Nicole T Cook

Rethinking the Risks of Home Ownership

Most debate on home ownership and risk has focused on the management of mortgage debt. But there are other risks for home buyers in settings where housing dominates peoples wealth portfolios: where the investment dimensions of property are at a premium; and where housing wealth is, de facto , an asset base for welfare. This article draws from qualitative research with 150 UK mortgage holders to assess the character, extent and possible mitigation of this wider risk regime. The analysis first explores the value home buyers attach to the financial returns on housing. Next we document the extent to which home equity is earmarked and used as a financial buffer. Finally, reflecting on the merits and limitations of this tactic, we conclude by asking whether – in the interests of housing and social policy, as well as with a view to managing the economy – there is any need, scope or appetite for more actively sharing the financial risks and investment gains of housing systems anchored on owner-occupation.

From housing wealth to well‐being?

The positive health effects of owner-occupation, compared to renting, are well documented. But home ownership is itself heterogeneous, as is the health profile of its incumbents, and this is less well recognised. Drawing from a mixed-methods study, which includes 150 qualitative interviews with a cross-section of UK mortgage holders, this paper examines the health implications of a definitive feature of owned housing: its role as a financial tool. In particular, we ask whether there is anything about the process of accumulating wealth into housing or spending from this resource, that enhances well-being (or that adds to psycho-social stress). This question is timely, coming at the end of a long-wave of house-price appreciation, in a setting where it is easy to borrow from housing wealth, under a policy regime that looks increasingly to owned homes as an asset base for welfare. The answer casts light on whether, in what circumstances, to what extent, and by what mechanism, home ownership - the dominant housing tenure of the English-speaking world - might enhance the well-being of individuals, communities and societies.

Mortgage markets and cultures of consumption

Although consumption studies now dominate large areas of social and cultural research, relatively little attention has been paid to the consumption of financial products and services. However, the consumption of mortgages moved to centre‐stage in the early twenty‐first century, as products that were once tightly rationed were more actively sold, and households were faced with an unprecedented array of borrowing options. Drawing from qualitative telephone interviews with a cross‐section of 150 UK home‐buyers, this paper explores the way households in a credit‐rich setting choose and use their mortgages. We argue that, notwithstanding the risks commonly and rightly associated with the financialization of domestic space, mainstream borrowers are often “at home” with their mortgage: they can generally navigate the mortgage maze and put their mortgage to work.

Debted Objects: Homemaking in an Era of Mortgage-Enabled Consumption

ABSTRACT This paper assesses the relevance of mortgage-led consumption for the assemblage of home. Drawing on qualitative research completed in the UK, we show how the materials and meanings of owner-occupation are constituted by, and experienced through, the accumulation and deployment of secured debt. This is enabled by a particular financial regime, in which the proceeds of equity borrowing are freed for discretionary expenditure. Homes and their contents thus acquire the status of “debted objects”, and these form an interface between the financial and familial values comprising residential space. By attending to these mortgage-enabled purchases, we expose and evaluate the myriad ways in which equity borrowings animate the assemblage of home, adding value to property, linking domestic space with distant geographies and inspiring the art of dwelling.

On the Fringe of Neoliberalism: residential development in outer suburban Sydney

Abstract Although there is widespread consensus in human geography that neoliberalism is achieved through the intersection of multiple scales and states, there has been growing emphasis in recent years on the hybrid qualities of neoliberalist-styles of governance. Because hybrid approaches draw attention to the wide range of actors and contradictory agendas underpinning the always uneven expression of neoliberalist projects, they are particularly suited to the identification of residual state capacities in contexts where neoliberalist forms dominate economic and political life. Drawing on two cases of large-scale residential development in New South Wales, namely Warnervale Town Centre on the New South Wales Central Coast and the Australian Defence Industry site at St Marys in Sydneys west, the present paper adopts an hybrid approach in order to identify current state capacities. Through a comparison of both sites, it identifies the potential for socially and ecologically balanced development in the outer suburban context.

Do objections count? Estimating the influence of residents on housing development assessment in Melbourne

Abstract This paper explores relationships between community opposition, planning assessments and local political processes. While resident opposition to development proposals is thought to delay housing supply, the nature, extent and pathways of influence have not been quantitatively established. In Victoria the number of third party objections has no direct legal weight, but in practice, development applications involve multiple decision makers. Community expectations that objection numbers “count” may reflect suspicion that refusals are more likely from elected local decision makers. This paper tests for relationships between procedural and political pathways in planning. It uses descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression models based on one year (15 676) of Melbourne residential development assessments. It is found that objection numbers increase significantly with local socio-economic status and that, as applications receive more objections, elected representatives more often intervene. Assessments by elected councilors are significantly more likely to be refused, and have relative odds more than seven times higher of resulting in appeal. The paper argues that local contestation of housing, particularly from better-resourced groups, is highly adaptable to reforms seeking to overcome or rationalise it. Reducing or shifting opportunities for third party opposition may less reduce planning uncertainty, than increase its variation, complexity, and spatial concentration.

By Accident or Design? Peri-Urban Planning and the Protection of Productive Land on the Urban Fringe

In the context of climate change, changing fuel regimes and population growth, peri-urban regions have taken on renewed importance as sites of food production. However, peri-urban agriculture is subject to competing pressures, not least demand for housing and rural living. This chapter focuses on the planning instruments and processes at the heart of these tensions. It opens with the prosaic deliberations of an independent panel charged with the review of a Local Planning Scheme in the Rural Shire of Moorabool, Victoria. Through an in-depth case study of the plan’s amendment and review, the chapter shows that the preservation of agricultural land is a contingent achievement, rather than a strategic, coordinated attempt to maintain local and regional food economies. However, through the discourses of those living and working in the municipality during the 2008–2009 droughts, it shows that peri-urban agriculture also depends on shared resources between the city and its fringe. If this suggests that routine planning processes are at the coalface of creating food secure spaces, it also suggests that preservation is the beginning, not the end of planning’s role in a food secure future.

Planning the post-political city: exploring public participation in the contemporary Australian city: Planning the post-political city

This special section examines the possibility of meaningful debate and contestation over urban decisions and futures in politically constrained contexts. In doing so, it moves with the post-political times: critically examining the proliferation of deliberative mechanisms; identifying the informal assemblages of diverse actors taking on new roles in urban socio-spatial justice; and illuminating the spaces where informal and formal planning processes meet. These questions are particularly pertinent for understanding the processes shaping Australian cities and public participation today.

Financing the Low-Carbon City: Can Local Government Leverage Public Finance to Facilitate Equitable Decarbonisation?

Abstract As decarbonisation interventions proliferate within cities, local governments setting ambitious targets are increasingly engaged in complex financial relations. Recognising the necessary cost of renewable and energy efficient infrastructures, and the ever-present constraints on public funds, this paper argues that finance is a critical node through which local governments advance decarbonisation in urban localities. While local decarbonisation strategies have been viewed cautiously for their potential to overburden individuals at the expense of more systematic and organisational change, this paper reveals a more complex picture. Drawing on decarbonisation initiatives in two Melbourne municipalities—Moreland and Darebin—it identifies four ways in which local governments are using public finance to achieve their sustainability objectives. Local governments are brokering bulk product purchases for residents; lending upfront capital for solar PV via local property taxes; purchasing energy efficient products and funding innovative technology pilots; and procuring renewable energy supply through multi-stakeholder power purchase agreements. By targeting lower income households and pooling resources with other organisations, the paper shows that local governments can address socio-economic inequality and facilitate extra-local change towards a low-carbon city. However, these incremental achievements emphasise the need for co-ordination and state engagement to realise decarbonisation at a meaningful scale.

Sustainability Citizenship in Cities: Theory and Practice

positions the ruined home as a significant assemblage of social, emotional, natural and material elements. The book ends with an overview of an art project by Andrew Gorman-Murray examining the “thrown-togetherness” of housing and home. Images from the project are used to introduce each of the three sections of the book emphasising the internal, the external and the interstitial. The images work as a visual introduction to the complex assemblages which constitute housing and home which are unpacked by authors throughout the book. While the book provides a rich and detail examination of many important processes and challenges surrounding housing and home in Australia, there are a number of absences which you might expect to see in such a collection. For example, there no discussions around affordable, social or community housing which could easily be subject to an assemblage-style analysis which examines the complexities and contradictions in these housing forms/tenures. Nevertheless, Housing and Home Unbound is a key resource for housing researchers across Australia/New Zealand (and beyond) who are seeking to interrogate issues of housing and home. The book will appeal to a wide variety of readers. All chapters are well written and accessible. Individual chapters could easily be set as required readings for undergraduate courses examining housing and home in Australia. Likewise, the same chapters offer much to post-graduate and academic researchers seeking to interrogate and problematise housing/home. Housing and Home Unbound is an excellent collection which fills an important gap in contemporary scholarship of Australian housing. It has been a pleasure to read.