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An assessment of tenure-specific Housing Market Areas for housing planning

Lookup NU author(s): Emeritus Professor Mike CoombesORCiD

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Abstract

Planning for housing in Britain has embraced the use of housing market areas (HMAs) as appropriate geographies to address calls for greater market responsiveness. Tenure is a crucial dimension of the housing market, so it must be central to assessing local housing demands. Despite the wide cleavages between social and private rented sectors, and between both of these sectors and the owner-occupying majority, the geography of tenure-specific HMAs has remained largely unexplored. This paper assesses the importance of tenure-specific HMAs for housing planning within the current policy frameworks aimed at meeting housing needs. The paper then reports analyses to delineate tenure-specific HMAs, with these boundaries then compared to HMAs defined by analysing the whole market. The empirical evidence presented reinforces the original perspective in the context of major urban cores and where there are concentrations of the PRS. However, the case for a national system of tenure specific HMAs based on migration is unproven given on the one hand their practical limitations and on the other it appears unnecessary for areas outside cities. Nevertheless the use of tenure-specific HMAs provide the basis for more meaningful local affordability measures and a tool to identify socio-tenurial segregation and reshape local housing systems.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Jones C, Coombes M

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Housing Studies

Year: 2013

Volume: 28

Issue: 7

Pages: 993-1011

Print publication date: 09/04/2013

Date deposited: 12/04/2013

ISSN (print): 0267-3037

ISSN (electronic): 1466-1810

Publisher: Routledge

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2013.783201

DOI: 10.1080/02673037.2013.783201

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