tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/empty-homes-9394/articlesempty homes – The Conversation2022-09-01T02:11:22Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1890672022-09-01T02:11:22Z2022-09-01T02:11:22ZLook where Australia’s ‘1 million empty homes’ are and why they’re vacant – they’re not a simple solution to housing need<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480769/original/file-20220824-14-aaitdg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C0%2C5184%2C3437&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gustavo Galeano Maz/Pexels</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent release of 2021 Census data revealed a shocking “one million homes were unoccupied”. </p>
<p>This statistic sent housing commentators, government agencies and policymakers into a spin. At a time of significant housing shortages, this extra million homes would surely make a big difference. They could provide housing for some homeless, ease the rental affordability crisis, and get first-home owners into their first home.</p>
<p>There has been a great deal of speculation about how this has happened. Has it been caused by overseas millionaires buying up housing and leaving it as an empty investment? Is it Airbnb taking up homes that could be used for families? Or are cashed-up Gen-Xers double-consuming by living in one house while renovating another? </p>
<h2>So, why were 1,043,776 dwellings empty on census night?</h2>
<p>In fact, we’ve got a pretty good idea of what’s going on. First, it’s not a new phenomenon. When we compare 2021 with previous censuses, a slightly smaller percentage of our private dwelling stock was classified as unoccupied – just under 10%, compared with nearly 11% at the previous census in 2016. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/taxing-empty-homes-a-step-towards-affordable-housing-but-much-more-can-be-done-80742">Taxing empty homes: a step towards affordable housing, but much more can be done</a>
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<p>Since the release of the data, many journalists have pointed to this startling number of empty homes, portraying them as abandoned or left empty. There is almost certainly a much more ordinary and less startling story to tell. We suspect there are three main explanations. </p>
<p>A big part of the story is how the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) determines whether a dwelling is occupied or not. In short, it does its best by using a variety of methods, but, for the majority of dwellings, occupancy “is determined by the returned census form”. If a form was not returned, and the ABS had no further information, the dwelling was often deemed to be unoccupied. </p>
<p>This is important to our interpretation of the empty homes story. At any one time, lots of things are going on in the housing market, and most of it is a long way from abandoned or empty. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/total-value-dwellings/latest-release">647,000</a> dwellings were sold in 2021. This means many thousands of dwellings were unoccupied on census night because they were up for sale or awaiting transfer.</p>
<p>The second and perhaps most important contributor to the empty homes story is holiday homes. Estimates vary, but we know <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/housing/housing-occupancy-and-costs/2019-20#data-download">2 million Australians</a> own one or more properties other than their own home. It’s estimated up to <a href="https://theconversation.com/ever-wondered-how-many-airbnbs-australia-has-and-where-they-all-are-we-have-the-answers-129003">346,581</a> of these properties may be listed on just one rental platform, Airbnb. </p>
<p>It’s part of the census design to pick a night of the year when the most Australians are at home. If you think back to Tuesday, August 10 2021, it was a Tuesday night in mid-winter, so many of Australia’s holiday homes would have been empty – and counted as unoccupied.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ever-wondered-how-many-airbnbs-australia-has-and-where-they-all-are-we-have-the-answers-129003">Ever wondered how many Airbnbs Australia has and where they all are? We have the answers</a>
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<h2>Where are these unoccupied dwellings located?</h2>
<p>If we map the distribution of unoccupied dwellings across Australia, two things stand out. </p>
<p>Firstly, unoccupied dwellings tend to be concentrated in sea-change and inner-city holiday spots, such as Victor Harbor in South Australia (as the map below shows) , Lorne in Victoria and Batemans Bay in New South Wales. This reinforces the holiday homes explanation. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481702/original/file-20220830-19270-n797wb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481702/original/file-20220830-19270-n797wb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481702/original/file-20220830-19270-n797wb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481702/original/file-20220830-19270-n797wb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481702/original/file-20220830-19270-n797wb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481702/original/file-20220830-19270-n797wb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481702/original/file-20220830-19270-n797wb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481702/original/file-20220830-19270-n797wb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=879&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Note: Local areas correspond to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ SA1 geographical areas with populations of 200-800 people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>It’s also striking how few unoccupied homes are in our major cities. Sydney is a great example. The map below shows a very uniform absence of unused housing across the whole metropolitan area. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481703/original/file-20220830-22-5leyt5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481703/original/file-20220830-22-5leyt5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481703/original/file-20220830-22-5leyt5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481703/original/file-20220830-22-5leyt5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481703/original/file-20220830-22-5leyt5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481703/original/file-20220830-22-5leyt5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481703/original/file-20220830-22-5leyt5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481703/original/file-20220830-22-5leyt5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=806&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Note: Local areas correspond to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ SA1 geographical areas with populations of 200-800 people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>You can use the interactive map below to see how many homes were classified as unoccupied in your local area (click and drag map to your area). </p>
<iframe src="https://canberra.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/media/index.html?appid=eeb955b09bf0411983b48aed7f84bcb9" width="100%" height="600" frameborder="0" style="border:0" allowfullscreen="">iFrames are not supported on this page.</iframe>
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<h2>So should we worry about the ‘million unoccupied homes’?</h2>
<p>Yes and no. An unknown proportion in that million are not empty, just assumed to be vacant because a census form wasn’t returned. We should regard this as a systematic error in the counting process. No doubt the ABS will be aiming to reduce this in future censuses. </p>
<p>Some of that million are genuinely vacant due to the way the housing market works. This includes, for example, the sales process and the need for vacant possession.</p>
<p>Yet, even if there are substantially fewer than a million vacant dwellings, the reality is that there are too many ways homes in Australia can be left unoccupied for weeks, months, years – and it’s costing all of us. Those who are homeless are paying the highest price. But the rest of us feel the pain through higher rents, increased rates to pay for infrastructure constructed for housing that isn’t occupied, and greater difficulties in getting into the housing market. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/weve-all-done-the-right-things-in-under-cover-older-women-tell-their-stories-of-becoming-homeless-188356">'We've all done the right things': in Under Cover, older women tell their stories of becoming homeless</a>
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<p>We need to find ways to ensure houses are full of people, not left empty as owners wait for investment opportunities to mature, or for absentee owners to go on holiday. We know there are solutions out there. Removing caps on council rates and treating short-term rentals as commercial properties essential to the tourism industry are just two ways we can get better occupancy of our stock. We just need to find the will to implement them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189067/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Baker receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council, and the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute . She currently serves on the board of Habitat SA. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Beer receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council, the iMove CRC, CRC Time and the Department of Infrastructure, Regions, Communications and the Arts.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marcus Blake is employed at the Universities of Canberra and Adelaide and is presently a consultant with the Australian Bureau of Statistics. </span></em></p>The proportion of housing that’s unoccupied has actually fallen since the last census, but the key issue is most of these dwellings are not in the areas where the need for housing is greatest.Emma Baker, Professor of Housing Research, University of AdelaideAndrew Beer, Executive Dean, UniSA Business, University of South AustraliaMarcus Blake, Senior Data Scientist and Manager, Australian Geospatial Health Laboratory, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1128842019-03-05T09:38:22Z2019-03-05T09:38:22ZBerlin’s grassroots plan to renationalise up to 200,000 ex-council homes from corporate landlords<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261897/original/file-20190304-92310-1mnvpxv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C49%2C1947%2C1249&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/LDMDCVtQqR4">Jonas Tebbe/Unsplash. </a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In major cities throughout the world, the price of housing is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/10/berlin-world-fastest-rising-property-prices">on the rise</a>: in 2017 alone, prices leaped by 20.5% in Berlin, 16% in Vancouver and 14.8% in Hong Kong. As rents keep going up, activists in Berlin are spearheading a novel proposal to nationalise housing. Such response might sound quixotic in cities such as London, but 54.9% of Berliners <a href="https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/grossvermieter-in-berlin-exklusive-umfrage-enteignung-liegt-im-trend/23837280.html">consider it reasonable</a>. And instead of waiting for the government to act, citizens have taken matters into their own hands. </p>
<p>On April 6, 2019 the civic campaign Deutsche Wohnen & Co Enteignen (DWE for short) starts collecting signatures, with the aim to hold a referendum that could lead to renationalisation of up to 200,000 council flats, which were previously sold to corporate landlords. </p>
<p>If successful, the move could provide a legal precedent for other cities to call for nationalisaton as a modern and legitimate solution to their <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/20450249.2017.1402509">housing crises</a>.
It could also prompt changes to international law, empowering legislation initiatives that see <a href="https://www.nesri.org/programs/what-is-the-human-right-to-housing">housing as a human right</a>, as a strategic resource or as <a href="https://www.geographie.hu-berlin.de/en/professorships/applied-geography/forschung/global-housing-commons">global commons</a>.</p>
<p>For Berliners, it not only matters who owns the housing, but also how they own it. Nationalisation is often associated with centralised, if not authoritarian governance, and inefficient administration. That’s why DWE uses a different legal concept: “Vergesellschaftung” (which translates to “socialisation”) – or social ownership. This model presumes that once flats are made public, they will also be democratically managed. </p>
<h2>The new social housing</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.dwenteignen.de/2018/10/25/volksentscheid-vorl%C3%A4ufiger-beschlusstext/">activists envision</a> a new public institution aimed at providing affordable flats to Berliners of all nationalities. Tenants, administration workers and members of the public would be equally represented in its governing body, which would also include members of Berlin’s senate. All profits from rent would be used for the maintenance and modernisation of buildings, and for the construction of new housing.</p>
<p>But how much would it cost the city to reclaim apartments sold to corporate landlords, considering <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/10/berlin-world-fastest-rising-property-prices">the record 20.5% leap</a> in housing prices in 2017? While the exact amount of compensation would be negotiated in the court, there are reasons to believe that it won’t be anywhere near market prices. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261924/original/file-20190304-92298-dukvd4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261924/original/file-20190304-92298-dukvd4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261924/original/file-20190304-92298-dukvd4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261924/original/file-20190304-92298-dukvd4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261924/original/file-20190304-92298-dukvd4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261924/original/file-20190304-92298-dukvd4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261924/original/file-20190304-92298-dukvd4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Housing in trendy Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/DoMEXHiQMZw">Jonas Denil/Unsplash.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
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<p>Crucial here is <a href="https://www.bundestag.de/parlament/aufgaben/rechtsgrundlagen/grundgesetz/gg_01-245122">article 15</a> of the German constitution, created after World War II, which allows either state or local governments to turn land, natural resources and means of production into collective ownership “for the purposes of socialisation”. This legal clause would be the key leverage to ban corporate landlords with <a href="https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/berlin-likely-to-hold-referendum-on-re-nationalizing-200000-apartments">more than 3,000 properties</a> from of the city. </p>
<p>After World War II, legislators of all political factions believed economic monopolies to be dangerous for democracy. Indeed, several German industry giants had <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/From_Cooperation_to_Complicity.html?id=5Amej-jkAMwC&redir_esc=y">willingly cooperated</a> with the Nazi state. Article 15 of the German constitution was designed as a tool to prevent what <a href="https://cul.worldcat.org/title/kampf-um-das-grundgesetz-uber-die-politische-bedeutung-der-verfassungsinterpretation-referate-und-diskussionen-eines-kolloquiums-aus-anla-des-70-geburtstages-von-wolfgang-abendroth/oclc/1031822502?referer=di&ht=edition">legal experts called</a> a “misuse of economic power against society”.</p>
<h2>Taking back power</h2>
<p>According to Berlin’s housing activists, that is precisely what large housing corporations are doing today: using their economic power against society. Companies such as Deutsche Wohnen, Vonovia or Akelius – which all together own more than 200,000 flats in Berlin – can <a href="https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/berlin/berliner-mietspiegel--verfassungsgericht-weist-beschwerde-von-deutsche-wohnen-zurueck-31840816">use their scale</a> in such a way that existing mechanisms for rent control are bypassed. </p>
<p>For example, in Germany rent increases are usually justified in relation to the “Mietspiegel” (or “rent mirror”), calculated every year in relation to the average rent in the area. If a company owns several thousand units in one neighbourhood, its rent increases drive up the entire “rent mirror”, and so would perpetually justify further increases.</p>
<p>As demand for housing in Berlin <a href="https://www.thelocal.de/20150707/politicians-struggle-to-keep-pace-with-berlins-growth">has grown</a> over the past 15 years, rents have been driven up to the point that – according to <a href="https://www.morgenpost.de/berlin/article214054221/Vielen-Berlinern-droht-Altersarmut-durch-Miete.html">a recent study</a> - 40% of Berliners aged between 45 and 55 are unlikely to be able to afford to stay in the city after they retire. Unless housing is socialised, that is. </p>
<p>Berliners are also entering into unknown legal terrain. Never in the history of the German constitution has article 15 been actually used, and until recently it seemed to have been largely forgotten. But it would be a mistake to see socialisation as an initiative confined to German law. Berlin’s housing corporations are active on the international stock market, and taking their property would lead the city government into a confrontation with international law which, in general, <a href="http://opil.ouplaw.com/view/10.1093/law:epil/9780199231690/law-9780199231690-e864">strongly protects</a> corporate private property.</p>
<p>This battle will be watched closely by proponents of nationalisation and other forms of progressive politics, right across Europe. While the lack of affordable housing in other cities may be driven by other factors – aside from mass housing ownership by large corporate landlords – the outcome in Berlin could lend strength to calls to nationalise empty property or vacant lots. </p>
<p>This would make a big difference in cities such as London, for example, where more than <a href="https://theconversation.com/londons-extraordinary-surplus-of-empty-luxury-apartments-revealed-97947">a third of properties</a> in “prime” market areas remain empty. As it stands, compulsory purchase – a tool related to nationalisation – is currently being used in London for quite the opposite purpose. The city <a href="https://southwarknotes.wordpress.com/tag/aylesbury-estate/">seizes council flats from tenants</a> (who became homeowners under right-to-buy) to make space for commercial redevelopment of sites.</p>
<p>Enraged about the housing crisis, Berlin activists do not just push their legislators, they show them the way by actively searching for progressive possibilities inside the existing law and beyond it. However this particular legal battle pans out, Berliners have already reinvented and democratised nationalisation, turning it from a top-down state intervention, into a grassroots project.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112884/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanna Kusiak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Socialisation of housing would see profits from rent put back into the maintenance and modernisation of the buildings.Joanna Kusiak, Research Fellow in Urban Studies, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/839592017-09-18T20:04:59Z2017-09-18T20:04:59ZAirbnb and empty houses: who’s responsible for managing the impacts on our cities?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186314/original/file-20170918-24099-4l5h9j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The impact of Airbnb varies from city to city and suburb to suburb.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/krakow-poland-july-2017-travel-around-682056094?src=p9n8acqY0K-Ps8uM-nigXg-1-8">AlesiaKan/shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Airbnb and empty house phenomena and their presumed links to housing and rental prices have attracted considerable media and political attention. The ABC points to the “<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-18/airbnb-in-australia-the-sharing-economy-has-a-dark-side/8624122">dark side</a>” of Airbnb and its effect on long-term rental prices. Empty houses are being linked to higher housing prices and to foreign investment, most often Chinese investment. The Australian headlines that “<a href="https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj2uJWmta3WAhWIsJQKHWnrAVYQFggmMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theaustralian.com.au%2Fbusiness%2Fproperty%2Fproperty-boom-china-buyers-raise-ghost-town-fears%2Fnews-story%2F4d8d44f7761bc42933ecc9ab5e8abe7b&usg=AFQjCNFuTQ0WMi-c-nBvG0_5hCo0U2wIEw">China buyers raise ghost town fears</a>”.</p>
<p>The Commonwealth and state governments are seeking to regulate the phenomena. It is questionable whether they should and even whether they understand the data and trends.</p>
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<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-airbnb-is-reshaping-our-cities-63932">How Airbnb is reshaping our cities</a></em></p>
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<h2>The Airbnb question</h2>
<p>Airbnb involves renting an entire home, a room or a shared room. Short-term rental of an entire house or flat that is available all year is equivalent to reducing long-term rental options.</p>
<p>Airbnb poses a possible threat to rental affordability. The income Airbnb generates in areas of cities popular with tourists causes owners of rental properties to withdraw these from the long-term rental market. It also causes investors to acquire property and enter the Airbnb market, and to increase the cost of long-term rental. </p>
<p>This may create a ripple effect as relatively high-income households are displaced to adjacent neighbourhoods. The scale of Airbnb impacts on rents, displacement of long-term renters and neighbourhood fragmentation has led cities such as Barcelona, New York and Amsterdam to attempt to ban, or strictly regulate, the extent and location of Airbnb. </p>
<p>Should similar effects be anticipated in parts of Australian cities that are popular with tourists? Data on Airbnb accommodation in Melbourne and Sydney as of December 2016 are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Melbourne: 12,174 listings, of which <a href="http://insideairbnb.com/melbourne/">57% are for entire homes</a></p></li>
<li><p>Sydney: 24,078 listings, of which <a href="http://insideairbnb.com/sydney/">61% are for entire homes</a>.</p></li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2017/01/19/the-community-impact-of-airbnb-calls-for-closer-scrutiny.html">Reportedly</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The number of Airbnb properties potentially removed from Sydney’s permanent rental market with an average vacancy rate of around 3% amounts to approximately half of the available rental properties. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The scale of the Airbnb phenomenon is increasing. So, too, is the company’s influence, with its <a href="http://www.sydney.org.au/members/current-members/">membership of the Committee for Sydney</a> and its <a href="https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media-releases/qantas-and-airbnb-team-up-to-make-frequent-flyers-feel-right-at-home/">status</a> as a source of Qantas Frequent Flyer points. </p>
<p>Government may well have to consider regulating Airbnb. The question is whether Airbnb is best managed by state government, or metropolitan or local government. </p>
<p>For example, the Victorian government has <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-airbnb-is-reshaping-our-cities-63932">designated the Melbourne suburbs of Fitzroy and St Kilda</a> for Airbnb development. Why should this be a state decision? Might the residents of already costly rental Fitzroy and St Kilda have their own views?</p>
<h2>The empty housing question</h2>
<p>On the night of the 2016 Census, <a href="https://theconversation.com/taxing-empty-homes-a-step-towards-affordable-housing-but-much-more-can-be-done-80742">1,089,165 dwellings were empty</a> – <a href="https://www.corelogic.com.au/news/three-unique-housing-insights-2016-census#.Wb8SHtMjFBw">11.2% of all Australian dwellings</a>. It’s widely assumed that these empty dwellings, by not contributing to housing supply, increase house prices.</p>
<p>Supposing that this is the case and presuming that foreign investors contribute significantly to the empty house phenomenon, the Australian government’s 2017-18 budget <a href="http://www.budget.gov.au/2017-18/content/glossies/factsheets/html/HA_16.htm">introduced a levy</a> on foreign investors who leave properties vacant for more than six months.</p>
<p>Not solely blaming foreign investors and also looking at domestic speculative investment, the State of Victoria has <a href="http://www.sro.vic.gov.au/node/5816">introduced a vacant residential property tax</a>. This “is intended to encourage these owners to make their property available for purchase or rent … [but] will only apply to vacant properties located in the inner and middle suburbs of Melbourne”.</p>
<p>However, empty house data should be seen in context: over the previous 35 years, <a href="http://www.sgsep.com.au/publications/why-was-no-one-home-census-night">between 9.2% and 11.2%</a> of houses were empty. Vacancy rates have changed little over this time. <a href="http://www.sgsep.com.au/publications/why-was-no-one-home-census-night">Almost two-thirds</a> of empty dwellings on census night are holiday houses or dwellings where owners were absent. Among the capital cities, only in metropolitan Perth did the empty dwelling rate exceed 10%.</p>
<p>SGS Economics and Planning <a href="http://www.sgsep.com.au/publications/why-was-no-one-home-census-night">estimates</a> about 110,000 of the vacant dwellings – 10.6% of the total – were available for short and long-term rental. This small proportion available for rent, amounting to 1.2% of Australia’s houses, would probably not attract media and political attention.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/taxing-empty-homes-a-step-towards-affordable-housing-but-much-more-can-be-done-80742">Taxing empty homes: a step towards affordable housing, but much more can be done</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>Nonetheless, foreign investment in housing is a global phenomenon that focuses on specific cities, such as Vancouver, New York, Miami, London, Paris, Auckland and Sydney. Blaming foreign investors for its 107,000 empty dwellings, the Parisian government “<a href="https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjuppDGt63WAhXDNpQKHaWvCmEQFggmMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fnews%2F2017%2F01%2F27%2Fbritons-property-paris-hit-new-tax-hike%2F&usg=AFQjCNFk4_kErjs1ub0mOHZSdgoJlneayw">tripled the current 20% extra</a> that non-resident owners have to pay in council tax, or <em>taxe d’habitation</em>, to 60%”. Vancouver imposed a 15% tax on foreign investment in housing. Following this, “the <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/hot-property/">number of foreign buyers dropped by 80%</a>. That helped dampen house-price inflation there but pushed up demand in nearby Victoria.”</p>
<h2>What level of government should manage these issues?</h2>
<p>It is unclear whether Sydney and Melbourne will come to have a level of empty dwellings that warrants federal and state attention. Should this be required, the question is which tier of government can best manage the phenomenon.</p>
<p>It is difficult to argue that taxes should be applied at federal and state levels because foreign investment, property speculation and Airbnb affect some cities and not others. They affect some suburbs and not others. </p>
<p>For example, due in part to “a soft residential property market” and “lower land values”, tax revenue for Western Australia is in its <a href="http://static.ourstatebudget.wa.gov.au/16-17/factsheets/money-from-goes.pdf">third year of decline</a>. The state government and Perth homeowners might welcome foreign investment and Airbnb to sustain tax revenue and house prices.</p>
<p>Would a <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-cities-need-city-scale-government-heres-what-it-should-look-like-55873">metropolitan government</a>, learning from <a href="https://theconversation.com/metropolitan-governance-is-the-missing-link-in-australias-reform-agenda-55872">metropolitan interventions elsewhere</a>, not be better placed to manage the effects of Airbnb and empty houses?</p>
<p>Cities around the world are seeking to manage these phenomena and sharing experiences of how best to do this. In Australia, though, the Commonwealth and state governments presume to know best.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83959/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Tomlinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>About 10% of empty dwellings on census night – 1.2% of all housing – were available for rental and vacancy rates have changed little in 35 years. Could governments be overreacting?Richard Tomlinson, Professor of Urban Planning, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/807422017-07-16T20:04:22Z2017-07-16T20:04:22ZTaxing empty homes: a step towards affordable housing, but much more can be done<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177992/original/file-20170713-9462-1n2hcla.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Vacant and unlit 'ghost' apartments are a source of public outrage in major cities around the world.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/leniners/4954648714/in/photolist-8xPSrQ-8Hk8gf-gnGoVD-gpaC2C-9qUkq4-5iBTHG-jSCfAF-bk4jYN-a2A4rY-8Mgbra-Nv9BK-abZYbG-6x2sqK-8cMY8y-b6p5F2-gnGycq-7h3Pi5-a2A5kG-BNb5y7-4wyd9p-8Mkydu-4Xm9Mz-8HgYNg-gBybkD-8Vu1Qj-8Mh8PP-3Joxne-8MjC3L-dXfvjw-7NQu83-7gYRaT-7NQqH5-5HMXdr-8Hk6fo-8hMmWW-CKkpTr-DgvZv3-DbxWAX-DiQfs8-DgvXry-rWHdWJ-CKkoBD-CKkraK-D9ZuRF-sc1Bgy-BX1N5w-GJFc3-LDsSSE-mGmXrX-mGoStf">leniners/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Vacant housing rates <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-27/home-ownership-rates-continue-to-plunge-census/8654534">are rising</a> in our major cities. Across Australia on census night, <a href="https://www.corelogic.com.au/news/three-unique-housing-insights-from-the-2016-census">11.2% of housing</a> was recorded as unoccupied – a total of 1,089,165 dwellings. With housing <a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/policy/ahuri-briefs/2016/3040-indicator">affordability stress</a> also <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-27/home-ownership-rates-continue-to-plunge-census/8654534">intensifying</a>, the moment for a push on empty property taxes looks to have arrived. </p>
<p>The 2016 Census showed empty property numbers up by 19% in Melbourne and 15% in Sydney over the past five years alone. Considering that thousands of people sleep rough – almost 7,000 <a href="http://abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/2049.0Main%20Features22011">on census night in 2011</a>, more than 400 per night <a href="http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/community/community-support/homelessness/street-count">in Sydney in 2017</a> – and that hundreds of thousands face <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/2049.0Feature%20Article12011">overcrowded homes</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/two-pictures-of-rental-housing-stress-and-vulnerability-zero-in-on-areas-of-need-77714">unaffordable rents</a>, these seem like cruel and immoral revelations.</p>
<p>Public awareness of unused homes has been growing in Australia and <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/2015/04/24/hidden-costs-ghost-apartments-322264.html">globally</a>. In <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/25/its-like-a-ghost-town-lights-go-out-as-foreign-owners-desert-london-homes">London</a>, <a href="https://thetyee.ca/News/2016/03/08/Vancouver-Empty-Condos/">Vancouver</a> and elsewhere – just as in <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/03/01/fears-new-homes-being-left-empty-housing-prices-soar">Sydney</a> and <a href="https://www.prosper.org.au/2015/12/09/almost-20pc-of-melbournes-investor-owned-homes-empty/">Melbourne</a> – the night-time spectacle of dark spaces in newly built “luxury towers” has triggered outrage.</p>
<p>This has struck a chord with the public not only because of its connotations of obscene wealth inequality and waste, but also because of the <a href="http://www.afr.com/news/politics/scott-morrison-targets-foreign-investors-who-keep-properties-vacant-20170409-gvhgju">contended link to foreign ownership</a>.</p>
<h2>Early movers on vacancy tax</h2>
<p>Against this backdrop, the Victorian state government has felt <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/mar/06/victoria-to-tax-investors-who-leave-properties-vacant-for-more-than-six-months">sufficiently emboldened</a> to <a href="http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/PubPDocs.nsf/ee665e366dcb6cb0ca256da400837f6b/444d40b3758ade25ca2581130075383a!OpenDocument">legislate</a> an empty homes tax. Federally, the shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/labor-hits-foreigners-vacant-properties-and-super-funds-in-housing-affordability-package-20170420-gvolrj.html">recently backed</a> a standard vacant dwelling tax across all the nation’s major cities. </p>
<p>Similar measures have come into force in <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/number-of-empty-homes-in-vancouver-hits-record-high-1.4175999">Vancouver</a> and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/27/britons-property-paris-hit-new-tax-hike/">Paris</a>. And Ontario’s provincial government <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/wynne-housing-market-1.4077094">recently granted</a> Toronto new powers to tax empty properties
.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177995/original/file-20170713-12241-ybvqah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177995/original/file-20170713-12241-ybvqah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177995/original/file-20170713-12241-ybvqah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177995/original/file-20170713-12241-ybvqah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177995/original/file-20170713-12241-ybvqah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=643&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177995/original/file-20170713-12241-ybvqah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177995/original/file-20170713-12241-ybvqah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177995/original/file-20170713-12241-ybvqah.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Both Vancouver (above) and Melbourne now have a 1% capital value charge on homes left vacant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tim_welbourn/22455459392/in/photolist-Adj6JY-CXpZJA-CytEqn-PZ1ZzA-F6psUP-tHSu6a-QfKWbM-PS7GcE-QG7hfQ-MFKS1d-oP93bh-jTUeF7-VjaqxR-pd3pxQ-q4YhMv-nfFjeY-nfFeNU-nhJ62Z-nfF9rS-n3vWgm-o3gd6o-RVnQWb-n3ubEX-n3w7xU-n3uq8B-nfFjnT-n3upv4-n3usNM-nfFfa4-n3vXeU-n3uh5V-qFPs5t-n3uuFp-n3utFP-pj2YSZ-n3uwRt-n3uwca-qi7TCa-nquxBY-n3uxb4-FqSWC3-n3w5MQ-oMWgFi-q57iW5-n3ukg2-q7FYuX-n3ujvK-n3w2yq-n3w1LU-n3uk38">Tim Welbourn/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Emulating Vancouver, <a href="http://www.sro.vic.gov.au/news/new-measures-vacant-property-melbourne">Victoria’s tax</a> is a 1% capital value charge on homes vacant for at least six months in a year. Curiously, though, it applies only in Melbourne’s inner and middle suburbs. And there are exceptions – if the property is a grossly under-used second home you pay only if you’re a foreigner. </p>
<p>Also, as in Vancouver, tax liability relies on self-reporting, which is seemingly a loophole. This might be less problematic if all owners were required to confirm their properties were occupied for at least six months of the past year. But that would be administratively cumbersome. </p>
<p>This highlights a broader “practicability challenge” for empty property taxes. For example, how do you define acceptable reasons for a property being empty? </p>
<p>In principle, such a tax should probably be limited to habitable dwellings. So, if you own a speculative vacancy, what do you do? Remove the kitchen sink to declare it unliveable?</p>
<h2>How can we be sure a home is empty?</h2>
<p>Lack of reliable data on empty homes is a major problem in Australia. Census figures are useful mainly because they indicate trends over time, but they substantially overstate the true number of long-term vacant habitable properties because they include temporarily empty dwellings (including second homes). </p>
<p>Using Victorian water records, <a href="https://www.domain.com.au/news/empty-homes-the-economic-reasons-behind-investors-keeping-properties-vacant-20170404-gvdc7l/">Prosper Australia estimates</a> about half of Melbourne’s census-recorded vacant properties are long-term “speculative vacancies”. That’s 82,000 homes. </p>
<p>Applying a similar “conversion factor” to Sydney’s census numbers would indicate around 68,000 speculative vacancies. Australia-wide, the Prosper Australia findings imply around 300,000 speculative vacancies – 3% of all housing. That’s equivalent to two years’ house building at current rates.</p>
<p>According to University of Queensland real estate economics expert Cameron Murray, a national tax that entirely eliminated this glut might <a href="https://www.domain.com.au/news/empty-homes-the-economic-reasons-behind-investors-keeping-properties-vacant-20170404-gvdc7l/">moderate the price of housing by 1-2%</a>. Therefore, although worthwhile, dealing with this element of our inefficient use of land and property would provide only a small easing of Australia’s broader affordability problem.</p>
<h2>Making better use of a scarce resource</h2>
<p>Taxing long-term empty properties is consistent with making more efficient use of our housing stock – a scarce resource. A big-picture implication is that tackling Australia’s housing stress shouldn’t be seen as purely about boosting new housing supply – <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-youre-serious-about-affordable-sydney-housing-premier-heres-a-must-do-list-71791">as commonly portrayed by governments</a>. </p>
<p>It should also be about making more efficient and equitable use of existing housing and housing-designated land.</p>
<p>Penalising empty dwellings is fine if it can be practicably achieved. That’s especially if the revenue is used to enhance the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-needs-to-reboot-affordable-housing-funding-not-scrap-it-72861">trivial amount of public funding</a> going into building affordable rental housing in most of our states and territories. </p>
<p>But empty homes represent just a small element of our increasingly inefficient and wasteful use of housing and the increasingly unequal distribution of our national wealth.</p>
<p>One aspect of this is the under-utilisation of occupied housing. Australian Bureau of Statistics survey data show that, across Australia, more than a million homes (mainly owner-occupied) have <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/4130.02013-14?OpenDocument">three or more spare bedrooms</a>. A comparison of the latest statistics (for 2013-14) with <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/4130.02007-08?OpenDocument">those for 2007-08</a> suggests this body of “grossly under-utilised” properties grew by more than 250,000 in the last six years.</p>
<p>Our tax system does nothing to discourage this increasingly wasteful use of housing. It’s arguably encouraged by the “tax on mobility” constituted by stamp duty and the exemption of the family home <a href="http://theconversation.com/lets-talk-about-the-family-home-and-its-exemption-from-the-pension-means-test-61736">from the pension assets test</a>. </p>
<p>A parallel issue is the speculative land banks owned by developers. The volume of development approvals far exceeds the amount of actual building. In the past year in Sydney, for example, 56,000 development approvals were granted – <a href="http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/Research-and-Demography/Research/Housing-Monitor-Reports/Metropolitan-Housing-Monitor-Sydney-Region">but only 38,000 homes were built</a>. </p>
<p>In many cases, getting an approval is just part of land speculation. The owner then hoards the site until “market conditions are right” for on-selling as approved for development at a fat profit.</p>
<p>Properly addressing these issues calls for something much more ambitious than an empty property tax. The federal government should be encouraging all states and territories to follow the <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/news/following-the-act-land-tax-approach-boosts-growth-and-state-budgets/">ACT’s lead</a> by phasing in <a href="http://blogs.unsw.edu.au/cityfutures/blog/2017/03/by-far-and-away-the-biggest-housing-tax-reform-prize-on-offer/">a broad-based land tax</a> to replace stamp duty.</p>
<p>Such a tax will provide a stronger financial incentive to make effective use of land and property. The <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/news/following-the-act-land-tax-approach-boosts-growth-and-state-budgets/">Grattan Institute estimates</a> this switch would also “add up to A$9 billion annually to gross domestic product”. How much longer can we afford to ignore this obvious policy innovation?</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Acknowledgements: Thanks to Laurence Troy for statistics and Julie Street for background research.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80742/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hal Pawson receives funding from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), the Australian Research Council (ARC) and Launch Housing (Melbourne)</span></em></p>A tax on empty homes will make a modest difference to housing affordability. The sheer wastefulness of our housing system calls for something much more ambitious.Hal Pawson, Associate Director - City Futures - Urban Policy and Strategy, City Futures Research Centre, Housing Policy and Practice, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/425792015-07-21T10:19:04Z2015-07-21T10:19:04ZWhen a house is demolished, more than the home is lost<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88557/original/image-20150715-26309-owrpun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In cities like Nashville and Vancouver, home teardowns are on the rise.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/s/house+demolition/search.html?page=1&thumb_size=mosaic&inline=222460054">'Demolition' via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2013 alone, more than 500 houses were demolished in Nashville, Tennessee, a sharp increase from previous years. And hundreds of additional teardowns are expected in a city that’s projected to add <a href="http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/as-high-dollar-houses-crowd-onto-tiny-lots-teardown-fever-is-sickening-neighborhoods-across-nashville/Content?oid=4001510">a million residents over the next two decades</a>.</p>
<p>Nashville is hardly the only North American city to experience a recent wave of teardowns. In Vancouver, a housing and real estate expert <a href="https://elizabethmurphyblog.wordpress.com/2014/05/31/saving-character-homes/">reports</a> that the city issued more than 1,000 demolition permits in 2013. She points out that most of the demolitions are of single-family homes, and each sends “more than 50 tonnes of waste to landfills.” </p>
<p>While preservationists have long decried the loss of historic fabric and cultural capital through teardowns, the environmental costs of demolition are increasingly coming to the fore.</p>
<h2>A waste of energy and a waste of space</h2>
<p>The negative environmental consequences of teardowns are manifest. <a href="http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/about/2040/supporting-materials/process-archive/strategy-papers/teardowns/effects">According to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP)</a>, demolition and construction now account for 25% of the solid waste that ends up in US landfills each year. Further, when a building comes down and its materials are hauled off to the dump, all the energy embedded in them is also lost. This consists of all that was expended in the original production and transportation of the materials, as well as the manpower used to assemble the building.</p>
<p>As CMAP explains, “examining embodied energy helps to get at the true costs of teardowns and links it to issues of air pollution and climate change (from the transport of materials and labor), natural resource depletion (forests, metals, gravel) and the environmental consequences of extracting materials.”</p>
<p>Often, a more environmentally friendly, quaint home is “replaced by a very expensive, much larger house, which is frequently left vacant.” Meanwhile, in the most desirable cities, in their tony suburbs, and in popular resorts, investors park their assets in “McMansions” that are <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/03/the-next-slum/306653/">sporadically occupied</a>. </p>
<p>Additionally, bigger houses necessarily encroach upon open space. Not only does expansion entail the uprooting of mature plantings – which benefit air quality – but it also eliminates trees that can provide shade and minimize energy required to cool buildings in warmer months.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88560/original/image-20150715-26284-15al5km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88560/original/image-20150715-26284-15al5km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88560/original/image-20150715-26284-15al5km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88560/original/image-20150715-26284-15al5km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88560/original/image-20150715-26284-15al5km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88560/original/image-20150715-26284-15al5km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88560/original/image-20150715-26284-15al5km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the wake of the housing crisis, many McMansions remain unoccupied.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ex_magician/8515837189/in/photolist-i5QS7J-dYvTH8-dYvTvP-miT31-9TERoF">Michael McCullough/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Urban facelifts erase more than crumbling buildings</h2>
<p>In city neighborhoods, opponents of demolition will often <a href="http://www.preservationnation.org/information-center/sustainable-communities/creating/teardowns/">cite</a> the loss of historic character.</p>
<p>Advocates for development, on the other hand, frequently argue that demolition rids cities of decrepit, obsolete houses, paving the way for multi-unit developments. In this sense, cities can become more efficient with their limited space, avoiding suburban sprawl while alleviating the long, traffic-snarled commutes of those who travel to the city.</p>
<p>In many cities, however, new construction on the sites of torn-down houses is aimed at attracting relatively affluent young or middle-aged professionals – the demographic that appreciates urban amenities like shops, restaurants and museums. </p>
<p>Time was that a “walking world” – that is, an environment in which services and amenities are available within walking distance of one’s home – was possible for all city-dwellers, regardless of class. Today, in many urban areas, housing in the dense central core is the purview of the rich, and the less affluent are <a href="http://archive.tennessean.com/article/20120701/NEWS01/307010062/In-Nashville-housing-options-push-working-class-edge">pushed to the outskirts</a>.</p>
<p>As a result, formerly diverse neighborhoods become economically monolithic. Longtime residents scatter as home values – and taxes – are driven up by new construction.</p>
<h2>Withering cultural capital</h2>
<p>Teardowns also have negative cultural implications. </p>
<p>All houses tell a story: they’re evidence of how earlier generations thought about domestic life and designed spaces to reflect their daily needs. When we demolish them, we lose those crucial traces of the past. </p>
<p>Of course, older houses often cannot satisfy contemporary demands for amenities, and were frequently built on a smaller scale. Modestly scaled houses from the 19th and early 20th centuries – which represent a wide range of architectural styles – are sometimes built out or renovated. But often developers and homeowners opt to (as a “For Sale” sign in my neighborhood recently put it) “scrape the lot.” </p>
<p>For whatever reason, high square footage has become a prerequisite for new homes in the United States, where the average size of a house built since 2003 is <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8201900.stm">more than double that in England</a>. The United States Census Bureau <a href="https://www.census.gov/const/C25Ann/sftotalmedavgsqft.pdf">reports</a> that between 1973 and 2008 the average square footage of new houses soared from 1,660 to 2,519, only dipping after the Great Recession. </p>
<p>Small houses aren’t alone in falling victim to the wrecking ball. The Los Angeles Times <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-otherhalf-20150322-column.html#page=1">recently reported</a> on the demolition of mansions in desirable LA neighborhoods that had sold for as much as US$35 million.<br>
Actress Jennifer Aniston has taken a stand against her mega mansion-inhabiting peers, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11718171/Jennifer-Aniston-leads-fight-against-giga-mansions.html">arguing</a> that “The very idea that a building of 90,000 square feet can be called a home seems at the least a significant distortion of building code.”</p>
<p>Even in less supercharged real estate markets, large and well-built homes fall victim to rising land prices that make them more valuable as dirt. </p>
<p>One example is Georgia’s Glenridge Hall, an historic Tudor Revival mansion, which The Georgia Trust, a statewide historic preservation organization, <a href="http://www.georgiatrust.org/news/2015pip/glenridgehall.php">designated</a> a “place in peril” earlier this year. </p>
<p>Featured in films and providing some of the setting for the first season of The Vampire Diaries, Glenridge Hall had been preserved, until recently, by descendants of the original owner. But the architecture and planning firm Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company – darlings of the <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/real_talk/2015/04/ashton-woods-homes-plans-new-urbanist-development.htm">New Urbanism movement</a>, which advocates for the revival of traditional town planning and walkable mixed-use developments – demolished the building to make way for a new mixed residential and commercial “English Village.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88561/original/image-20150715-26325-uwajrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88561/original/image-20150715-26325-uwajrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88561/original/image-20150715-26325-uwajrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88561/original/image-20150715-26325-uwajrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88561/original/image-20150715-26325-uwajrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88561/original/image-20150715-26325-uwajrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88561/original/image-20150715-26325-uwajrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Richmond, Virginia’s Agecroft Hall is built in the Tudor style.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/phoebewanders/709431825/in/photolist-sCPAvS-9ZmMDj-25G2nc-9ZsqP1-9Zsv6w-9Ztme3-kS8vP-m6L9d-m6L8b-kS8AX-kS8wM-cabqdq-cabr87">Phoebe Reid/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As I pointed out in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tudor-Home-Kevin-Murphy/dp/0847844897/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1433718412&sr=8-1&keywords=Tudor+Home">my recent book</a>, the builders of Tudor mansions like Glenridge Hall in the 1920s and 1930s attached a great deal of significance to the historic feel of their homes: in famous Tudors like the <a href="http://www.vahistorical.org/your-visit/virginia-house">Virginia House</a> and <a href="http://www.agecrofthall.org">Agecroft Hall</a>, they went so far as to import materials from actual English Tudors.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, for today’s wealthy builders and buyers, the past carries little cachet. For many, older homes are considered an obstacle rather than a badge of distinction. And when these radical <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/presentist">presentists</a> are given free rein to tear down the remains of the past, we all lose.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42579/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin D Murphy is a member of the Society of Architectural Historians.</span></em></p>Home teardowns are often unnecessary and costly, in more ways than one.Kevin D. Murphy, Andrew W Mellon Chair in the Humanities and Professor and Chair of History of Art, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/240792014-03-13T12:41:43Z2014-03-13T12:41:43ZReach out to owners to fill Britain’s empty homes<p>London is about to experience a residential building boom the like of which the capital hasn’t experienced in decades. According to a report from <a href="http://www.newlondonarchitecture.org/news.php">New London Architecture</a> there are more than 230 new high-rise towers either under construction or in planning, 80% of which will be apartments.</p>
<p>This will undoubtedly transform the London skyline, for better or worse, but the problem is that huge new luxury apartment towers will not necessarily address the chronic housing shortage in the capital – or anywhere else in Britain for that matter.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, it <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/council-taxbase-2013-in-england">has been estimated</a> that, despite the take-up of empty homes over the past quarter, there are still 635,000 houses lying empty around the country. How have we reached this point where so many people are looking for homes yet so many houses remain empty? It is suggested that the speculative purchasing of buy to let properties has played a large role, particularly when these owners have <a href="http://www.hastings.gov.uk/housing_tax_benefits/improving_homes/empty_homes/empty_strategy/">sometimes subsequently lacked the skills and knowledge to manage such projects</a>. </p>
<p>This trend towards the development of apartments – particularly in city centres – has simply added to the number of vacant properties because they do not meet demand, which is for traditional family homes. According to UK housing and homelessness charity Shelter, many empty homes, particularly in parts of the north of England, are <a href="http://england.shelter.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/346796/Shelter_Policy_Briefing_-_Taking_Stock.pdf">so severely affected by disrepair</a> that a high proportion will never fulfil any useful purpose and may need to be torn down and redeveloped. </p>
<p>This is all set against a backdrop of a national housing shortage. For example, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation <a href="http://www.jrf.org.uk/media-centre/shortage-homes-over-next-20-years-threatens-deepening-housing-crisis">estimates</a> that by 2022 there will be a shortage of 1.1 million homes. </p>
<h2>Streets of shame</h2>
<p>Within the UK, empty homes has become a high-profile issue, with television programmes such as <a href="http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-great-british-property-scandal/articles/all/about-the-campaign">The Great British Property Scandal</a> and a number of recent newspaper articles, including a story focusing on the scandal of empty homes on so-called “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jan/31/billionaires-row-hampstead-palaces-empty-london-property">billionaires row</a>” in London. </p>
<p>Following their election in May 2010, the Coalition government began making changes to the housing and planning system. The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/laying-the-foundations-a-housing-strategy-for-england--2">Housing Strategy for England</a> incorporated plans for tackling empty homes and established a package of financial incentives to support local authorities to bring empty properties back into use. By providing £100m within the <a href="http://www.homesandcommunities.co.uk/affordable-homes">Affordable Homes Programme</a> the government has attempted to create a new dynamic within the empty homes economy which, if successful will bring 3,300 empty homes back into use by 2015. Although this is just a fraction of what is estimated to constitute housing need, if successful this will make a contribution to the existing gaps in housing supply. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/43836/original/h3p5rtzy-1394708450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/43836/original/h3p5rtzy-1394708450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/43836/original/h3p5rtzy-1394708450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/43836/original/h3p5rtzy-1394708450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/43836/original/h3p5rtzy-1394708450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/43836/original/h3p5rtzy-1394708450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/43836/original/h3p5rtzy-1394708450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/43836/original/h3p5rtzy-1394708450.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Great view, but not really a family home.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinrp/1074061961/">.Martin.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The introduction of the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/localism-act-2011-overview">Localism Act 2011</a> saw the implementation of the £1.3 billion <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/increasing-the-number-of-available-homes/supporting-pages/new-homes-bonus">New Homes Bonus</a>. This created financial incentives for local authorities to increase housing development. More importantly, it applied the same financial incentives to authorities bringing empty homes back into use, helping local authorities to recognise that addressing the issues associated with empty homes has a direct impact on their finances. </p>
<h2>Home truths</h2>
<p>The government’s response to empty homes has been met with mixed reviews. While emphasis on empty homes has generally been welcomed, on the other hand, with specific reference to the New Homes Bonus, there <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/mar/22/housing-policy-wealthy-second-homes">have been criticisms</a> about whether the scheme <a href="http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/tenancies/government-must-change-housing-policy/6526005.article">can actually deliver</a> on its suggested targets. </p>
<p>But what of the owners of these empty homes? The <a href="http://www.ehnetwork.org.uk/">Empty Homes Network</a> has suggested that the inaction and apathy of empty home owners is one key obstacle in bringing empty properties back into use. But we only have limited knowledge of the owners and in some respects they represent one of the most hard-to-reach communities in that they are culturally, economically and geographically diverse, as well as having many different reasons for having an empty property. While inaction is one reason, the truth is far more complex and there are both financial and emotional issues impacting on <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2014/jan/03/mortgage-lenders-restoration-empty-homes">empty home owners</a>. </p>
<p>After attending an <a href="http://www.agma.gov.uk/what_we_do/planning_housing_commission/empty-to-plenty/index.html">empty homes event</a> in Tameside, Greater Manchester recently, it became clear to me that an empty home is often a burden for the owners. While finance to undertake renovations is a factor, there is a spectrum of reasons for having an empty home ranging from attachment to an inherited property or the legacy of a relationship breakdown, through simply not knowing where to go for help or advice, or even how to access reliable trades to bring the house back up to standard.</p>
<p>Added to this, local authorities, often the sole broker between empty home owners and available support, have traditionally adopted an <a href="http://www.wyre.gov.uk/info/100007/housing/203/empty_homes/3">enforcement role</a> as the inducement to bringing their properties back into use – in other words they can compulsarily purchase empty houses or force owners to sell to pay down any outstanding debts. There is also legislation to force owners to execute repairs where a house presents either a nuisance or a health risk. This approach often alienates owners – and it rarely addresses the diversity of characteristics, needs and behaviours of empty home owners. </p>
<p>Local authorities have a critical role in supporting the owners of empty homes to bring their properties back into use. Authorities now need to be more creative in how they tailor support to empty home owners. What was clear from talking to empty home owners was that they welcomed the opportunity to meet others who were in a similar position to them. However, more importantly, there was the feeling that, for the first time, local authorities were engaging with them as people and trying to offer solutions that could meet their individual needs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/24079/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Scullion received funding from the Technologly Strategy Board (TSB) and the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) focusing on how to engage with empty home owners</span></em></p>London is about to experience a residential building boom the like of which the capital hasn’t experienced in decades. According to a report from New London Architecture there are more than 230 new high-rise…Lisa Scullion, Research Fellow Salford Housing and Urban Studies Unit, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.