Andrea Sharam and Lyndall Bryant
Digital disruption offers an innovative opportunity to address housing affordability issues through the use of market design theory and two-sided matching markets. The purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
Digital disruption offers an innovative opportunity to address housing affordability issues through the use of market design theory and two-sided matching markets. The purpose of this paper is to scope a model for how “uberisation” can revolutionise the traditional apartment delivery model in Australia, leading to improved housing affordability.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses semi-structured interviews with operators of online real estate platforms and deliberative developers to examine how the principles of “uberisation”, that is two-sided matching markets, are driving innovation in the apartment supply process.
Findings
Findings confirm that real estate internet platforms and deliberative developers innovators are informed by the benefits of aggregating demand to reduce development risk, thus enabling apartments to be provided at a substantially lower price than by traditional methods.
Research limitations/implications
The number of interviews is small reflecting the limited number of market actors currently engaged in the innovations investigated.
Originality/value
This research is innovative as it introduces theoretical understandings gained from market design theory and applies those concepts to disrupt the apartment development process.
Details
Keywords
Andrea Sharam, Lyndall Elaine Bryant and Thomas Alves
The purpose of this paper is to identify the financial barriers to the supply of affordable apartments in Australia and examine whether demand aggregation and “deliberative…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the financial barriers to the supply of affordable apartments in Australia and examine whether demand aggregation and “deliberative development” (self-build) can form a new affordable housing “structure of provision”.
Design/methodology/approach
Market design, an offshoot of game theory, is used to analyse the existing apartment development model, with “deliberative development” proposed as an innovative alternative. Semi-structured interviews with residential development financiers are used to evaluate whether deliberative development could obtain the requisite development finance.
Findings
This investigation into the financial barriers of a deliberative development model suggests that, while there are hurdles, these can be addressed if key risks in the exchange process can be mitigated. Hence, affordability can be enhanced by “deliberative development” replacing the existing speculative development model.
Research limitations/implications
Market design is a new innovative theoretical approach to understand the supply of housing, offering practical solutions to affordable apartment supply in Australia.
Originality/value
This research identifies financial barriers to the supply of affordable apartments; introduces theoretical understandings gained from market design as an innovative solution; and provides evidence that a new structure of building provision based on “deliberative development” could become a key means of achieving more affordable and better designed apartments.
Details
Keywords
Andrea Sharam, Ian McShane, Lyndall Bryant and Ashton De Silva
The purpose of this paper is to examine the barriers to the re-purposing of under-utilised real property assets owned by Australian not-for-profit (“NFP”) organisations for…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the barriers to the re-purposing of under-utilised real property assets owned by Australian not-for-profit (“NFP”) organisations for affordable housing provision.
Design/methodology/approach
Exploratory research was undertaken with five diverse (non-housing) NFP organisations.
Findings
The research indicates that NFP organisations who are not principally engaged in housing provision, but hold surplus or under-utilised land and property assets, may be willing partners in affordable housing provision. However a range of institutional and structural barriers would need to be overcome for housing developments to occur on under-utilised NFP organisations land holdings.
Research limitations/implications
The small scale of the study limits generalisation from the research findings. However, the findings point to an opportunity for innovation in housing land supply that warrants larger scale research.
Practical implications
This research provides evidence that a source of well-located land is potentially available for future affordable housing provision, but that NFP organisations would require skills and financial resourcing in order to make their land available for this purpose.
Social implications
Well-located land is a major cost input for the provision of affordable housing, and the re-purposing of NFP organisations land or assets for affordable housing could make a significant contribution to the stock of social housing.
Originality/value
There has been no research on how NFP organisations view opportunities to repurpose their land for affordable housing despite this sector being actively encouraged to do so. This paper reports the first Australian study of dispositions and barriers to the re-use NFP organisations land assets.