The spatial extent of producer service markets: Hierarchical models of interaction revisited

The traditional view of interaction in spatial markets has been challenged by recent studies of producer service trade in the space economy. These studies find that although city-size and distance influence the direction and spatial extent of interaction, patterns of trade oftentimes counter expectations as trade flows up the urban hierarchy and across large distances. This paper seeks to determine whether the ownership structure of establishments contributes to deviations from the traditional model of hierarchical interaction. Using trade data obtained from surveys of 547 producer service establishments, patterns of trade originating from a five-tier urban hierarchy are examined empirically and evaluated using spatial survivor functions and logit models. The results indicate that the ownership structure of establishments contributes significantly to deviations from expected patterns of interaction. Independently owned establishments have smaller spatial markets and interact more often with smaller sized cities. Nonindependently owned establishments, in contrast, trade down and up the urban hierarchy in a manner much less sensitive to distance.     

Are riskier cities more compact? An empirical study of the 11 largest census metropolitan areas in Canada, 2016

Why are some cities more compact than others? We argue that riskier housing markets have a costlier real option; developers would require greater compensation to build now—thus, developers are being incentivized to delay, giving rise to more compact cities. We test this hypothesis cross-sectionally for Canada's 11 largest census metropolitan areas. We interpret satellite imageries and estimate a hierarchical spatial autoregressive model to account for both the hierarchical and the spatial structure of our data. Our results show that, on average, a one-percentage-point increase in price risk reduces urban land coverage in the fringe by about 0.7 percentage point.     

Residential Distribution of the Emergent Class of Skilled Migrants in Nanjing

Migration in China is traditionally dominated by unskilled rural-urban migrants that find their way into the city through urban villages, dormitories or informal housing. However, a remarkable increase in the number of skilled migrants has been witnessed with the economic restructuring. Reforms in the labour and housing market have shifted the spatial arrangement of opportunities, consequently changing migrants' access to the cities. Using 2000 Population Census and employing spatial regression models, this study shows skilled migrants to have better access to the city in the sense that their residences locate in the areas with more professional jobs and better houses. It is their advantages in the labour market that determines their favoured access to the public sector housing, resulting in better residential locations. Female skilled migrants are less likely than males to settle in areas with a large proportion of urban village housing or shared accommodation. These findings reveal the heterogeneity among migrants and the concomitant differences in spatial behaviour.     

Planning for the Interaction of Housing and Labour Markets in the English Regions

In developed formal economies, the majority of people at some point in their lives will, at the same time, participate in both the housing and labour markets. However, most people will not live and work in the same place but will instead have to contend with balancing disconnected residential and workplace locations. The interaction of housing and labour markets has long been recognized as a key process shaping the structure of cities and regions. This paper offers a critical reflection on the capacity and scope of recent policy interventions, underpinned by a new spatial planning-based system, to address the interaction of housing and labour markets in the English regions.     

The Geography of an EthniCity: Residential Segregation of Birthplace and Language Groups in Sydney, 1996

Many contemporary cities have a diverse ethnic-cultural mix as a result of different international migration streams, with implications for the residential distribution of various ethnic groups within those cities. Boal recently suggested a series of scenarios against which the pattern in any one place could be evaluated. These are applied to Sydney in 1996, when over 34 per cent of the residents reported a birthplace outside Australia and 30 per cent reported using a language other than English at home. Lacking data on ethnic status, the birthplace and language data are used to explore Sydney's residential geography at two spatial scales, and to identify the degree of residential segregation of each birthplace and language group. Regression analysis, used to assess the relevance of human capital to observed levels of segregation, suggests that Boal's assimilation scenario accounts for most of the observed geographies, with some additional pluralism but little evidence of polarisation. These results suggest that the dynamics of Sydney's housing market facilitate movement into most areas of demand, subject only to labour market constraints; differential access to sections of the labour market, and hence to housing market sections, is a major factor in the residential segregation of birthplace and language groups in Sydney.     

Cross-city spillovers in Chinese housing markets: From a city network perspective

Cross-city spillovers among housing markets are usually modelled by the classical spatial autoregressive models, which usually suffer from identification problems in practice. This paper investigates the cross-city house price spillovers arising from city network externalities wherein a city's connections with other cities in the urban network create the external house price premium through productivity and amenity gains. Using a cross-sectional data set for an urban system in eastern China, we present significant evidence for positive network spillovers by the application of spatial lag of X model and spatial Durbin error model. Besides, common shocks are also proved to be responsible for cross-city dependence of house prices.     

The Egalitarian city: The restructuring of Amsterdam

Since the mid‐1970s, urban policy makers have responded to the pressures of fiscal crisis and unemployment by reducing expenditures and subsidizing business for the purpose of stimulating economic growth. The behaviour of urban governments largely corresponded with the argument of Paul Peterson that cities were forced to pursue economic growth at the expense of redistribution. Nevertheless, the response to economic forces, while generally in a market‐oriented direction, was not uniform within western cities. In particular, the Amsterdam municipality remains notable for its egalitarian policies when compared with London or New York. Housing policy has been a major instrument in maintaining the quality of life for the city's lower‐income population. Because subsidized housing units, as well as recipients of individual housing benefits, are scattered throughout the city, housing policy has sharply restricted spatial inequality of households by income. Moreover, the very large public subsidy involved in housing construction, by keeping rent levels low and thereby raising disposable income, has contributed substantially to popular welfare, mitigating class differentiation and thereby weakening resistance to residential integration of different income groups. This paper examines policies for physical and economic development in Amsterdam and their effect on social and spatial inequality. The conclusion briefly compares Amsterdam's trajectory with that of London and New York, then finally attempts to explain the continuing differences.     

Financial gains from owner occupation: The New Zealand case 1970–88

This paper engages with the debate concerning the financial gains from home ownership. The first section focuses on the empirical side of the debate and is primarily a conceptual analysis. It defines three measures of gain, explores their utility and limitations and demonstrates their appropriateness for different analytical purposes. Section 2 is concerned partly with developing a wider comparative perspective to the debate by calculating the extent of financial gain for New Zealand urban home owners since 1970. Next the paper looks at the effect of spatial location of accumulation potential. In section 3 connections are made between the processes at work in the labour and housing markets: attempts are made to link the empirical data on financial gains from housing to labour market restructuring. Finally comments are made on some implications of the empirical findings for the wider debate.     

Affordable Housing Plans in London and New York: Between Marketplace and Social Mix

The article reviews and critically analyzes contemporary housing policies and plans in London and New York in the context of neoliberal urban governance. In both cities, we find severe housing affordability problems, an increasing dependence on market provision of affordable housing, and a gradual shift from supporting low- and moderate-income residents to promoting housing for households around and above the median income. Affordable housing plans in both cities also link their “marketplace” orientation to “social mix” objectives. The article addresses some socio-spatial implications of these plans and raises concerns regarding the implementation and unintended consequences of mixed-income housing. The conclusion discusses ideas and tools for more equitable affordable housing policies. Finally, we suggest that our analysis of the policy trends in London and New York and the implications we draw may be relevant to other global and globalizing cities, which face similar affordability concerns and rely on the marketplace to address housing needs.     

Australian Cities and Regions in the Depression: Recent Trends in Unemployment

Australia's recent economic woes have produced a steep rise in national unemployment rates since 1989 (Figure 1) but – as always – the impacts have not been even. Some regions, some cities and some parts of our major cities have fared worse than others. This is no surprise. Much of the recent literature on the nature of urban development in the Western world has emphasised the spatial uneven-ness of the impacts of economic restructuring and demographic change. However it is important that as social scientists and policymakers weareawareof the specific spatial dimensions of the current recession in this country. This Forum examines current trends in unemployment at four spatial levels. At each level, significant variations occur as the result of the intersection of differences in industry mix, occupational structure, and demographic and socio-economic composition within local labour markets. Kevin O'Connor and Virginia Rapson begin by examining contrasts between the capital cities, establishing a national context for the subsequent more detailed contributions, and highlighting in particular the recent decline in Melbourne's job market following the collapse of the finance and property sector.     

Second Home Ownership in Transitional Urban China

China has recently experienced a massive growth in second home ownership. This paper argues that second home ownership in Chinese cities is not only a result of an increasingly mature housing market but, more importantly, an unintended consequence of socialist housing policies and institutions, such as the subsidized sale of public rental housing and associated partial property rights, the continued provision of subsidized housing by work units, the continuing household registration system and the lack of property tax. Using the 2005 China General Social Survey, this paper empirically studies the patterns and dynamics of second home ownership in urban China. While households' socio-economic status contributes to conventional second home ownership, the persisting socialist housing policies and institutions have led to the unique phenomena of owing one home with partial property rights and owning a second home, and renting the primary home even in the public sector and owning a second home.     

Build-to-Rent and the financialization of rental housing: future research directions

Abstract

With the expansion of institutional investors into urban rental markets, many cities have witnessed a rise in Build-to-Rent (BtR). This article reviews the financialization of rental housing literature and identifies opportunities for urban housing scholars to progress understandings of BtR through future empirical and theoretical efforts. In particular, it proposes a broadening of the housing research agenda around three analytical entry points. These entry points relate to relatively understudied structural transformations of our urban housing systems implicated in the rise of BtR, namely: (1) the diversification of build-to-sell development models; (2) the evolution of the private rental sector; and (3) labour market–housing market realignments. Comparative inquiry promises to enrich understandings of BtR by revealing how city rental accommodation and tenancies are recalibrated by the investment imperatives of institutional investors and BtR asset shareholders, and with what benefits and at what costs to whom. Such contributions will also provide rich data to progress conceptual efforts to locate BtR within broader processes of housing financialization.     

基于新标准的中国城市规模等级结构演变研究

城市规模等级结构反映了城市发育的基本特征,是全国城镇体系规划编制的基础工作。传统研究多采用户籍城区非农业人口数据,忽视人口流动,存在统计偏差。普查数据中城区人口的统计口径接近城市实体概念,应成为今后判断城市人口规模的主要指标。基于统计口径校正后的第五次、第六次人口普查城区人口数据,运用集中度和贡献率分析了2000-2010年我国城市规模等级结构和空间分布的演变规律。研究表明:大中小城市人口规模变化不协调,大城市数量少,但规模比重大、增速快、增长贡献率高,中小城市数量众多,但规模比重小、增速相对缓慢、贡献率较低,提高中小城市的人口吸纳能力应当成为今后城市化发展的重要方向;城市规模等级变化活跃,晋级、晋档城市的城市建设跟进和降档城市的人口收缩问题应当得到关注;分省尺度下城市规模等级结构存在明显的空间差异,东部省份城市规模提升速度明显高于中西部省份,城市政策制定应考虑不同类型省份的城市规模结构特点。     

The Influence of Immigration on Global City Housing Markets: The Canadian Perspective

Current demographic trends in Canada include population aging and declining household growth. These trends generally result in falling housing demand and stable or declining house prices. Housing markets in Canada's major cities, however, have been characterized by increases in demand and prices in recent years; due in large part to the influence of arriving immigrants. The destinations of 76 percent of international immigrants to Canada are the three global cities—Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal—where they have a very significant effect on housing demand, particularly as under current immigration policy many of those arriving come with considerable wealth. Their influence, however, is much broader and includes the growth of exclusive, prosperous immigrant neighbourhoods, new architectural designs and other neighbourhood changes. Not all immigrants, however, arrive with wealth. Many are poor, live in less attractive neighbourhoods and pay unrealistic amounts of their inadequate incomes for poor quality housing. Some end up homeless on the street. The role of immigrants in housing markets is an important consideration for urban and housing policy.     

Planning and Antiplanning in Nigeria: Lagos and Ibadan

This case study of two Nigerian cities concerns the effects of planning policies on the cost, location, and quality of housing for the low-income majorities of the cities' residents. Planned development policies, followed in Lagos and other cities in developing areas, often appear irrelevant and even detrimental to the solution of housing problems. By contrast, Ibadan has coped with its growth problems in a natural, unguided way without active governmental control over development. To be effective, urban development planning policies must consider access to employment and environmental sanitation together with the operations of the land and housing markets in a programmatic, rather than a project oriented, approach.     

城市转型规划与机制：国际经验思考

本文从城市转型的背景出发,将转型城市分为全球城市和工业城市两类。通过梳理作为全球城市代表案例的东京、伦敦和纽约,作为工业城市代表案例的曼彻斯特、匹兹堡、多特蒙德和埃森,文章剖析了两类城市经济结构、社会结构和空间结构的转型特点。文章进而分析了案例城市在转型中的功能定位、空间规划和实施策略,并总结了规划在城市转型中的作用。     

Private sector housing in urban China since 1949: The case of Xian

Research on urban housing policies in socialist China and Eastern European countries has concentrated on understanding the production and distribution of state housing. More recently researchers have shifted their attention to the commodification of urban housing and establishment of private housing markets. A very important aspect of socialist housing ‐ the process of nationalisation of privately owned urban housing in the early period of socialist development ‐ has been relatively neglected. Ignoring this aspect of the historical background of socialist urban housing policy may create difficulties in understanding the nature of the public sector and recent privatisation experience.

This paper intends to fill this gap in relation to China by examining both the nationalisation of urban privately owned housing in the early years of socialism and the more recent privatisation and commercialisation of the urban housing sector. This highlights shifting approaches to the urban housing market in different periods of socialist development and helps in understanding recent developments in housing reform. It examines the development of policy and the resultant impacts on the private housing market in Xian, one of the major cities in central China. The pattern of private ownership, the state policy of nationalisation and the more recent commercialisation of urban public sector housing are the main issues examined.     

Preservation from the bottom-up: affordable housing,redevelopment, and negotiation in Washington,DC

Previous iterations of large-scale redevelopment were been marked by displacement of the residents whose homes stood in the way of perceived progress. Now these neighborhoods face a new kind of urban renewal. A city with significant vacancy and city government ownership, Washington, DC, is in the process of rapid infill redevelopment. As property values surrounding city-backed developments that were once affordable increase, residents struggle to afford housing. DC has developed significant tools for the preservation of affordable housing, including an existing stock of subsidized housing, legal and financial resources, and a network of organizers and advocates that have given many residents in changing neighborhoods the opportunity to remain. This paper uses the example of Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, DC to examine potential strategies to preserve affordable housing in rapidly changing housing markets.     

How website users segment a city: The geography of housing search in London

This paper explores spatial patterns of housing search in London, using data generated by users of the UK's most popular real estate portal. By focusing on the variable geographies of ‘search extent’, it attempts to make a contribution to a long line of studies focused on understanding the fragmented geography of metropolitan housing markets. It also builds upon more recent work in economics on the utility of user-generated search data. After introducing our approach, we discuss the background to housing search and the wider emergence of ‘search’ as an object of study. We then provide further details on the data and methodology before exploring the spatial and sectoral characteristics of search in London. The results suggest that there is much to be gained by incorporating search studies into housing market analysis and that there is significant potential for future work in this area.