City Futures Housing
    Housing research has been a key pillar of City Futures since it was established. The Centre’s housing research encompasses:
- Owner-occupied housing, private rental, and social and affordable housing – as well as minor sectors such as lodging houses and housing for retirees;
 - Housing stress and affordability, housing conditions, and homelessness;
 - Housing market performance, finance and relationship to the wider economy; and
 - Housing policy governance
 
Competitive advantageÌý
Researchers in the Housing program have a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds, including architecture, criminology, economics, geography, sociology, law and planning.
The Centre has an international reputation for research on apartment (strata-titled) housing, rental housing (private and social), and homelessness.
Our research is strongly policy-oriented, and we are experts in housing policy governance and policy development processes. We have strong working relationships with policymakers in Australian and international government agencies, housing industry associations, and community sector organisations, through funded research projects and regular liaison.
The Housing program has an excellent track record in research funded by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) and the Australian Research Council (ARC).Ìý
Impact
Our research findings inform housing policy discussions at local, state, national and international levels. Governments and key housing sector organisations seek our advice on housing policy development and our researchers are trusted voices in the media on housing issues.
Our researchers’ and on the need for a national housing strategy in Australia are key sources in contemporary policy debates. Our debunking claims about rental disinvestment has helped remove stumbling blocks to tenancy law reform.
Our apartment housing research is cited in reports by the Australian Government’s Productivity Commission, parliamentary inquiries and legal deliberations (including the Singapore Strata-Title Tribunal) and government inquiries (including the English Leasehold Reform Inquiry).
Our research is also used in multiple university courses in Australia and overseas.
Successful applications and research highlights
Our Housing program researchers have recently won highly competitive researching funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) for research projects on rental vulnerability, evictions and land lease communities for older persons, as well as AHURI projects on lodging houses, public housing stock transfers, and collaborations between homelessness and health services.
Our current research on apartment housing includes projects on renewing and retrofitting ageing apartment buildings, and improving apartment living for families.
Recently completed projects include research on housing after prison, living on the social housing waiting list, housing sector contributions to economic productivity, first home buyer assistance schemes, and housing and homelessness policy innovations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Housing program researchers are key participants in the ACOSS-ºÚÁÏÍø´óÊÂ¼Ç Sydney Poverty and Inequality Partnership, which brings high-quality evidence to the policy reform agenda of Australia’s peak non-government organisation for low-income households.
Capabilities and facilities
The Housing program is home to the team behind the Australian Homelessness Monitor, the leading source of analysis of data and perspectives from Australia’s homelessness services. We also collaborate with tenant orgainsations and the University of Sydney on the Rental Vulnerability Index.
Our bi-annual Strata Insights Report provides the only national data resource on the scale and value of strata property in Australia. We have also developed resources for Ìýstrata managers and residents, including:
- Navigating defects in strata
 - How to implement sustainable retrofits in your strata scheme
 
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Teaching
Housing theme research is closely linked to a number of courses within ºÚÁÏÍø´óÊÂ¼Ç Planning Program. The following courses are led by Centre staff who leverage considerable research experience into delivering to students the most up to date knowledge relevant to today’s changing urban landscape:
- (UG)Ìý
 - (PG)
 - (PG)
 
Projects
Current
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Exiting prison with complex needs: the role of housing assistance
Evaluating machinery of government arrangements for housing policy administration
Understanding the perceived benefits of living in regional cities
A blueprint for tackling Queensland’s housing crisis: 2024 update
Gender, Housing Insecurity and Homelessness: Secondary Data Analysis
Rental vulnerability in Australia
Housing and the Economy: Scenarios for Australia to 2025 and 2045
Getting off the waiting list. Changing access to housing assistance
Understanding the impact of critical life events can predict early need for housing assistance
Family impacts of social housing legal responses to occupier misconduct
Assisting first home buyers: an international review
Inquiry into population growth in Australia's smaller cities
Regulation of residential tenancies and impacts on investment
NSW Rental Vulnerability Index
Extending Economic Cases for Housing Policies: Rents, Ownership and Assets
Australian Homelessness Monitor 2022
Queensland Rental Vulnerability Index 2021 Census update
Inquiry into Housing in a Circular Economy
Community housing for young people
Secondary Dwelling Outcomes in Central & Southern Sydney
A blueprint for tackling Queensland’s housing crisis
Australian Homelessness Monitor 2020
Housing needs following the 2022 Northern River floods
Waithood: The experience of being on the social housing waiting list
Filtering as a source of low-income housing in Australia: conceptualisation and testing
Retirement Villages: Business models, consumer experiences and regulation
An evaluation of Australia's COVID-19 pandemic housing policy responses
Inquiry into social housing demand, tenancy support and client outcomes
Demand side assistance in Australia's rental housing market: exploring reform options
The construction of social housing pathways across Australia
Boarding houses in New South Wales: growth, change and implications for equitable density
Boarding Houses in Central and Southern Sydney
Poor-quality housing and low-income households
Filling the Gap: Costing a National Affordable Housing Program
Shaping Futures: Changing the Housing Story
Strengthening economic cases for housing: the productivity gains from better housing outcomes
Technological disruption in private housing markets: the case of Airbnb
Social housing as infrastructure: an investment pathway
Inquiry into the potential of new technologies to disrupt housing policy
The design, collection and distribution of an Australian housing condition survey
Energy Efficiency Decision Making in the NSW Social Housing Sector
Improving outcomes for lower-income private renter households: opportunities and challenges
Affordable Housing SEPP and Affordable Housing in Central and Southern Sydney
The institutional dynamics of the Australian private rental sector: prospects and opportunities
Improving the Economic Arguments for more diverse and affordable housing models for Sydney
The role of investor landlords in restructuring Australia’s major cities
Innovation and change in the institutions of private rental housing: an international review
Australian Homelessness Monitor 2018
Government led innovations in affordable housing delivery
Affordable housing prospects in different market contexts
Stuck here forever? The dynamics and social consequences of long-term private renting in Australia
Urban inequality: the initiation and preservation of spatial privilege in Australia's elite suburbs
Queensland Rental Vulnerability Index
Longitudinal Evaluation of Riverwood North Renewal Project
Lower income barriers to low carbon living
Inquiry into Affordable Housing Industry Capacity
Understanding People-Based Outcomes: Following a Community Experiencing Transition through Renewal
Addressing Concentrations of Disadvantage
NDIS, housing assistance and choice and control for people with disability
Rooming house futures: governing for growth, fairness and transparency
Accommodating the NDIS: Maximising housing choice in a reformed disability sector
Cost effectiveness and tenant outcomes in social housing
Understanding 'Encounter' as a Dimension of Social Inclusion for People with Intellectual Disability
Social housing exits: Analysing incidence, motivations and consequences
Enhancing affordable housing investment via a social housing guarantee
Understanding Leadership, Strategy and Organisational Dynamics in the Not-for-Profit Housing Sector
Public Housing Stock Transfers in Australia
Understanding and addressing local opposition to affordable housing projects
Downsizing amongst Older Australians
Assessing the effectiveness of public housing estate regeneration in NSW
Financing Rental Housing through Institutional Investment: An Investigative Panel
NSW Housing Market Quarterly Bulletin
Pathways and Choice in a Diversifying Social and Affordable Housing System
Community Land Trusts and Indigenous Housing
Waterloo Green Neighbourhood Project Evaluation
Multi-Generation Households in Australian Cities
How Sustainable are Australia's Contemporary Affordable Housing Projects?
Multigenerational Cohabitation: Implications for an Ageing Population
Service Integration and Indigenous Housing
The Efficient Use of Dwellings and Land by Older Home Owners
Planning, Government Charges and the Costs of Land and Housing
Innovative Financing for Home Ownership
Innovations in the Provision of Affordable Housing
Motivations of Investors in the Private Rental Market
Building Stronger Communities Baseline Monitoring Evaluation
MOSAIC Baseline survey of Telopea / Dundas and Ermington
Evaluation the Miller Foyer Pilot Project
Housing Assistance and Non-Shelter Outcomes (NRV1)
Supporting Tenancies of People with Complex Needs: Applying best practice in the Australian context
Housing Affordability for Lower Income Australians (NRV3)
Building Stronger Communities Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks
Developing Appropriate Exit Strategies for Housing Regeneration Programs
Rent Assistance and the Spatial Concentration of Low Income Households
Demanding Behaviour: Developing Strategies for the Effective Management of Problematic Households
Exploring Shared Understandings of Affordable and Social Housing: Sydney and Delhi
Evaluation Framework for Urban Improvement
Ageing in Place: Intergenerational and Intrafamilial Housing Transfers and Shifts in Later Life
The Need for Moderate Income Housing in the Greater Sydney Region
Housing Costs Housing Assistance and work Disincentives: Attitudes to Work and Employment Decisions
Social and Behavioral Issues in Housing Estates: An overview of research questions and policy issues
My Place - Local Community Survey 2017
2024 Australasian Strata Insights
2020 Australasian Strata Insights
Who Lives in Higher Density Housing, and Why?
Improving outcomes for apartment residents and neighbourhoods
Inquiry into Housing in a Circular Economy
My Place - Local Community Survey 2020
Australian National Strata Data Analysis 2018
City Living: Urban consolidation and the social sustainability of cities
Equitable Density: The place for lower-income and disadvantage households in a dense city
Managing Diversity in Strata Communities
Green Square Community Survey 2014
The Accessibility Needs and Challenges of Strata Residents
Living Well in Greater Density
The Costs and Provision of Community Infrastructure in Community Title Schemes in NSW
The Demand for Higher Density Housing in Sydney and Melbourne