An Uber for apartments could solve some common housing problems

Speculative property developers, criticised for building dog boxes and the slums of tomorrow, are generally hated by urban planners and the public alike. But the doors of state governments are seemingly always open to developers and their lobbyists. Politicians find it hard to say no to the demands of the development industry for concessions because of the contribution housing construction makes to the economic bottom line and because there is a need for well located housing. New supply is also seen as a solution to declining housing affordability. Classical economic theory however is too simplistic for housing supply. Instead, an offshoot of Game Theory - Market Design – not only offers greater insight into apartment supply but also can simultaneously address price, design and quality issues. New research reveals the most significant risk in residential development is settlement risk – when buyers fail to proceed with their purchase despite there being a pre-sale contract. At the point of settlement, the developer has expended all the project funds only to see forecast revenue evaporate. While new buyers may be found, this process is likely to strip the profitability out of the project. As the global financial crisis exposed, buyers are inclined to walk if property values slide. This settlement problem reflects a poor legal mechanism (the pre-sale contract), and a lack of incentive for truthfulness. A second problem is the search costs of finding buyers. At around 10% of project costs, pre-sales are more expensive to developers than finance. This is where Market Design comes in.

Submission to Senate Economics References Committee, An Inquiry in to Affordable Housing

Developer paid fees or infrastructure charges are a commonly used mechanism for local governments to pay for new infrastructure. However, property developers claim that these costs are merely passed on to home buyers, with adverse effects to housing affordability. Despite numerous government reports and many years of industry advocacy, there remains no empirical evidence in Australia to confirm or quantify this passing on effect to home buyers and the consequent effect on housing affordability. Hence there remains no data from which governments can base policy decision on, and the debate continues. This research examines the question of the impact of infrastructure charges on housing affordability in Australia. It employs hedonic regression methods to estimate the impact of infrastructure charges on house prices and vacant lot prices in Brisbane, Australia during 2005-2011, using a data set of 29,752 house sales, comprising 4,699 new house sales and 25,053 existing house sales and 13,739 lot sales. The regression results for the effect of infrastructure charges on house prices in Brisbane indicated that for every $1.00 of infrastructure charge levied on developers, all house prices increase by $3.69 or a 369% overpassing of these government levies onto home buyers. Thus, this one government levy could be responsible for $877 per month on home owner mortgage repayments in Brisbane, Queensland. This research is consistent with international findings, that support the proposition that developer paid infrastructure charges are passed on to home buyers and are a significant contributor to increasing house prices and reduced housing affordability. Understanding who really pays for urban infrastructure is critical to both the housing affordability and infrastructure funding debates in Australia and this research provides the first empirical data for policy makers to assess their policy objectives and outcomes against.

Ecologies of housing and underlying assumptions of vulnerability

Purpose This paper is informed by a study that aimed to understand the difficulties in implementing models of housing, and to help address the lack of accessible and affordable private housing for people with disability in Australia. In responding to this aim, the study formulated an ecological map of housing models, which are examined in this paper in terms of their underlying assumptions of vulnerability. Design/methodology/approach The study involved explanation building, using a multiple case study approach, informed theoretically by an ecological framework. It included organisations, families and individuals with disability. Findings For the purpose of this paper, the study revealed a direct relationship between the nature of the housing models proposed, and assumptions of vulnerability. In the context of the study findings, the paper suggests that attempts to address individual housing needs are more likely to achieve a positive outcome when they are person driven, from a premise of ability rather than disability. Overall, it invites a ‘universalistic’ way of conceptualising housing issues for people with disability that has international relevance. Practical implications This paper highlights how assumptions of vulnerability shape environmental responses, such as housing, for people with disability. Originality/value This paper is based on a study that reconciled a person-centred philosophy with an ecological appreciation of the external and internal factors impacting housing choice for people with disability.

Who Rules Japan? Popular Participation in the Japanese Legal Process

"The dramatic growth of the Japanese economy in the postwar period, and its meltdown in the 1990s, has attracted sustained interest in the power dynamics underlying the management of Japan’s administrative state. Scholars and commentators have long debated over who wields power in Japan, asking the fundamental question: who really governs Japan? This important volume revisits this question by turning its attention to the regulation and design of the Japanese legal system. With essays covering the new lay-judge system in Japanese criminal trials, labour dispute resolution panels, prison policy, gendered justice, government lawyers, welfare administration and administrative transparency, this comprehensive book explores the players and processes in Japan’s administration of justice."--publisher website

Popular participation in labour law: The new labour dispute resolution tribunal

The Labour Tribunal Law (No. 45 of 2004) ushered in a new court-annexed dispute resolution system for industrial relations disputes in Japan (outlined generally in Sugeno, 2004). Similar to the lay judge system for criminal trials (Johnson and Shinomiya, Chapter 2), the new tribunal adopts an adjudicative model that blends professional and lay expertise with decisions heard by a tripartite panel comprising a professional judge and two lay judges recommended by management and labour unions respectively. The new tribunal system came into operation on 1 April 2006.

Kissing fish: Rex Hunt, popular culture, sustainability and fishing practices

Natural resource managers and scientists focus on the behaviour of individual recreational fishers to understand environmental problems associated with this leisure activity. They do this in an effort to identify ways to change attitudes in order to facilitate environmentally friendly choices. This applied use of ABC psychology (attitude, behaviour, choice) has not delivered the expected results. This article offers a different approach by investigating an emergent practice in diverse fishing communities, rather than looking to the responsibility of the individual recreational fisher. Using practice theory, I trace the change from take-all to catch-and-release fishing in Australia by analysing the texts of celebrity fisher Rex Hunt, who is an advocate for releasing fish. I combine this with oral history testimony from a sample of recreational fishers from the broader Australian community to show how change happened. The practice of catch-and-release fishing emerged through the combination of sociotechnical and historically specific elements present in popular culture, including the media. Paying attention to the way different elements catalyse provides a rich account of the changing modes of sustainability in recreational fishing communities.

Studying change in popular culture: A "middle-range" approach

"This chapter reviews the capacity of the discipline field to account for the velocity and quality of digitally-driven transformations, while making a case for a "middle range" approach that steers between unbridled optimism ("all-change") and determined scepticism ("Continuity") about the potential of such change. The chapter focuses on online screen distribution as a case study, considering the evidence for, and significance of, change in industry structure and the main payers, how content is produced and by whom, the nature of content, and the degree to which online screen distribution has reached thresholds of mainstream popularity."

Enhancing information about sustainability features for sustainable housing delivery

Sustainability practices in government regulations and within the society influence the delivery of sustainable housing. The actual delivery rate of Australian sustain-able housing is not as high as other countries. There is an absence of engagement by stakeholders in adopting sustainable housing practices. This may be due, in the current Australian property market, to confusion as to what sustainability features should be considered, given the large range of environmental, economic and social sustainability options possible. One of the main problems appears to be that information demanders, especially real estate agents, valuers, insurance agents and mortgage lenders do not include sustainability perspectives in their advice or in their decision processes. Information distribution in the Australian property market is flawed, resulting in a lack of return-on-investment value of ‘green’ features implemented by some stakeholders. This paper reviewed the global sustainable development concept and Australian sustainable assessment methods. This review identified the possibility of a research project which aimed at identifying and integrating different perceptions and priority needs of the information demanders, for developing a model for the potential implementation of sustainability features distribution in the property industry. This research will reduce confusion on the sustainability-related information which can influence the decision making of stakeholders in the supply and demand of sustainable housing.

Courtyard housing as a subtropical urban design model

Through both theory and practice, this practice-based research develops and tests the idea that courtyard housing can deliver sustainable, compact housing in rapidly growing subtropical cities. It proposes a contemporary urban design model that incorporates urban design courtyard housing prototypes. These prototypes can be further developed by architects and urban designers for similar climatic conditions across the world.

Submission to the Senate Economics References Committee Inquiry into affordable housing 20 August 2014: De-risking development of medium density housing to improve housing affordability and boost supply

This submission addresses the problem of housing price inflation, the chronic under-supply of new housing stock, and the resultant decline in housing affordability for low and middle income households. It specifically focusses on the supply of medium density housing (multi-unit development) in Melbourne, although we believe that the observations made about housing in supply in Melbourne are relevant in other urban centres and to other types of housing supply. In terms of medium density housing (MDH) our concern also extends to the poor quality and design. Why the market tends to deliver generic apartments of poor quality and design which are uncompetitive with lower density housing and amenity despite planning objectives, and how this apparently intractable problem can be overcome is the topic of this submission...

Smarten up! Applying market design theory to housing supply

PROBLEM Cost of delivering medium density apartments impedes supply of new and more affordable housing in established suburbs EXISTING FOCUS - Planning controls - Construction costs, esp labour - Regulation eg sustainability

Rhetoric and Representation : Exploring the Cultural Meaning of the Natural Sciences in Contemporary Popular Science Writing and Literature

Kirjallisuuden- ja kulttuurintutkimus on viimeisten kolmen vuosikymmenen aikana tullut yhä enenevässä määrin tietoiseksi tieteen ja taiteen suhteen monimutkaisesta luonteesta. Nykyään näiden kahden kulttuurin tutkimus muodostaa oman kenttänsä, jolla niiden suhdetta tarkastellaan ennen kaikkea dynaamisena vuorovaikutuksena, joka heijastaa kulttuurimme kieltä, arvoja ja ideologisia sisältöjä. Toisin kuin aiemmat näkemykset, jotka pitävät tiedettä ja taidetta toisilleen enemmän tai vähemmän vastakkaisina pyrkimyksinä, nykytutkimus lähtee oletuksesta, jonka mukaan ne ovat kulttuurillisesti rakentuneita diskursseja, jotka kohtaavat usein samankaltaisia todellisuuden mallintamiseen liittyviä ongelmia, vaikka niiden käyttämät metodit eroavatkin toisistaan. Väitöskirjani keskittyy yllä mainitun suhteen osa-alueista popularisoidun tietokirjallisuuden (muun muassa Paul Davies, James Gleick ja Richard Dawkins) käyttämän kielen ja luonnontieteistä ideoita ammentavan kaunokirjallisuuden (muun muassa Jeanette Winterson, Tom Stoppard ja Richard Powers) hyödyntämien keinojen tarkasteluun nojautuen yli 30 teoksen kattavaa aineistoa koskevaan tyylin ja teemojen tekstianalyysiin. Populaarin tietokirjallisuuden osalta tarkoituksenani on osoittaa, että sen käyttämä kieli rakentuu huomattavassa määrin sellaisille rakenteille, jotka tarjoavat mahdollisuuden esittää todellisuutta koskevia argumentteja mahdollisimman vakuuttavalla tavalla. Tässä tehtävässä monilla klassisen retoriikan määrittelemillä kuvioilla on tärkeä rooli, koska ne auttavat liittämään sanotun sisällön ja muodon tiukasti toisiinsa: retoristen kuvioiden käyttö ei näin ollen edusta pelkkää tyylikeinoa, vaan se myös usein kiteyttää argumenttien taustalla olevat tieteenfilosofiset olettamukset ja auttaa vakiinnuttamaan argumentoinnin logiikan. Koska monet aikaisemmin ilmestyneistä tutkimuksista ovat keskittyneet pelkästään metaforan rooliin tieteellisissä argumenteissa, tämä väitöskirja pyrkii laajentamaan tutkimuskenttää analysoimalla myös toisenlaisten kuvioiden käyttöä. Osoitan myös, että retoristen kuvioiden käyttö muodostaa yhtymäkohdan tieteellisiä ideoita hyödyntävään kaunokirjallisuuteen. Siinä missä popularisoitu tiede käyttää retoriikkaa vahvistaakseen sekä argumentatiivisia että kaunokirjallisia ominaisuuksiaan, kuvaa tällainen sanataide tiedettä tavoilla, jotka usein heijastelevat tietokirjallisuuden kielellisiä rakenteita. Toisaalta on myös mahdollista nähdä, miten kaunokirjallisuuden keinot heijastuvat popularisoidun tieteen kerrontatapoihin ja kieleen todistaen kahden kulttuurin dynaamisesta vuorovaikutuksesta. Nykyaikaisen populaaritieteen retoristen elementtien ja kaunokirjallisuuden keinojen vertailu näyttää lisäksi, kuinka tiede ja taide osallistuvat keskusteluun kulttuurimme tiettyjen peruskäsitteiden kuten identiteetin, tiedon ja ajan merkityksestä. Tällä tavoin on mahdollista nähdä, että molemmat ovat perustavanlaatuisia osia merkityksenantoprosessissa, jonka kautta niin tieteelliset ideat kuin ihmiselämän suuret kysymyksetkin saavat kulttuurillisesti rakentuneen merkityksensä.

Mediated music makers : Constructing author images in popular music

The subject of the thesis is the mediated construction of author images in popular music. In the study, the construction of images is treated as a process in which artists, the media and the members of the audience participate. The notions of presented, mediated and compiled author images are used in explaining the mediation process and the various authorial roles of the agents involved. In order to explore the issue more closely, I analyse the author images of a group of popular music artists representing the genres of rock, pop and electronic dance music. The analysed material consists mostly of written media texts through which the artists authorial roles and creative responsibilities are discussed. Theoretically speaking, the starting points for the examination lie in cultural studies and discourse analysis. Even though author images may be conceived as intertextual constructions, the artist is usually presented as a recognizable figure whose purpose is to give the music its public face. This study does not, then, deal with musical authors as such, but rather with their public images and mediated constructions. Because of the author-based functioning of popular music culture and the idea of the artist s individual creative power, the collective and social processes involved in the making of popular music are often superseded by the belief in a single, originating authorship. In addition to the collective practices of music making, the roles of the media and the marketing machinery complicate attempts to clarify the sharing of authorial contributions. As the case studies demonstrate, the differences between the examined author images are connected with a number of themes ranging from issues of auteurism and stardom to the use of masked imagery and the blending of authorial voices. Also the emergence of new music technologies has affected not only the ways in which music is made, but also how the artist s authorial status and artistic identity is understood. In the study at hand, the author images of auteurs, stars, DJs and sampling artists are discussed alongside such varied topics as collective authorship, evaluative hierarchies, visual promotion and generic conventions. Taken altogether, the examined case studies shed light on the functioning of popular music culture and the ways in which musical authorship is (re)defined.

Odour Emissions from Tunnel Ventilated Poultry Housing

In Australia, factors such as local planning processes, urban encroachment into rural areas and intensification of the poultry industry have increased the potential for odour and dust nuisance. At present, accurate estimates of odour emissions from mechanically ventilated poultry housing systems do not exist for Australian conditions. This has made the poultry industry vulnerable to unsubstantiated criticism. Recently, the Australian poultry industry have made a significant investment in research to obtain accurate estimates of odour, dust and volatile chemical emission rates from typical poultry housing systems. This paper describes the measurement of odour emissions from tunnel ventilated poultry housing systems in different climatic zones in Queensland and Victoria, Australia (humid sub-tropical and Mediterranean respectively) during two seasons (summer and winter). Samples were collected at defined intervals over typical batch production cycles to define the odour emission profiles. These samples were analysed using dynamic olfactometry according to the Australian Standard 4323.3 to derive the odour concentration values. Ventilation rates were measured concurrently, allowing the calculation of odour emission rates. Odour concentration and emission rates were assessed in terms of ventilation rate, ambient and shed air temperature and relative humidity and litter moisture status. Odour emission rates varied with bird age. Seasonal differences in odour emission rate were also observed.

The relationship between the determinants of rental housing satisfaction and considering moving in Finland

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relation between dissatisfaction with housing conditions and considering moving among residents of Finnish rental multifamily buildings. The paper examines physical attributes, socioeconomic factors, and subjective opinions related to housing conditions and satisfaction with housing. Design/methodology/approach Logistic regression analysis is used to examine survey data to analyse which factors contribute to dissatisfaction with the housing unit and the apartment building and whether dissatisfaction is related to consideration of moving. Findings The findings indicate that dissatisfaction with the building and individual housing unit are associated with greater probability of considering moving. Satisfaction with kitchen, living room, storage, and building age are the most important indicators of satisfaction with the housing unit, and satisfaction with living room, bathroom, storage, and building age are associated with satisfaction with the apartment building. These are the areas in which landlords could invest in renovations to increase satisfaction in an attempt to reduce turnover. Research limitations/implications The study is conducted with Finnish data only. The sample is not a representative sample of the Finnish population. A longitudinal study would be needed to determine whether dissatisfied residents indending to move actually change residence. Originality/value This study is the first of its kind in the Finnish housing market. It tests a general model that has been suggested to be customized to local conditions. In addition, much of the research on this topic is more than 20 years old. Examination of the model under current housing and socioeconomic conditions is necessary to determine if relationships have changed over time.