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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.

In market societies, investors have played a key role in driving suburban densification. However, the concentration of one- and two-bedroom apartments in suburban town centres has raised concerns about the potential mismatch between investor-driven supply and consumer demand. Despite these criticisms, analysis of consumer demand for multi-unit housing rarely considers housing supply in the same locality. Recognising the significance of multi-unit dwellings in housing supply, this paper develops a clearer understanding of consumer demand and market supply of multi-unit dwellings in suburban town centres. In order to integrate consumer preferences and housing data, the paper combines qualitative analysis of the housing preferences of a group of (largely) migrant women with children living in apartments in the suburban town centre of Liverpool, Sydney, Australia, with quantitative analysis of household type, apartment size and dwelling approvals. In so doing, we show that market-led supply creates a mismatch between housing need and type, as housing careers move beyond detached homes towards spacious apartments in suburban town centres. We conclude that calibrating the share of larger apartments in Local Government Development Control Plans with consumer demand will improve housing outcomes in densifying suburbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the predicament of owner-occupiers and small investors presently liable for the removal of combustible cladding on build-to-sell residential high-rise. We argue that while the proliferation of combustible materials has been shaped by cost-cutting and risk-shifting by construction firms, these practices did not on their own transfer the responsibility of remediation to consumers. Examining the attempts of one densifying nation, Australia, to locate responsibility for combustible cladding through two parliamentary inquiries, we analyse witness testimonies to show how public policies encouraged materials substitution, removed on-site inspection and protected corporations from litigation. Moving beyond neoliberalism, these policy reforms leveraged information asymmetries and the material complexity of residential high-rise to create a climate of "imperceptibility" towards unsafe materials. Together, material, financial and policy dimensions intersected to enable capital accumulation through the expansion of consumer harm in high-rise housing markets. We conclude that construction materials and processes are an overlooked, yet critical domain of governance in financialised housing regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financialisation of housing is seen to undermine tenants' rights, affordable housing and planning controls in order to make housing and homes more amenable to profit extraction. However, the extent to which owner-occupiers themselves seek to influence urban development and planning processes to protect their housing assets has been less well-considered. Through an online survey of 1122 owner-occupiers in Australia, this article redresses this gap. By identifying the financial values participants attach to their home, and their inclinations to join resident action groups, we reveal that those with the strongest investment values are also most inclined to join resident action groups. Expanding conceptualisations of investors beyond institutional investors, the article reveals the agency of financialised owner-occupiers who, as investor-activists, seek to influence planning processes to secure the profitability of their own housing assets. The article thus reconceptualises resident action as a financial strategy to protect long- and short-term housing investments and, in doing so, charts the urban implications of financialised home ownership and investor subjectivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human encounters with waste can trigger reflections on taken-for-granted assumptions about consumption. Taking this observation as its starting point, this paper explores whether and how the introduction of the kitchen caddy and food waste composting at the municipal scale generates new environmental subjectivities in Australian homes. Using visceral research methods, the paper shows that, other than participation in municipal composting, close encounters with food becoming compost do not trigger more experimental or sustainable relationships with food. Rather, they trigger new configurations of cleanliness, tidiness and storage as participants seek to stabilise their home against the disruptive sight, smell and touch of food becoming compost. In unsettling the boundaries between humans and nonhumans, and cleanliness and chaos, food becoming compost produces visceral disgust among residents who are primed through modern home cultures to maintain cleanliness, control and the prevention of nonhuman intrusions at home. The success of municipal composting thus hinges on households' commitment to 'sustainability work' in placing, storing, cleaning and sealing food to reconfigure the modern home for waste recovery. Reconceptualising municipal composting as a co-production of sensory engagement and household practices, we centre a visceral politics of household sustainability at the heart of municipal composting and resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure is a public health issue for residents of multi-unit housing (MUH) properties. We evaluated the impact of smoke-free policy implementation on reported SHS exposure among racially, ethnically diverse seniors living in low-income MUH properties. In Spring 2013 and Summer 2014, we surveyed residents (n = 960) at 15 MUH properties in Broward and Miami-Dade Counties, Florida. The percentage of residents reporting SHS exposure within their apartments from elsewhere in or around their building decreased from 31.1 %, before policy implementation, to 23.6 % at follow-up ( p = 0.02). In multivariate analysis of non-smoking residents after policy implementation, residents who reported having one or more comorbidities were two times more likely to report SHS exposure (aOR 2.23, 95 % CI 1.12-4.40). Considering the vulnerability of low-income seniors to SHS exposure, our findings are relevant to residents, property owners/managers, and public health professionals making decisions about smoke-free policies for MUH properties in which seniors reside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores participatory planning approaches in the context of owner-occupiers' opposition to policies and practices of residential densification in suburban neighbourhoods. Drawing on a case study from Melbourne, it shows that residents value lower-density homes for a range of (interrelated) economic, social and practical reasons. While these attachments to home help to explain opposition to policies and practices of residential densification, they also contribute to a range of ‘everyday’ territorialisations that unsettle formal processes of border-making associated with compact city planning. The paper concludes by highlighting the challenges that tensions between housing and home generate, in terms of participatory planning approaches in the context of residential densification. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]