The credit crunch: impacts on the housing market and policy responses in the Netherlands

This contribution deals with the impact of the credit crunch on the Dutch housing market and the policy responses of the Dutch government so far. Reinhart and Rogoff have presented an overview of credit crises after WW II: what are the general characteristics and impacts? Also in the Netherlands, banking problems were imported from the US. The open economy of the Netherlands appeared to be very vulnerable to the worldwide credit crunch. Also in this country the real economy worsened. Housing construction fell sharply, while prices of residential properties fell more gradually. After giving an overview of the Dutch government’s current policies to stimulate housing construction and renovation, we consider whether the Dutch economy is following the general pattern sketched by Reinhart and Rogoff. If so, we could expect a continuation of the crisis on the housing and construction market for another 4 years.     

Protecting housing and mortgage markets in times of crisis: a view from Australia

Australia emerged relatively unscathed by the foreclosure crisis in the US in 2007 and the subsequent global finance crisis (GFC) and, at least to date, appears to be well placed to face the sovereign debt crisis that has threatened and continues to threaten stability in a number of European countries. In part, its survival period can be attributed to a number of key interventions in its mortgage and housing markets prior to, and during, the GFC. Its apparent survival beyond 2010 and through subsequent crises has been built on these foundations. This paper provides an overview of the Australian housing finance system in order to understand some of the context within which these key interventions were undertaken. It outlines relevant responses to the crises and assesses the extent to which these have been successful in terms of their impact on Australia’s housing and mortgage markets. It argues that some of the interventions have been good and some bad but that even the good interventions reflect missed opportunities likely to affect Australia’s housing and mortgage markets into the future. It concludes by pointing to the lessons that might be learned from its experience to date.     

The crowding-out effect of housing subsidies on parental support: evidence from Japanese mortgage tax credits

Children may receive monetary transfers from their parents when they attempt to purchase a home. This raises the question of whether a homeownership-related subsidy provided by government displaces transfers received from parents. The purpose of this paper is to examine this question empirically, using a sample of Japanese home-buying households that are benefiting from a mortgage tax credit (MTC) as a model case. In the empirical analysis, we offer a test of the effect of the MTC on both the extensive and the intensive margins using the overall sample as well as subsample groups. The empirical results, which use the full sample, indicate that the MTC crowds out parental transfers on both the extensive and the intensive margins. In particular, the estimates of the latter suggest an approximately 100 % displacement. Subsample analysis demonstrates that the crowding-out effect is strengthened when children are young, are of low-income group, and are living in the rental sector previously.     

论金融危机背景下经济适用房建设的政策导向和市场选择

改革开放30年来,随着我国人民生活水平的逐步提高和房地产市场需求的不断扩大,改善居民住房的民生工程戍了政府工作的重中之重。目前,经济适用住房的建设是我国政府现阶段解决国民住有所居的主要手段之一,其灵魂就在于它是现在唯一可以使消费者买得起的住房供应模式。经济适用房解决的是中低收入群体的住房困难,而商品房市场主要是为中等收入或高收入群体改善居住条件提供资源,两者在目标客户群上有明显的不同。经济适用住房虽然会对附近商品房的价格产生一定影响,但不会对全市整体房价造成很大冲击。     

金融危机对长沙房地产业影响分析及应对策略

通过对长沙房地产业的现状调查,从房地产开发、销售和资本三方面定性定量研究了金融危机对长沙房地产业产生的影响,根据新的形势为房地产业制定了有效应对策略,以促进长沙房地产稳定发展。     

基于调控保障性住房视角的住房建设规划研究

从住房建设规划入手,探讨规划的基本框架以及调控保障性住房建设采取的措施,分析其中存在的问题和原因,并给出相关改进建议,以充分发挥住房建设规划的作用,促进和谐社会的建设。     

French housing markets after the subprime crisis: from exuberance to resilience

The main topic addressed in this paper is the special attributes of the French system as regards both the house price upsurge in the precrisis decade and the resilience of the housing system since 2007. Why was the housing market so buoyant before 2007, and why did it stabilize so rapidly after 2008? Apart from the nature of the credit system, which is of course of great importance—especially with respect to resilience—answering this question leads to questions concerning recent trends in tenure, urban structures, income distribution and housing policies. A number of similarities can be observed with Nordic countries, especially with Sweden, which can explain why those countries were exuberant without generating the kind of fragility observed in Anglo-Saxon, southern or eastern European countries.     

诠释金融风暴下东北、华北水泥市场竞争格局

东北地区的辽宁、吉林和黑龙江三省是我国的重化工和农副产品生产基地,积聚大量工业资产存量,战略地位重要.     

Law of one price: evidence from the Spanish wheat market

In the analysis of market development, the issue of integration among regions is of central importance. In an integrated market, the so-called Law of One Price should hold, and transport costs are an important factor in this respect. In this paper, we present an alternative method to analyse this question based on the spectral decomposition. We apply this methodology to agricultural integration which is a controversial issue in Spanish economic history as long as it is an indicator of the market maturity. The evidence is in favour of a progressive regional integration pattern.     

From risk-limited to risk-loving mortgage markets: origins of the U.S. subprime crisis and prospects for reform

This paper examines the origins of the U.S. subprime crisis that reached clear national scale in early 2007, but it does so with somewhat more historical perspective than has been done in many places. It describes the shift during the latter decades of the twentieth century of the U.S. mortgage market from a risk-limited market to a risk-loving one and demonstrates that this shift was the result of what often appeared to be fairly obscure federal policy decisions. It also points out that the 2007 subprime crisis was preceded by an earlier, “first” subprime crisis in the late 1990s that had severe effects on many minority neighborhoods in the U.S., but that had much smaller effects on financial markets. The later crisis was partly the result of policymakers failing to respond to the earlier and quite severe problems in the subprime market. Finally, proposals since late 2008 to increase regulation of the U.S. mortgage market are described, and the evolution of those proposals toward actual legislation and regulatory impact is discussed.     

The role of sentiment in housing market with credit-led funding: the case of Turkey

Journal of Housing and the Built Environment - This paper investigates the long run relationship among sentiment, which is defined as the aggregate investor attitude, housing credit and prices, and...     

The middle classes and the remaking of the suburban family community: evidence from the Netherlands

This paper presents data on everyday life in three recently built Dutch suburban areas constructed under the Vinex national urban planning policy. Its focus is on family households and today’s division of work and care, social life and neighbourhood activism. The results show that suburbs are no longer breeding grounds for the traditional nuclear family. But, while the rate of working mothers is high, the limited use of professional child care still reflects the tradition that maintains that children are best cared for in the private domain. Having children is crucial for putting down roots and developing social networks. In contrast to the past, both working mothers and fathers are actively constructing family communities. The newly established family communities are firmly of the middle class and tend to exclude childless and lowerclass households. Neighbourhood activism involves both the reproduction of an unspoiled and orderly environment and the realisation of a suburban paradise for children. This paper further reveals differences in the suburban areas studied and discusses the false dichotomy between the urban and the suburban within the metropolitan area.     

Decline and depression: the impact of the global economic crisis on housing markets in two post-socialist states

The goal of this paper is to outline the main factors influencing the diverse consequences of the global economic crisis on housing and mortgage markets in two post-socialist economies—the Czech Republic and Hungary. In the former there was a mild decline of markets while in the latter there has been a depression of markets. The paper also contributes to the convergence and divergence debate on housing policies in Europe. In the last two decades the post-socialist states have moved toward a market-based housing system (a convergence trend), but substantial differences have simultaneously emerged in tenure structure, housing finance institutions and housing policies (divergence trends). The Czech Republic and Hungary have introduced efficient market reforms in their economy but they have followed different paths in reforming their housing systems. This article shows that divergence in housing systems explains some of the differences in the impact of the global economic crisis on the housing and mortgage markets. However, the article concludes that housing policy responses to the impact of the global economic crisis on housing markets may on balance reinforce convergence trends.     

Health impacts associated with the implementation of a national petrol-lead phase-out program (PLPOP): evidence from Taiwan between 1981 and 2007

Background and objective

In 1981, a petrol-lead phase-out program (PLPOP) was launched in Taiwan for the abatement of environmental lead emissions. The present study was set out to examine whether the reduction of environmental lead emissions would result in the decrease in mortality rates of various diseases based on national data between 1981 and 2007.

Method

The national mortality data were obtained from the Office of Statistics of the Taiwan Department of Health (Taiwan DOH). Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated based on 2000 WHO world standard population. Gasoline consumptions were obtained from the Bureau of Energy.

Results

The mean blood lead levels (BLLs) had decreased dramatically from approximately 20.14 μg/dl in the leaded petrol phase to 3 μg/dl or lower in the unleaded petrol phase. From 1981 to 2007, the mortality (per 100,000 people) was decreased from 146.2 to 43.8 for cerebrovascular disease, from 85.3 to 44.4 for heart disease, from 35.4 to 6.6 for hypertensive disease, from 21.3 to 17.3 for nephrosis, and from 810.2 to 491.6 for all causes. By taking the confounders (including economic growth rate, per capita income, tobacco consumption, and medical resources) into account, the decreases in SMRs for all causes, cerebrovascular disease, and nephrosis were found to be highly correlated with the decrease in petrol lead emissions (p-values = 0.001, < 0.001, 0.020, respectively).

Conclusion

Our results clearly show that the implementation of the PLPOP was associated with a decline in mortality rates in several diseases that have been associated with lead exposure, even after adjustment for a number of relevant confounders.     

The Role of the Public Sector in Urban Development: Lessons from Leidsche Rijn Utrecht (The Netherlands)

This article describes how the local planning authority plays a role both as a regulator and as a facilitator of urban development processes. Using the study of a large-scale housing development process in the Netherlands (Leidsche Rijn Utrecht), it is argued that the regulating and the facilitating roles of the local planning authority, that are now combined in the spatial plans, could be better if separated. This would allow the planning authority to regulate only where necessary, and to facilitate where possible, thus creating more space for collaborative processes. On a practical level, this analysis allows an approach for the public sector to be discerned, represented by the local planning authority, to pursue housing and land use policy by inducing the other actors in the urban development process to co-operate. On a more theoretical level, the article contributes to our understanding of the role and position of the public sector in development projects where public and private interests meet.     

Tunnelling of infrastructure: from non-considered to ill considered — lessons from the Netherlands

In The Netherlands, tunnels are in much (public) demand since approximately 1980. Infrastructure is less tolerated in the urban environment, especially when it is elevated above ground. Three different projects for which the authors acted as scientific consultants can serve to demonstrate how problematic it can be to neglect an underground option on the one hand and to make it dogmatic on the other. Existing infrastructure is often seen as both environmentally and commercially damaging, suppressing urban land values. Reconstruction is a difficult task, though, in spite of modern techniques. The Helmond case, where an elevated part of a main road separates the town centre and historical castle and blocks revitalisation of the area, is an adequate demonstration. The proposed replacement with a tunnel proved to be ill considered, i.e. both difficult and costly. Even worse: perhaps the town might do without the road after all! In developing new infrastructure, like high speed train links, urban alignments are avoided because of public resistance. Yet these may prove to be acceptable if tunnelled, whereas an alignment in the rare open countryside is locally despised. This proved to be true in the case of the Amsterdam–Antwerp High-Speed Railway Line (HSL), for the passage of Dordrecht, south of Rotterdam. An urban underground solution was not considered in the government studies. A local proposal, which proved to be quite feasible, was rejected, mainly because it was presented late in the planning process. New types of infrastructure may be developed explicitly for underground use. Lorries are an ever-bigger problem in local distribution, both for the environment and congestion and for trade, dependent on these. Therefore, underground logistic systems (ULS) are proposed more frequently. Perhaps the best-studied one is the Schiphol Airport ULS, intended predominantly to connect air and rail terminals and the world's largest flower auction at Aalsmeer. It showed that the choice for an underground solution can be too dogmatic, not affordable and only partly necessary. Mixed solutions, partly underground, partly on the surface and partly elevated were quite feasible and economically more attractive.     

Correction to: Assessing economic,social and environmental impacts on housing prices in Hong Kong: a time-series study of 2006, 2011 and 2016

Journal of Housing and the Built Environment -