A More Interventionalist Role
-by the Mysterious Flying Miser
From Architecture Design:
“Low-income people are being marginalized by the federal government’s ‘monolithic housing estates’ and badly planned cities, says Mission Australia. The federal government is ‘incapable’ of providing affordable housing and coherent city planning, Mission Australia’s CEO, Toby Hall, said. ‘We’ve succeeded in building communities where disadvantaged and low-income people are clustered in areas where social and economic participation and growth is stagnant. As a result, in our urban areas, affordable housing options are too often located on the fringes of our major cities – away from jobs, transport, and other essential services,’ he said.
“‘The Rudd government should play a more interventionist role in the urban planning of our major cities to improve access to affordable housing’, Mission Australia said. ‘We need to see targeted investment in inner-city housing on the grounds that it is well located. But, at the same time, we need to learn from the past and not create monolithic housing estates; nor, by our investment, hurry-on the gentrification of inner city areas where affordable housing remains and price low-income people out,’ Hall said.
“‘Australia has become a society where too often affordable housing is poorly built and only available in areas away from jobs, childcare and transport – where your heating and cooling costs are so high you can’t invest in your children’s education, sport or health; and where you need a car because there’s no public transport. That sort of society is ripe for social unrest and economic decline,’ said Hall.
Also from Architecture Design:
“The housing shortage in the Northern Territory is now so desperate that families are being forced to live in tents. The territory’s buoyant economy has drawn people from interstate to flood to the area. Tradespeople and construction workers often have no problems finding work, but finding a property is a different story. House prices have rocketed, with the median in Darwin now reaching $450,000, and there is huge demand for rental properties. Welfare groups are saying that they are giving out tents in desperation and have people living in unsecure accommodation, including sheds and parks.”
I found this on Business News, Americas;
“Ecuador’s housing deficit currently stands at 1.2 million, and it is growing at the rate of 7.4% a year. In an effort to resolve this crisis, Quito’s Chamber of Construction has initiated a national crusade, to be lead by the private sector, with the hopes that it can increase the percentage of the construction sector budget aimed at housing, currently only 0.032%.
“The chamber hopes to persuade private banks to adopt innovative financing methods that would give poor sectors of the Ecuadorian population better access to funds. It also hopes to persuade construction firms to use new technology and materials to help lower the price of house construction.”
From the Financial Times:
“Alberto Silva da Cruz, a 28-year-old security guard, and his wife Genilsa, a 32-year-old cleaner, have just joined a queue about 200 metres long outside an annual housing fair held by Caixa Econômica Federal, Brazil’s government-owned savings and mortgage bank. It is not yet 9 AM, more than an hour before opening time, by which point the queue will double in size as more couples and young families line up for the chance to buy their first homes under a new government incentive scheme called Minha Casa, Minha Vida (My Home, My Life) that will pour R$60bn ($31bn, €22bn, £19bn) into Brazil’s housing market.
“‘Without Minha Casa, Minha Vida, we wouldn’t be here,’ Genilsa says. ‘Interest rates were too high and the installments were too big. But now we think we can do it.’”
“Brazil’s government has announced a series of ‘anticyclical’ measures to boost growth since the onset of the global economic crisis. Some are no more than pay rises for public sector workers, which will remain once the crisis has gone, storing up fiscal trouble for the future. But Minha Casa, Minha Vida appears to be the real thing. At a time when Brazil’s construction industry was heading into decline after several years of strong growth, Minha Casa, Minha Vida has appeared as a lifeline.
‘‘This will provide about 70 per cent of our business this year,’ says Milton Goldfarb, president of a construction company that bears his surname. He plans to build 12,000-14,000 homes under the scheme this year alone. Given that the industry accounts for 5 per cent of Brazil’s gross domestic product, the program should give a valuable boost to employment and earnings. ‘This is a revolution,’ he says. ‘Brazil has never had a policy so clearly designed to provide housing for the poor and the lower middle classes.’
“For those at the bottom of the income scale, the program offers eye-popping subsidies. It allows people earning up to three times the national minimum wage of R$465 a month to buy flats or houses worth up to R$52,000. Subsidies vary according to earnings. For those earning one minimum wage, for example, the scheme will contribute R$46,000 – leaving the buyer to provide just R$6,000, which they will borrow from the Caixa and repay in 240 instalments of R$46.50 a month.
“Higher up the income scale, buyers will get smaller subsidies but also subsidized finance. The Caixa’s website offers a simulator to show people how much they would pay depending on their earnings and the cost of their new home. As the housing fair started, it was performing 154,000 simulations every day.
“Alberto and Genilsa Silva da Cruz visited a Caixa branch before the fair. They were told that on his proven income of R$1,500 a month they would be able to buy a flat for R$80,000 and pay R$414 a month – something they would gladly do to get out of their R$250-a-month rented house. That means they can expect to afford at most a two-bedroom apartment which, with three children aged six months to 10 years, will be a squeeze. ‘But there’s no point in dreaming too high,’ Genilsa says, as the queue starts to move into the housing fair. ‘And this is already a wonderful deal.’”
