Housing

A) Compare the suitability of Greenfield and Brownfield sites for housing development

If new homes were built, then some would be in rural areas and some in the cities. There are major arguments over the proportion of the new households that should be in cities, rural areas, villages and towns. This has become the debate other whether new homes should be on Greenfield or Brownfield land, which are vague terms.

Brownfield land is sometimes used to refer to land in urban areas. A more narrow definition is land urban areas that have been previously developed often for industry, offices and housing. Some Brownfield sites will have been cleared of old building, others will not. Brownfield land can be found in both major cities and small towns.

Greenfield land is land that has never been developed and includes wasteland that no one ever wanted to build on, protected areas such as the green belt, and parks, golf courses and playing fields. There is both rural Greenfield land and urban Greenfield land. It is not the same as greenbelt land.

The target set by the Government is for 60% of new houses to be on Brownfield land. Countryside and environmental organisations have argued the figure should be nearer 75%. The Urban Task Force, established in 1998 by the government argued that the 60% target would not be met for 3 reasons: there is a mismatch between where land is available (northern England) and where pressure for housing is the greatest (south east England); too much Greenfield land is already allocated for housing; the supply for Brownfield land is quite limited, sometimes in undesirable locations and often as high development costs due to clearing old buildings and contamination.

Those who support a high proportion of new houses on urban Brownfield sites claim that it has economic, social and environmental benefits. Urban residents will be near to work and leisure activities will be able to use public transport, this would mean less car-related energy use and pollution. Brownfield development would protect rural lifestyles and the countryside and increase in car use would be averted. Arguments for building on rural Greenfield sites claim that land is usually cheaper to develop in rural areas because it has not been built on before. There is still plenty of rural land. In 1991, only 10.6% of land in England was in urban use and if development patterns continued as they have done then this figure would rise to only 11.9% by 2016.

Much agricultural land is doing nothing. In 1995, 545,000 hectares of farming land (5.8% of the total) were set aside and receiving European Union subsidy. Also many farmers are experiencing difficulties, 60,000 farming jobs have been lost in the last decade. People want to live in environmentally pleasant rural areas because they have less pollution, crime and noise. This includes many of the new households that will be single person households, such as divorced people with children and widowers, many of whom will not want to live in densely populated cities.

B) What are the consequences of re-urbanisation in Brighton and Hove and to what extent has this resulted in gentrification.

Examples of gentrification have been shown in the consequences of Brighton and Hove’s re urbanisation. Gentrification is the process where by sustained buildings in an inner area of a city are bought and improved to become homes for the middle class and wealthy. This has occurred in a number of areas in Brighton and Hove. An example of the renovation of Brighton and Hove is shown at City College in Richmond Terrace, where the windows have been designed with ‘stained’ glass. Previous windows had suffered deterioration through lack of maintenance and investment since the 1960’s.

The main cause of this deterioration was due to the fact that the Richmond Terrace site had very little money to pay for repairs and maintenance for the windows as not many students were taking up the science and engineering courses the site had to offer. This was mainly due to the fact that there was a reduction in apprenticeship schemes. This eventually led to the abandonment of the site. Amenities and other additions made the redevelopment of the site a costly process. However, this was helped by private investments. One and two bedroom apartments have been created within the college and the prices for these starts at around �200,000.

Since the re urbanisation of Brighton and Hove, many sites, like Richmond Terrace, have been recognised as having potential for gentrification. The modernisation of houses in Pelham Square within the North Laine area is another example. These run-down terrace houses now accommodate the wealthy. Private homeowners have gentrified them with no direct intervention from the Council. Gentrification also occurred after the Argus offices re-located out of this zone to an industrial estate. The building was left empty before a major fire in the winter of 1999/2000; this led to it becoming derelict. However, this has now led to it becoming an area of high status designer homes.

Although to a large extent Brighton and Hove’s re urbanisation has resulted in gentrification, there have been other consequences. The renovation of the North Laine area has been sensitive to preserve its character, an example of which is the improvement made to the Sydney Street. The narrow street has been made a one-way thoroughfare so less traffic passes through. It also has a widened pavement to accommodate for pedestrians and has been repaved. There are also sections of raised road to slow cars, and bollards have been erected to discourage parking on the pavements thereby making the street more pleasant.

Brighton and Hove has received Single Regeneration Budget funding from the government for urban improvement because the council has proved to be effective in this area, this funding is also there because the area has been recognized as having a relatively high incidence of social problems and unemployment. To gain this funding, the council must locate matched investment, thus contributing to Brighton and Hove’s re urbanisation and revitalisation as ‘the place to be’.

Since the beginning of time, the built environment has been an integral part in providing shelter needs for men, women and children. Maslow (1943) formulated that shelter is a basic requirement of humans. In the future, humans will have to construct sustainable shelter otherwise would they would risk depleting resources for subsequent generations. Construction is an example of a multitasking activity. The lifecycle of construction can be broken into phases. Achieving building sustainability in modern environment requires a better understanding of environmental impacts.

Impacts such as climate change, associated costs, as well as utilising benchmarking scale to measure across a whole range of building types and occupancies. This report will discuss building sustainability, the constraints that stake holders of built environment face, and the role of architects in the process of constructing sustainable buildings. Conceptually, sustainability is allowing present generation to meet its needs without depriving later generations of a way to meet theirs.

According to Meckler (2004), building sustainability means to “provide a safe, healthy, comfortable indoor environment while simultaneously limit the reduction of the earth’s natural resources”. Architects, with their unique position within the built environment, are well equipped to meet the challenges of sustainability in the built environment. The building and construction industry possesses a high ability to be innovative (Meckler 2004), and through this innovation that it would create new methods and processes resulting in constructing improved sustainable buildings that can be serve as subsequent year’s benchmark to beat.

The construction industry has invested in research and development into sustainability in order to gain a clearer understanding the effect of building on the environment and reducing the impact of buildings on the environment. The common goal is to be “energy efficient”. Being energy efficient does not equate to being energy sustainable. The energy from the traditional fossil sources cannot be supplied without using further considerable amount of energy in supplying it.

The efficiency of the energy lifecycle starting from the raw extraction of resources, preparation, transport, conversion and distribution to application may be up to 20%. To equate this in simple terms is that it takes approximately 5kWh to deliver 1kWh of energy for consumption. So in order to consume 1kWh of energy, the real term consumption is actually 6kWh. Numerous studies internationally have shown that operational energy consumes the main amount of total energy use in buildings during a typical service lifep of approximately 50 years.

This accounts for about 85–95% of total energy use (Thormark, 2005). From a residential perspective, there should be a focus more on the sustainable development of the residential buildings and urban constructions. The fundamental reason new and more energy-efficient technologies continue to be ignored and the technologies that are applied rarely perform as efficiently as they should is because of a lack of accountability for building energy performance in current building design and operation practices.

The building and construction industry in Australia has made significant progress forward in the last 5 years to improve their environmental performance. This improvement has been in response to increased attention from local and state government policies regarding to Ecological Sustainable Development (ESD), as well as the availability of holistic environmental rating tools such as the Green Building Council of Australia’s Green Star rating tools. Architects factor in climatic variables into their thoughts as they design and plan houses, premises and buildings (Alnaser & Flanagan 2007).

In hot dry regions such as in the Northern Territory, the built environment should be planned compactly to reduce the amount of surfaces exposed to solar radiation. In warm humid regions such as in Queensland, buildings should be openly spaced to maximize air movement between individual buildings. This would reduce the structure operational energy consumption and maximise Green Star rating. Green building is a tremendous growth area in design, construction and building materials. Green building has gained momentum due to the rise in energy costs and cost of building materials.

The happy medium is somewhere between a combination of passive measures through optimal building design and active measures achieved through efficient mechanical system designed to control the indoor climate. These active measures mentioned above include utilizing renewable energy, such as solar energy, wind energy and geothermic energy, improving thermal performance of building structure, utilising daylight and energy efficient lightings, and developing new sustainable building materials (Thormark, 2005).

Another aspect of sustainability that is often neglected is social sustainability. Social sustainability can be thought of as qualitative indicators that complement the development process. Some social sustainability objectives are to provide adequate local services and facilities to serve the development, to provide housing to meet the needs of the population, to provide high quality, habitable developments and where possible to preserve local culture and heritage. In any actual development, there is a need for other supporting elements to make it appealing and sustainable.

An integral part of the development is to provide high quality energy efficient buildings for community activities such as musicals and outdoor space for open markets. By having such gatherings, the community will get a sense of ownership and will utilise the facility frequently. A salient aspect of sustainable development is to provide a mix of housing structures of all different types (Zhu & Lin, 2003). In order to achieve the objective of providing affordable housing; designs and construction must be of high quality and yet utilises minimal resources.

Wherever possible, cultural heritage should be preserved through the reutilising of local valued buildings. If cultural preservation is achieved, the architectural design for the developments will reflect local heritage and use local materials. According to Williams and Dair (2007), there are 9 commonly identifiable barriers to achieving sustainability. Some of these barriers are: 1. Sustainability measure was not considered by stakeholders 2. Sustainability measure was not required by client (includes purchasers, tenants and end users) 3. The sustainability measure cost too much (in some cases the investor would not fund)

Unless sustainability is on the agenda of the local planning government, stakeholders are unlikely to voluntarily put sustainability measures on their agenda. Stakeholders were simply bypassing sustainability issues altogether. As with most local government planning policies, there are strict guidelines regarding social objectives, such as meeting housing needs. If a policy is active at the forefront of development then they appeared on stakeholders’ agendas. Many architects have the ability to succeed in achieving a higher star rating for energy efficiency for their built environment projects.

They have been doing so for a while. The challenges of sustainability in the future should not be construed as extra attachments to how architects have designed in the past. Architects have the inherent ability to go back to the drawing board and to reinvent the design process to reflect the buildings needed for the future. Architects have a vital role to play. They are a part of key decision making mechanism in the building and construction industry. Going forward, their role will be inextricably linked to producing sustainable outcomes.

There are many indicators for sustainable building design (Smith 2001). (a)Identifying possible sources to generate renewable electricity on location, i. e. like Building-Integrating Photovoltaic (BIPV). (b)Minimal usage of fossil fuel energy sources used during the lifetime of the building. (c)Ensuring that building management systems are user friendly simple to operate. (d)Implementing passive or active solar energy while employing heating and cooling systems which are fine tuned to the needs of the occupants with air-conditioning used only in exceptional circumstances.

As we progress into the future, the need to provide shelter increases due to population growth. The building structures needed for this growing demand have to be environmentally and socially sustainable. There is a global increase in awareness of the diminishing supply of traditional fossil fuel resources. Fossil fuels make up the core heating and cooling energy consumption presently. In order to achieve sustainability and leave the next generation able to meet their needs, there are short term increased economic costs as the transition from traditional dependent on fossil fuels to alternative energy sources.

These barriers have to be overcome and the role of the architect in the overall schema is extremely important. They possess the necessary design skills to adapt to the changing needs and produce sustainable commercial and residential . REFERENCES •N. W. Alnaser_, R. Flanagan (2007). The need of sustainable buildings construction in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Building and Environment 42 (2007) 495–506 •T. HARTMAN. (2008). A Vision for Energy Performance Integrating performance – monitoring initiatives to improve building sustainability. HPAC Engineering • May 2008 •Maslow, A.

H, (1943). A THEORY OF HUMAN MOTIVATION, Originally Published in Psychological Review, 50,370-396. 1943 •C. McCabe. (2006). Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management. Sustainable building design in Australia. Eco-Architecture: Harmonisation between Architecture and Nature. Vol. 1, pp. 237-245. 7 Jun 2006. •M. Meckler. (2004). Achieving Building Sustainability through Innovation Engineered Systems. •L. Nervenga. Specifying for Sustainability. Architecture Australia 1904-2006 •FS Smith. Architecture in a climate of a change: a guide to sustainable design.

UK: Architectural Press, An imprint of Butterworth-Heinemann; 2001. •C. Thormark. (2005). The effect of material choice on the total energy need and recycling potential of a building. Building and Environment 41 (2006) 1019–1026 •K Williams & C Dair (2007). What Is Stopping Sustainable Building in England? Barriers Experienced by Stakeholders in Delivering Sustainable Developments. Sustainable Development Sust. Dev. 15, 135–147 •Yingxin Zhu, Borong Lin (2003). Sustainable housing and urban construction in China. Energy and Buildings 36 (2004) 1287–1297

LIGHTING NEEDS OF THE HOUSE Glare problems; snow or bare ground Newbold is situated in the rural north-west sector of NSW, with Clarence River been the main body of water that passes directly through the area. According to results conducted by the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (2009) the turbidity of this large body of water appears to be fair to poor. Turbidity takes into account suspended solids in the water and measures the clarity, absorption of light and the amount of light which gets scattered causing little to no glare to houses on the banks of the river.

The topography of Newbold is mainly flat with a couple of gentle slopes, which consists of grass land, bare ground and the remainder of the area been surrounded by trees. As the majority of the days throughout the year are sunny with little or no overcast shadows. This means that there is an abundant amount of sunlight which hits the pasture and bare ground with the majority of the amount of sunlight been absorbed with small amounts uv-rays that bounce off and create minimal to no discomfort to the eyes.

Pretoria in South Africa is geographically the same in essence as Newbold Crossing in NSW as the same phenomena with glare occurs there. Clarence Way, Newbold NSW 2460 http://maps. google. com. au/maps? hl=en&tab=wl Natural and artificial methods of lighting Ndebele houses in Pretoria, South Africa only had one opening which was the entrance into the house. As displayed in the picture below the entrance was typically facing the south, this meant that minimal amount of light entered the building. The source of light came from a fire which was set in the middle of the hut.

Image 1 Ndebele traditional huts Traditional houses in Pretoria, South Africa have always aimed at eliminating the maximum amount of sunlight that could penetrate their huts. But through the years their huts have evolved and changed due to the influences that they had from the Sotho and Pedi neighbours. In respect to the dimensions of the entrance of their huts, they have gotten bigger meaning that further light could enter the building. This concept is similar to houses first built in Newbold Crossing.

Initially they had small window dimensions, as they thought this would minimise the amount of heat that would enter the building, but they suffered from cold nights and low levels of lighting in houses. Soon they developed a new concept where they would have larger window dimensions to allow light into a house so that rooms would be illuminated, and so that relatively low amount of heat would be retained within the household for the cold night, making houses thermally more comfortable. This same concept lead to the idea of large windows been incorporated into Newbold Crossing.

The concept has developed as houses in this region have solar passive design. The houses constructed have specific eave dimensions to counteract the amount of sunlight the building takes in. In the winter the sun has a low angle in respect to the horizon of the earth, and the maximum amount of sunlight is absorbed to maintain the building warm and well lit up. But in the summer the angle at which the sun is in respect to the horizon to the earth is greater, this is where the eaves are used to counteract the effect of direct sunlight by the building.

To further avoid the abundant amount of direct sunlight, properties in Newbold have trees located in-front of large windows. In the centre and other areas of a house that sunlight does not reach, a skylight is put in place to aid with natural lighting and avoid carbon footprints. The artificial method of lighting in Newbold is through incandescent light bulbs and some of the newer houses use halogen downlights. But the Clarence Valley Council (corresponding council of Newbold) has set up initiatives and emphasised the use of compact fluorescent lights which have less wattage ower but in turn does not require the same amount of energy to run, therefore it uses less electricity and minimises carbon footprints. Taking in mind that there is plenty of sunlight throughout the whole year into households, so artificial lighting should only be used during the evening or for tasks that are complex and require good lighting. REFERENCE Australian Governement, 2009, Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, viewed 9 May 2010, Dalton, J 1808, A new system of chemical philosophy, Deansgate, London.

Reasons for the Increase in Housing Profits in India 3y josalonso The recent global economic recession has generated many problems worldwide, such as increased unemployment, lack of consumer confidence and reductions in salaries and wages. in India, Delhi and Mumbai are among nine cities which have seen marginal increase in house prices in the July-September quarter with Kochi topping the chart, a latest National Housing Bank (NHB) survey showed on Friday. Prices in Delhi rose 3. 8% from the previous quarter while Mumbai posted an increase of 0. %. Kochi recorded the sharpest rise with a increase in the September quarter. Low interest rates, the amount borrowers paid to lenders for the ability to use the money, would cause a shift in demand, the skill and Willingness to consume a commodity, below (Figure I, D to 01). This iS because consumers are inspired to borrow extra, that would lead to increased spending. Consequently, the equilibrium should move from A to S, emerging in an increase in price(P to P I) and an increase in demand.

Furthermore, low Interest rates should lead to lower mortgage repayments, hence ermitting homecuners, normally predicted to vend their residences during a recession, to no longer doing so. An inwards shift In the supply ot homes would be caused(below). the skill and willingness to furnish a cornmodlty, as less proprietors select to vend their houses. changing the equilibrium. the worth should rise from PO to Pt. Overall. the change in worth (PO to P2) should number to 3. 8% it was predicted that after there is a development in attention rates in the upcoming month . he housing marketplace could experience little falls in average price. This is because as attention rates rise. there is a higher tendency to save than spend. Thus. the demand would shifts inwards Also. homecaners could favor to vend their houses because of higher mortgages, making the supply move outwards . A upcoming rise in attention rates could alter desperate stakeholders in assorted ways, Those who have elevated mortgage repayments could vend their residences and pursue to find smaller and cheaper housing, Consequently, the demand for small residences could rise, as emand for larger residences could decrease.

The article presents the soon housing Will fall more This iS upheld by the anticipation Of higher attention rates. Also, because customer assurance iS IOW’ due to the globe commercial recession, after supply catches up alongside demand, it could be said that the benefits will not go any further. Hence, an economists should say that it is most probable that the benefits will fall. In supply, the rise of worth added tax In January back to the preceding rate of 17. 6 , should cause there to be an Increase In employment to compensate for the higher prices. Thus, less customers should be able and keen to buy new residences and demand should drop, leading to The article states the reasons for why India houseing profits increased by 3. 8%. In conclusion, the article is precise in its Justification, the prices of housing in india has to reach the equilibrium point or els falls will continue to occur. As well as the government would need to implement price floors or celaings.

Dream House As I get closer and closer to the island the house that I have always dreamed about awaits me. I can see it from a mile away. Everyone has that house that they ,have always dreamed about. It is so massive, that it is the most noticeable construction on the island. My own private plane lands on the landing strip located next to the house. As soon as I get off the plane, I then begin my voyage down the path that leads to my dream house. I am anxious to get to the house that I will spend the rest of my life in.

Everything that surrounds me is simply amazing including all the trees and plants. It feels so good to be at a peaceful place and all you can hear are the birds chirping, smell the salt sea air. A nice tropical breeze on your skin, and warm white sand on my feet. As I draw nearer to the end of the road, my dream starts to appear. After all these years, I can now see my residence up close. Nothing could ever compare to the sight of my house. Nothing could have compared to the moment I was experiencing. What is better than looking at something you designed?

My house is a five-story dream that lies on a twenty-acre lot. As I come near to the entrance of the house, four columns that lead to the most elegant doors in the world then surround me. The doors were made of mahogany with glass stained windows in the center of the each door. Each handle was made of brass along with brass frames. As I continue to walk around my house, I come across five windows that seem to overlook the house’s entrance. On each window, there are black shutters. The porch then continues to the backside of the house, as I am able to look over the ocean.

When I look down at the ocean, I can see that there are two piers that protrude out in the ocean. The walls of the house are made of a good material to avoid damage from any weather. The outside of my house has an amazing view and I can only imagine what the rest looks like. On the inside of my house, I am able to stand in the middle of the living room and look up all five stories of the house. An elevator is to the right of the living room that is able to go to each story of the house. Each floor has two bathrooms (one full and one-half) with two to three bedrooms.

When I walk in the kitchen, it is easy to see that any cook would love this kitchen. It has stainless steel appliances all shiny and gleaming. Just waiting for me use. As I look around I see every kitchen tool or gadget that one could ever think to use. It has a coffee maker in the wall that will brew fresh coffee all day. A grill that will be used to grill shrimp. I am standing in this kitchen just thinking of all the things I want to prepare. The best part of the kitchen is the counter in the middle that is a self-cleaning countertop for cutting and cleaning foods.

I then walk to the back yard. Surrounding me is an outdoor oasis. I walk toward the road the first thing; I come across a full size basketball court. As I look to the right of the basketball court, I see a tennis court. The best part about my backyard is the bar that is in between the basketball court and tennis court. As I, approach the opposite side of the yard there is in ground pool. The great thing about the pool is that it is connected to a pool that is inside the house. I put my toe in and realize that it is heated.

I can swim day or night. To the east of the house, there is a white gazebo. While you are sitting in the gazebo, you are able to see anything or anyone that enters or leaves the house. Everything I ever imagined was at my house. I planned this out very well to have all my needs and more. As my plane starts to leave to go home, I am able to take one last long look at the house that I had mastered. What I had experienced was my dream home. I could only think to myself, “This is my dream house and no one else’s, my dream house. ”

Affairs and Housing Kathleen Wynne was first elected as the MPP for Don Valley West in October 2003, and is currently serving her third term. On October 20, 2011, Kathleen was appointed Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Minister of Aboriginal Affairs.

She has previously served as Minister of Transportation from 2010 to 2011 and Minister of Education from 2006 to 2010. During Kathleen’s tenure as the Minister of Transportation, she secured a new transit expansion plan for Toronto including the Eglinton-Scarborough LRT and oversaw Ontario’s largest highway investments including the Highway 407 East Extension and the Windsor-Essex Parkway. In addition, Kathleen worked to introduce the Ontario Photo Card for non-drivers.

As the Minister of Education, Kathleen led the government’s efforts to reduce class sizes in the primary grades, to implement full-day kindergarten and to provide more opportunities for high school students to graduate and reach their full potential. Building on a lifetime of political activity and a career of public service, Kathleen is a knowledgeable and passionate advocate for her community of Don Valley West. She has led citizens groups in a number of grassroots community projects and has played a major role as an organizer and facilitator.

She was formerly a Public School Trustee in Toronto. All of this has led to a results-based approach to life, government and community. Kathleen has three children, Chris, Jessie and Maggie, and two granddaughters, Olivia and Claire. Kathleen and her partner Jane have lived in North Toronto for more than twenty-five years.

Economic Policy Problem: Demand and Supply The demand and supply of Housing and the Housing affordability in Australia I. Introduction Like all other economies The Australian economy has been affected by the global financial crisis which is now a global economic crisis due the collapse of Lehman Brothers and other financial institutions in US. The consequences of the global economic crisis has been severe and as a result of this the world is in Recession therefore many economies has pushed the budget into a deficit launching economic package trying to boost their economies.

Because the housing market and the housing industry is one of the most important sector of the economy this report aim to analyse how the global financial crisis has affected the demand and supply of housing in Australia also what are the condition of housing affordability and how the Government through the stimulus package tend to intervene the economy.

After this report we will be able to understand the movement and the reason for a movement into the demand and supply curve for housing in Australia you will be able also to identify if the Government economic policy is going for the correct pathway or if this temporary measure will not bring certainty and confident to the economy. It is very clear that at least the Rudd’s Government is addressing the problem anticipating future scenarios and acting to correct this scenarios exploiting and taking advantage of the relative good shape of the Australian economy in this moment in comparison with another countries.

II. Australian Economy Like all other economies the Australian economy was very much affected by the global economic crisis and the recession around the world therefore the financial institutions started to feel the pressure and the stress of the situation but the Australian Government put in place measures to guarantee the debts of banks. Apart of that the Australian economy was affected by the collapse of commodity prices this brought real losses of income to the economy which put to business in a position to review their investment plan in the future.

At the same time households have become more cautious about expenditure due the increase of the unemployment rates and they start to increasing savings. Because the panic caused and the lack of consuming the RBA responded lowering of interest rates reducing from 7 ? per cent to 3 ? per cent, this reduction have fully passed to the borrowers therefore interest rates on housing loans have fallen as well as interest in consumer and business loan, this rate are at historically low levels.

This has produced an increase in loan demand; other factor that increased the demand of loans apart of the lowest interest rate around 5 ? per cent is the program first home owner grant which has attracted new buyers into the market. On top of that the stimulus package is an initiative of the government to support spending but this measure cost that last financial year there was fiscal surplus of 1 ? per cent of the GPD even so Australia will remain as one of the better performing economies around the world.

One of the reason of the reduction in wealth over the past year is that people which income have grown over the year overestimated the returns of the share market, people did not set up realistic expectations about their financial goals and now they have to increase the proportion of income working additional year or many of them returning to the workforce to compensated the losses of the share market due the global financial crisis, people did not took in count that share market produce negative returns every few years therefore they should have included this into the returns expectations.

Although the large fall in wealth the households sector still is in a relative good position because people is maintaining a good balance between assets and liability and even when the hose market was subdued during 2008 and the prices has fallen by 3 per cent, the Australian overall the housing market has held up pretty well in comparison with another countries like US or UK where price has fallen by 20 per cent. An update on the economy and financial Developments (Battellino, 2009) III. Supply and Demand

The relatively high level of housing price in Australia is a reflection of a collective decisions of households, this is not the result of a external forces they are at their income, preferences, access to finance have been willing to pay those prices. But this is not the only reason the supply – side factors also influenced in the fact of high price like the ability to built new housing on the city fringe, factor affecting the ability to increase supply closer to the city, transport infrastructure and community affect the feasibility and desirability of living in a different place.

One of the good indicators of some of the supply issue is the cost of raw land. Prices still are high on the edges of Sydney but lowest on Melbourne and Adelaide therefore will very important to see if it is possible to reduce these prices or at least try to keep a lid on increase over the years because the housing affordability over the medium term will be the result of the ability to expand the supply of housing.

Home building has recently been at low levels and this is because in a showing or uncertainty situation economy builder does not want to take higher risk than usual and also recent weakness in building approvals are affecting the supply curve and when there is a lack of supply and increase in demand the prices will go upwards. Conditions and Prospects in the Housing Sector (Richards, 2009)

Looking beyond that the fall in interest rate and improvements in housing affordability should contribute to growth this has not happened but economist are expecting that occurred during this year and gradually boost home-building. Another factor that can contribute the building approval for building activities and therefore increase the supply of housing is the increase of number of first – home buyer demand there has been an important increase in loans approval in recent months.

Is also very important understand that for many economist in this moment there is undersupply in the housing market even though we do not know exactly how large the undersupply it is but this should support also home-building. According with the current population rates, the decline in average household and level of demand for second house had been maintained most calculation now put “underlying demand” around 180. 000 to 200. 000 per year that means we need to increase the number of new house built than has actually occurred.

However, we can ignore the impact of prices on the demand for housing remember over the years the cost of housing has grown faster than incomes and the cost of goods and services as a consequence of that the demand for housing will be affected by the higher cost of housing therefore we can expect that the demand decline because many young adult will choose to live with their parents for longer, many other would prefer extra flatmate rather than having a bedroom vacant and another owner of holidays homes very likely to sell them so perhaps this is the reason that we have built fewer homes in recent years than might have been expected.

But the undersupply of housing is a story of never ending because there is an Intelligent Housing Research Group “Hometrack” stated that the calculation of the RBA are based in accurate data according with them Australia may already have an excess of housing according with their estimation there are at least 10 millions dwellings in Australia compared with the 8. 3 millions of ABS data showing occupied dwellings of 8. millions, the extra two millions are housing awaiting to be sale or development, second homes and abandoned homes. Therefore they say that the ABS Method for calculation the ratio of people per dwelling per dwelling is based on ABS census data which is based upon occupied dwelling however Hometrack analysis is based on postal address indicates that Australia’s current level of housing relative to its population is in line with other Anglo economies.

Following this looking at the context of population growth Australia total building approvals have running about the demand, for that reason the concern is that business and government decision in regards of housing market are being made based on demand assumptions that vary from the actual behaviour of the housing market. But how can we know who is telling the true well according with statistics during 1985-2009 an average of 1 residential dwelling was built per 1. 75 new Australian and only in the last 3 months has the rate of new building fallen behind population growth.

This is in excess of the current ABS ratio of 2. 55 person per occupied therefore far from having and undersupply of housing Australia may well have substantial oversupply, it’s just that no-one is living in many of them. Is very likely cause of this large stock of unoccupied homes is Australia system of negative gearing. Most investor prefer build houses but avoid the renting-damage property having to manage tenant therefore they built it for capital gains because is better to keep the hose out of the rental market and claim the loss against tax.

In order to defend the dominant view that Australian house price are justified by supply and demand, Anthony Richards (Economist) observed that the relative high level of housing price in Australia is a reflection of demand and the collective decision of households therefore housing price have not been set by external forces they are at this level because buyers in general have been willing to pay the prices. This is a fairly typical piece of neoclassical economic thinking “Prices reflect the interaction of supply and demand and are therefore justified”.

Economist who apply a standard “Supply and demand” mindset to analysing the property market seem to consider that demand can shift “Left and right” as the number of buyers falls and rises with time; but they seem to ignore that the demand curve can shift up and down as well. Is response to the willingness of lenders to increase or decrease their loan to valuation ratios and if there is a substantial fall in LVR to new buyers could reduce the price that would be buyers can offer even in shortage of properties.

Price S D3 D2 D1 Quantity of Supply, Demand Increase of demand due to: • Population Growth • Low interest Rates • Booming economy with rising wages • Governments Policies like Cuts to capital gains taxes Lies, damned lies, and Housing statistics (Keen, 2009) Bentick, Teresita, (2003) Microeconomics Study guide (4th Ed). Australia: Pearson Educations Australia. Frank, Robert, Bernanke Ben, (2001) Principles of Microeconomics (1st Ed).

New York, USA: McGraw Hill Higher Education IV. Housing Affordability. Housing affordability can be divided in two: people need where to live whether they buy or rent therefore we need to include rents as well as mortgage to measure housing affordability, the second part is people who are looking to get into the housing market and people who already are already there. Housing affordability is consider as spending up to 30% a household’s income on mortgage repayments or rent.

In the past two decades the prices of the housing has risen matched by a decrease in housing affordability this mean that a household now need 34. 8% of their income to meet an average loan repayment. According with a report released entitled “Anatomy of Australian Mortgage Stress” released by fujitsu consulting in April found that the main cause of mortgage stress is the interest rate rises and rents have risen slower than mortgage repayments pushing people out the house market and into the rental market, this mean that rents too are on the rise.

According with report released by The Real State Institute of Australia REIA on April 22th 2009 “An opportune time for renters to buy” the ABS released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) showing that housing components increased 0,9% for the quarter bringing the annual increase to 5. 5%. The majority of this increase in the housing components was driven by rents which increased by 1. 7% over the quarter and 8. 4% over the year, this ncrease in rents reflects record low vacancy rates and the unavailability of rental properties in all capital cities. Building approvals and housing finance for investment purposes continue decrease during the March quarter 2009 and is very likely to put further upwards pressure on rents. Australia will need to build significantly more house than has occurred recently to meet rental demand. Housing affordability has improved significantly since the reserve bank began cutting interest rates in September 2008.

With the availability of the first home owners boost (FHOB), lower interest rate, greater affordability and vacancy rates remaining in a low record now would be an opportune time for these in the rental market to consider the purchase of their own home. Real Estate institute of Australia (2009, April 22). Ann opportune time for renters to buy. Retrieved April 28, 2009, from http://www. reia. com. au/media/documents/REIA_MediaRelease_AnOpportuneTimeforRenterstoBuy. pdf Housing costs and Affordability in Australia (Thrift, 2008) Conclusion

Is very clear that the housing sector in Australia is showing signs of improvements due the increase in households cash flows as a result of the of the important role of the Government and the RBA in the downturn of the economy decreasing the interest rates and providing policies that improve housing affordability for people to repay the loans but in order to tackle this important problem is very important that the government does not exclude anyone from the spectrum like young people also is very important that the Reserve Bank of Australia as a Central bank play an important role n this matter acting more like an honest broker developing real strong statistic about the housing market that helps in a future time to provide valuable resources, accurate data and support important decisions about the supply and demand of housing market instead of take part of this problem assuming neoclassical position taking in consideration on side of the problem and ignoring the other.

REFERENCE LIST ? Bentick, T. (2003). Microeconomics Study Guide. Pearson education Australia, Australia: Pearson Education Australia Frank, R. , Bernanke B. (2001) Principles of microeconomics. Mc graw Hill, New York: Gary Burke ? Thrift Rhea, (2008) Housing and Affordability in Australia . Retrieved April 27, 2009, from http://www. rba. gov. au/EconomicsCompetition/2008/Pdf/2008_first_year. pdf ? Real Estate institute of Australia, (2009, April 22). Ann opportune time for renters to buy. Retrieved April 28, 2009, from http://www. reia. com. au/media/documents/REIA_MediaRelease_AnOpportuneTimeforRenterstoBuy. pdf ? Battellino, Ric. 2009, March 31). An Update on the Economy and Financial Developments. Retrieved April 27, 2009, from http://www. rba. gov. au/Speeches/2009/sp_dg_310309. html ? Richards, A. (2009, March 26). Conditions and Prospects in the Housing Sector. Retrieved April 27, 2009, from http://www. rba. gov. au/Speeches/2009/sp_dg_310309. html ? Keen, S. (2009, April 08). Lies, damned lies, and housing statistics. Retrieved April 27, 2009, from http://www. businessspectator. com. au/bs. nsf/Article/Lies-damned-lies-and-housi