Affordable Housing - Science topic

Forest product downstreaming through wooden housing: A solution to the housing deficit for Gen Z?

In Poland, property prices have been rising continuously for many years. Even in the years of economic crises, such as the pandemic economic crisis of 2020, real estate prices, including flats in cities, increased on average by around 20 per cent. This has led to a situation where real estate prices are so high that a citizen with an average level of income from work in most commercial banks is not creditworthy enough to purchase his or her first flat with a mortgage. A serious housing shortage gap has emerged for citizens, including working middle-class citizens, including young people after graduation and families starting their working lives. The government's "Housing Plus" ("Mieszkanie Plus") programme, which was introduced in 2026, has unfortunately not been implemented. Only a few per cent of housing units were built under this programme relative to plan. Municipal housing was also not developed. The government did not develop and finance the construction of municipal housing on a larger scale so as to significantly reduce the scale of the housing shortage gap. And yet for many other purposes, which were not of an investment, developmental, pro-social nature, etc., it was the government that created additional money in recent years on the basis of additional issues of state bonds. These additional issues of treasury bonds were bought directly by the central bank and in this way, extra-budgetary, through special purpose funds created and managed by institutions of government agencies, this additional money was introduced into the economy on a large scale and financed mostly non-investment purposes, purposes not justified by economic and social issues. In this way, using a kind of creative accounting within the state's public finance system, the debt of the state's public finance system was significantly increased, but this was done in such a way that the prudential indicators of the debt of the state's public finance system and the standards for reporting this issue to the bodies of the European Union did not include all of the said debt. In 2023, in connection with the approaching parliamentary elections to be held in October 2023, which are also planned to be won for the third time by the PIS political option in power for the previous eight years, a new programme has been drawn up to revive the economic situation, which has been weakening in recent quarters, in the area of purchase-sale transactions performed on real estate and to activate investment processes in the construction of housing estates by commercially operating development companies. this programme is to be based on government subsidies for mortgage loans taken out by citizens. In this way, the main beneficiaries will be the banks selling the loans, the developers carrying out investments in housing construction and the government, which will boast in the meanstream media controlled by it before the elections as part of the election campaign that it has launched a programme that has revitalised the housing construction sector and increased the possibility for citizens to buy their first home on credit, in addition to still expensive credit, as interest rates are still high. And property prices will continue to rise and council housing will continue to be in short supply. In this situation, there are still good conditions for the development of pat-development applied multifacetedly and to a large extent by a significant proportion of commercially operating property developers building blocks of flats, houses and flats. Examples of pat-development in offers for sale of flats in Poland:

In terms of the offers presented on the Internet for the sale of new flats, there are numerous cases of misleading potential buyers, customers, citizens interested in purchasing a flat. There are cases of specifying in the advertisements that e.g. the flat is cosy, i.e. it means that it is cramped. Presented graphic visualisations of flats on developers' websites present, for example, a scale plan of the flat where the furniture is drawn smaller than in the scale plan of the flat. Green names are used for green areas in the computer visualisation of the final image of the development plan for the surroundings of a block of flats that is under construction. In the computer visualisation of the final image of the development plan for the surroundings of a block of flats that is under construction, large green areas are drawn, while in reality concrete car parks, additional roads and further blocks of flats etc. are often built in these areas.

In view of the above, I address the following question to the esteemed community of scientists and researchers:

What do you think about this topic?

What is your opinion on this subject?

Please respond,

I invite you all to discuss,

Thank you very much,

Counting on your opinions, on getting to know your personal opinion, on an honest approach to the discussion of scientific issues and not on ready-made answers generated in ChatGPT, I deliberately used the phrase "in your opinion" in the question.

The above text is entirely my own work written by me on the basis of my research.

I have not used other sources or automatic text generation systems such as ChatGPT in writing this text.

Copyright by Dariusz Prokopowicz

Warm regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

The construction and housing sectors are cyclical sectors, i.e. the economic situation in these sectors, including the level of investment, is usually strongly correlated with the economic situation in the economy as a whole. When central banks raise interest rates, loans on offer from commercial banks become more expensive, including investment loans taken out with banks by developers building housing estates and mortgages with which citizens buy property. In view of the fact that in many countries bank loans have been increasing in price for several months or more, so the scale of new investments in the construction sector has declined strongly. On the other hand, when the economy is in crisis, many sectors are in decline then unemployment rises, incomes, consumption and investment fall. In view of the above, the activation of the construction of houses and flats within the framework of housing policy, which is an important segment of socio-economic policy, can also be an important factor in the anti-crisis measures of the government during the economic downturn. In such a situation, the activation of investment processes for the construction of houses and housing estates can be an important factor in limiting the scale of the development of an economic downturn and economic crisis. Efficient stimulation of the housing construction market within the framework of housing policy, which is an important segment of counter-cyclical, anti-crisis, Keynsian, developmental, investment-oriented socio-economic policy, can be one of the key determinants of a significant increase in the economy's resilience to economic crises. Periods of economic decline occur every few years as part of business cycles and large, trans-national financial and economic crises occur every dozen or more years. In addition to such crises, the scale of a kind of new crisis is growing, which will also influence the development of economic processes in the future. The development of technology, civilisation, consumption of raw materials in manufacturing processes, the level of environmental pollution, deforestation, the extinction of many species of flora and fauna, the decline in the biodiversity of natural ecosystems, greenhouse gas emissions, etc., have all significantly accelerated since the mid-20th century. The result of the increase in civilisational greenhouse gas emissions since the mid-20th century is an accelerating process of global warming, the increasing scale of the negative effects of this process year after year, and the growing risk and scale of a global climate-ecological catastrophe, which may already occur at the end of this 21st century. Therefore, economic policy should be transformed into a green transformation policy for the economy and, within the framework of a Keynsian, development-oriented, investment-oriented, green socio-economic policy, one of the key segments of which would be the activation of green transformation investments in the construction sector and the development of sustainable low-energy, zero-energy and low-carbon construction. The green transformation process in the building sector on the one hand on carrying out thermal modernisation of existing buildings and replacing heat and electricity sources with renewable and zero-carbon energy sources. On the other hand, the development of sustainable low-energy, zero-energy and low-carbon buildings is based on the construction of new houses, housing estates, industrial buildings, public institutions, office buildings and others, taking into account the application of new green building technologies, energy efficiency standards, supply of energy exclusively from renewable and emission-free energy sources and adherence to the principles of closed-loop economics.

In view of the above, I address the following question to the esteemed community of scientists and researchers:

And what is your opinion on this?

What do you think about this subject?

Please respond,

I invite you all to discuss,

Thank you very much,

The following articles are related to the above issues in some respects:

FAMILY 500 PLUS PROGRAMMES AND FLAT PLUS WITH KEY INSTRUMENTS FOR PRIVATE SOCIAL POLICY IN POLAND

NATIONAL HOUSING PROGRAM OF THE MAIN STRATEGIC AND PROGRAM DOCUMENT FOR THE CURRENT STATE RESIDENTIAL POLICY OF THE STATE

I invite you to collaborate with me on research projects.

Best regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

In many countries, specific housing programmes have been designed and implemented or attempted to be implemented with varying results, which consisted of activating and subsidising, within the framework of government financial support programmes, investments in the construction of flats, housing estates, houses, etc. The aim of such programmes is primarily to reduce the scale of the housing gap in society by increasing the number of flats and residential houses in the country, increasing to a large extent the availability of housing for citizens, including young people starting families. Besides, in connection with the fact that the construction sector is one of the key cyclical sectors in the economy, so among the key objectives of introducing such programmes within the framework of the government's housing policy is also the activation of economic processes through the creation of an additional economic growth activator, which can also be an important anti-crisis factor in the economy during the forecasted and ongoing economic downturn caused, for example, by international factors, the global economic crisis affecting the open economy. Unfortunately, not all such housing policies have worked effectively. For example, in the country where I operate such a housing policy programme, whose official strategic goal was to counteract the high housing deficit in the country in the face of social needs, was to be the Housing Plus Programme, the implementation of which was started by the PIS government from 2016, i.e. immediately after winning the parliamentary elections. This programme, alongside the social programme Family 500 Plus, was one of the key election slogans before the parliamentary elections held in autumn 2015, which the organised PIS political group won and thanks to which the PIS government, which has been in power for almost 8 years, was formed. Unfortunately, despite the passage of two parliamentary terms and the governments in power, the housing programme announced in the 2015 election campaign has not been implemented on the announced scale. In view of the above, the social and housing current goals of the Housing Plus Programme have only been realised by a few per cent relative to the original plan, the strategic goal of significantly reducing the housing deficit gap has not been realised. In fact, only the political objective of this housing policy programme, i.e. winning the parliamentary elections in 2015 and the local elections held in the following years, has been fully realised.

In view of the above, I address the following question to the esteemed community of researchers and scientists:

And what is your opinion on this?

What is your opinion on this subject?

Please respond,

I invite you all to discuss,

Thank you very much,

Best regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

I am working on development of interlocking mud bricks which can be used for low cost housing purposes. Project is in process, for literature review I need some papers so that I could compare my results with them. 

In international context several solutions can be found for housing affordability, e.g. social and municipal housing; maximizing the rental fees by regulation (Berlin, München and Hamburg); state support for tenants or for the landlords.

Cities, especially in developing countries, have the challenge to mobilize financial resources to meet infrastructural needs linked to the implementation of the SDG agenda. Revenue from land value is one of the most popular approaches. How to secure affordable housing if simultaneously boosting urban land value?

How to bring the construction cost down?

What material to use?

Any innovative way?

Should we challenge the convention?

Development of new design guidelines based on the new materials and requirement

Seminar/Workshop organized by

I am working on topic of Low Income Housing and want to study how the Speculation plays role in housing and real estate sector. If anyone has relevant literature or data regarding the above mentioned topic, which he/she can share with me. It would be really great.

Looking for sources on gentrification - and issues related to co existence of low and high income households. Any leads would be great! 

I am writing a dissertation comparing selected wall materials for low-cost urban housing in Malawi, and need to determine the criteria for assessing these materials in order to develop a suitability index. I want to approach certain organisations involved in low-cost urban housing provision in Malawi and ask them to shortlist and score (in terms of importance) a number of criteria, e.g. cost, environmental impact etc.). First however I need the justification for creating the shortlist. 

Any help and direction towards literature would be appreciated.

The question may be answered with regards to the future of these policies.

Looking at eradicating squatter settlement and slum generation and aiming at providing affordable housing for the low class citizens I n Nigeria

I am interested in the development of public places, especially how Roosevelt Island was progremmmed, planned and constructed and how qualities  of public infrastructure the island had several decades ago function today.

I am looking for the cross-regional comparative state of play of the nexus between Traffic Impact Assessment and Urban Development

Is there any design and probable cost available for the rapid, safe and affordable housing for the mountainous region? Need the solution for the low income people. 

Prevailing studies coming from planning disciplines seem to concentrate on the refugee camps in the global south. But what about arrival destinations in EU and similar? Do you know architectural research on different typologies of refugee accommodation, their limitations and potentials?

Thank you.

Best regards,

Maja

Some locaities in California and New York are still using Rent Control but nationwide, the majority have abolished such regulations following policy advice from academic scholars and practitioners who used statistical analysis to prove that rent control reduces housing supply and qualities.

what should be a viable and sustainable strategy for providing housing for low income housing? We all know land,cost reduction, technology, finance all are very important and developing connections between these dots is very important. But can anyone guide me some good work where these dots connection has been discussed and practiced particularly in India or Pakistan. Moreover, if some study which talks about connecting these dots along with city rethinking/redesigning is referred, I shall be thankful.

Knowing the fact that younger generations are facing troubles in gaining access to housing, I am curious to find out if there is any contemporary research about the factors that are shaping housing aspirations and expectations of this group of users?

How do we determine the success of a project in terms of retaining social history and appropriate use of the site. 

Looking at relocating low income individuals/families as the intervention, instead of revitilizing low income neighborhoods where they reside.

I am already familiarized with Wolfgang Amann's work about Austria and CEE countries. But other cases and models, especially with access to relevant data (project stakeholders organization, risk management mitigation measures, tendering schemes,...) would be of great help.

I have reviewed transaction and whole life cycle costs in housing development.

After reviewing a series of literature on housing policy and affordable housing development, there is hardly any quantitative research focusing on exploring any model of affordable housing development and its policy perception. This is extremely true when I search the literature on China's (including Hong Kong, and Taiwan) housing study.

Globally if you see, homelessness has become an increasing epidemic problem with fewer strategies for law and policy makers to combat.  In Australia, according to the Australian Bureau of statistics, (2011) 105,237 people are homelessness, 56 percent are males and 46 percent are females. Homelessness is rather a widespread complex issue. A very harsh reality for far too many homeless older females aged 45 and over. Older women are estimated at 14 percent out of the homeless population, some are already homeless while others are at the risk of becoming homeless. With increasing number of older women concerned about the lack of affordable housing, longer waiting lists for public housing and inadequate long term safe housing, researchers suggests that increasing crisis of housing demands for older women will enable homelessness and poverty in future.

I believe there should be a better quality control for all new building developments. However, I would like to explore the low budget homes in particular. I always worried that people who invest in low budget homes are not protected against poor designed. Their homes have minimal living comfort and high energy consumption running costs.

I would love to investigate whether this can be improved without changing the price tag to achieve improved living with sustainable and affordable housing.

Gentrification has seemed to be part of the current structure of land ownership and I want to know if "fighting" gentrification with market based solutions is just chasing ghosts.

Trying to connect peer - shared housing models ( cohousing in specific ) with the sub - protective model currently present in Serbia. Can anyone suggest papers or relevant material in this field?

As coordinator of a countywide affordable housing program, my goal is publicly subsidized housing built to a 100-year standard with low-to-zero maintenance, replacement, and energy use. I'd like to hear about recent projects from anywhere in the world that come close to this standard.