Brick by brick : building better housing policies

Acknowledgments
Executive Summary
1 Designing Policies for Efficient, Inclusive and Sustainable Housing
	Housing has become less affordable
		Housing costs have risen faster than other consumption expenditures
		Rising housing costs put a disproportionate burden on low-income households
	Why have housing costs risen so much in so many countries?
		Supply has not kept up with demand
		Governments are investing less in housing development
	Housing affects economic performance in many ways
		Housing markets play a paramount role in the economy
		Greater access to housing finance creates opportunities and risks
		Residential mobility yields important benefits but may be hindered by poorly functioning housing markets
	Housing affects inequalities
		Lack of access to quality housing can have lasting distributional effects
		Housing is an integral part of household wealth
	Housing has sizeable environmental consequences
		Housing accounts for a substantial share of global CO2 emissions
		Complex links tie housing and environmental quality
	What can governments do?
		Building on complementarities among policy objectives
			Well-designed social housing can improve affordability along with other policy objectives.
			Tax reforms can bring economic, social and environmental benefits
			Reforming land-use regulations can yield multiple benefits
			Urban renovation policies are important for environmental and social objectives
		Managing trade-offs and unintended policy effects
			Some trade-offs involve balancing short- against long-term affordability
			Some macro-prudential measures raise challenges for particular groups
			Efforts to improve the environmental sustainability of housing can entail costs
		Improve housing policy governance to facilitate integrated responses to trade-offs
			Annex 1.A1. Definitions and sources of indicators
	References
		Notes
2 Promoting Housing Affordability
	Assess housing affordability across different tenure and household types
		Housing is the biggest spending item in household budgets
		Housing costs have steadily increased, especially for renters
		Quality gaps exacerbate the housing affordability challenge, especially among low-income households
		Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, homelessness was on the rise in a third of OECD countries
		National averages mask differences in affordability gaps across people and regions
	Address the barriers to affordable housing
		Governments are investing less in housing development
		Building homes is increasingly expensive
		Demand for affordable housing is growing and changing
			Make housing more affordable
		Reinvigorate investment in affordable and social housing
		Improve targeting of public support towards low-income households, with attention to potential trade-offs
		Make the private rental market more affordable
3 Enhancing Resilience
	Recognise the role of housing for economic stability
	Address housing threats to macroeconomic resilience
	Deploy macroprudential tools
	Align structural housing-related policies with the goal of economic resilience
		Rental market regulation influences housing cycles
		Property taxation can also have an effect on housing market dynamics
		Supply responsiveness also has implications for economic resilience
	References
	Notes
4 Boosting Housing Market Efficiency
	Make housing affordable
		Rising house prices create socio-economic challenges
		Policies affect both demand for and supply of housing
		Housing policies differ markedly across countries
		Demand for housing will continue to increase substantially in most countries
	Learn from other countries’ housing policies
	Foster societal, technological and environmental transformations
		Reduce structural disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic
		Favour the transition towards greener and smarter cities
	References
	Notes
5 Measuring the Role of Housing in the Distribution of Wealth
	Quantify the importance of housing wealth in household balance sheets
		Housing represents the largest asset in household portfolios
		Housing debt is the largest liability in household portfolios
	Analyse the link between housing and wealth inequality
		Housing tenure varies largely across countries
		Housing features prominently in household balance sheets
	Weigh opportunities and risks of housing debt
		Access to mortgage debt is a key driver of homeownership
		High housing debt exposes households to financial vulnerabilities
	References
	Notes
6 Lifting Obstacles to Residential Mobility
	Do not hinder residential mobility
	Housing matters for mobility and homeowners are much less mobile than renters
	Embrace policies that favour residential mobility
		Reduce housing transaction costs
		Remove bottlenecks to responsive housing supply
		Reform excessively rigid rental market regulations
		Invest in social housing
	References
	Notes
7 Reconciling Housing and the Environment
	Recognise the strong environmental impact of housing
	Identify policies that lead to improvements in environmental quality and housing affordability
		Environmentally related construction practices and energy efficiency measures affect construction and maintenance costs
		Environmentally related transport policies affect both demand and supply of housing
	Anticipate the impact of housing policies on the environment
		Property taxes can induce urban sprawl with negative consequences on the environment, but also be leveraged to reduce the environmental impact of development
		Coordination between the different levels of government is necessary to reconcile the objectives of housing affordability and environment preservation
	Environmental policies also affect other dimensions
		Use cost-benefit analysis
		Re-evaluate the stringency of land-use policies
		Invest in public transport and soft mobility
		Consider tailored compensation mechanisms in case of hard trade-offs
	References
	Notes
8 Improving the Governance of Housing
	Streamline governance across and within government levels
		The shared governance of social housing between central and local government should be used to combine local adequacy with portability
		Effective alignment of objectives across levels of government is essential in the area of land-use
		Strategic spatial plans spanning functional territories are needed to introduce mechanisms for better inter-municipal collaboration
		National governments have a role to play in land-use governance
		National housing governance needs to overcome sectoral silos
	Promote flexible land-use planning
		Land-use planning contributes to shaping cities and driving housing affordability
		Avoid restrictive zoning regulation and single-use zoning
		Regularly re-evaluate urban boundaries as needed
		Increasing the flexibility of land-use allows housing construction to adapt to changing socio-economic and demographic trends
		Use of recurrent taxes on immovable property can promote efficient land-use, yet interactions with land-use regulation may limit their ability to increase density
			Annex 8.A1. Definitions
9 Upgrading the Evidence Base
	Collect more data on house price trends and levels across countries
		House price indices measure developments over time taking account of quality changes
		Coverage is extensive at the national level
		Coverage has expanded but remains more limited at the regional level
		House price levels are a key area for future work
		A measurement agenda for house price statistics is emerging
	Better assess housing vulnerability among households
		Develop more robust data on evictions
		Homelessness is challenging to measure and compare across countries
		A measurement agenda is called for to improve the evidence base on eviction and homelessness
	Measure local land-use regulations
		Measuring land-use regulations poses significant challenges
		Towards internationally comparable data on local land-use planning policies
	References
	Notes