source: http://www.srp.com.my/docs/html/home.html