The cities are increasingly arenas for socio-economic inequality, and there is a need for increased understanding of the role housing policy plays in the cities' socio-economic development. In their plans, municipalities often aim for a housing market with a social profile, which accommodates offers for a wide range of households. How to ensure local housing markets that give access to low-income groups, that provide socially and economically heterogeneous residential areas and that, in sum, provide diverse urban areas and neighbourhoods? The project sprung from one of the recommendations from EVAPLAN, the evaluation of the Planning and Building Act (2008), to give municipalities the authority to determine the form of disposal - so that they can facilitate more inclusive housing markets. In StrategicHousing, we wanted to study how the municipalities work - both to ensure individual access to the housing market, but also to ensure that the housing market does not lead to unfortunate geographical clustering and segregation - but ensures good, diverse and socially sustainable neighbourhoods. StrategicHousing is a collaborative project with user involvement, with NIBR-OsloMet, NMBU, UiT, KTH, Asplan Viak, SoCentral, and the municipalities of Oslo, Bergen and Lørenskog. It is financed by NFR (2020-2024). The project has had several focus areas. Firstly, we have looked at the knowledge the municipalities build on in their planning and decision-making processes. There we identified knowledge needs related to who is “the squeezed middle” (who are unable to enter the market, but are, on the same time, not qualified for social housing measures) and how heterogeneous a residential area is, which is important when the municipality has to decide what the new housing projects will contribute to ensure diversity in housing units and purchasing power mix (apartment size, price, etc.). Secondly, the project has contributed to product innovation. Secondly, the project here has contributed to product innovation, by developing a calculation model has been developed to identify the “Squeezed middle” locally. In addition, a "heterogeneity index" has been developed, which has been disseminated and discussed in workshops in three cities (Oslo; Tromsø, Bergen). The index has great potential for improving the knowledge base for a more comprehensive local housing policy when it is used and is ground-breaking in that it gives the municipality new tools for mapping housing stock and housing needs. Thirdly, we have studied how municipalities that see housing in a holistic social development perspective work. How do they manage to unite their efforts in the planning area, site development, municipal property, social housing measures, and care and care investments? Here we looked in particular at how they use the municipal plan's community section, area section, financial plan and theme plans as strategic management tools - to see their tools in context. Fourthly, the project also studied new solutions to make the housing market more inclusive. This was done by surveying and evaluating the housing purchase models that have emerged in the private and public sector in recent years, but also through studies of new multi-functional housing projects, where the municipality sells with conditions regarding common areas, housing purchase models, starter loans, care and care apartments, etc. In addition, we studied housing projects with larger common areas, such as "townhouses" and "neighbourhood houses", and mapped the partnership models for establishing and operating these. Fifthly, the project has carried out studies of developers and the supply side through surveys of developers, interviews and collaboration. Lastly, a central part of the project was to contribute to establish and run several learning arenas between developers, municipal actors and local community actors. This was done by establishing a) a Pådriv arena for housing diversity (led by SoCentral) - which functioned as a learning network for 1.5 years. In addition, we used b) a workshop model with Tromsø, Oslo and Bergen - in the work to develop the heterogeneity index. C) We also took over KS's housing network, and ran it for 1.5 years - with a focus on cooperation between the municipality and developers. Here we included a larger group of municipalities - in addition to the partner municipalities (around 5-6 in total). Altogether, this provided many learning arenas, both for the researchers, the municipalities, developer actors and local community actors. Due to the pandemic, most things were done digitally. Results from the project have been published in 10 scientific articles, 24 popular science articles, appeared in the media 12 times and in 117 presentations at seminars and meetings for academics, politicians, municipal administrators, planners, private developers and civil society actors. The results have also been integrated into lectures at NMBU, OsloMet and UiT.
Resultatene er formidlet til mange målgrupper – og har flere potensielle effekter. Resultatene har bidratt i faglig debatt i internasjonale og nasjonale vitenskapelige tidsskrifter. Særlig har det vært viktig å sette den norske boligpolitikken inn i en nordisk setting, siden de nordiske velferdsstatene har valgt helt forskjellige struktur på boligpolitikken. En av artiklene gir en komparativ analyse av Norge, Danmark og Sverige – og får frem forskjellene i struktur og virkemiddelbruk. I tillegg har konsortiet presentert paper på internasjonale konferanser og har flere artikler til vurderinger i internasjonale tidsskrift. Dette er bidrag som går dypere inn i den norske boligpolitikken, og viser hvordan denne gradvis tar opp i seg elementer fra modeller for «affordable housing» fra andre land. De norskspråklige artiklene følger utviklingen av boligkjøpsmodeller i privat (og noen i offentlig) regi for å hjelpe folk inn i boligmarkedet, og ser på hvorvidt kommunene klarer å jobbe strategisk og helhetlig. Artiklene bidrar til tverrfaglighet, siden mange springer ut av et samarbeid mellom statsvitere, samfunnsvitere, økonomer og menneskegeografi. Siden prosjektet springer ut av EVAPLANs anbefaling om å gi kommuner myndighet til å bestemme disposisjonsform – så har det vært viktig å formidle kunnskap til praksisfeltet i kommunene – for å gi kunnskap om hvordan man kan tilrettelegge for mer inkluderende boligmarkeder. En av artiklene kartlegger alle nye boligkjøpsmodeller i landet, og sammenlikner dem langs mange parametere. Artikkelen får frem at modellene varierer med hensyn til hvor gunstige de er for kjøper, fordeling av risiko mellom kjøper og selger etc. Denne kunnskapen vil være helt essensiell for kommuner å ha, dersom forlaget til endringer i plan- og bygningsloven (fra april 2024) – om å gi kommunene myndighet til å bestemme disposisjonsform blir vedtatt. Selv om dette kun er et lovforslag i dag, så har vi fått opp kunnskap som bidrar til mer aktive kommunene innenfor dagens rammeverk. Prosjektet har bidratt til å etablere og drive flere lærende arenaer. Det har bidratt til produktinnovasjon – utregningsmodell for mellomsjiktet og «heterogenitetsindeksen», som er produsert og formidlet i workshops i tre byer (Oslo; Tromsø, Bergen) og publisert i rapport og vitenskapelig artikkel. Indeksen har et stort potensial for å forbedre kunnskapsgrunnlaget for en mer helhetlig lokal boligpolitikk når den brukes. Siden prosjektet er praksisnært, og jussen på feltet har vært i utvikling, har formidling til praksisfelt og offentlighet vært viktig. Det er publisert 24 populærvitenskapelige artikler, vi har vært i media 12 ganger og holdt 117 presentasjoner på seminarer og møter for akademikere, politikere, kommuneadministratorer, planleggere, private utbyggere og sivilsamfunnsaktører. Resultatene har også blir integrert i forelesninger ved NMBU, OsloMet og UiT, og har bidratt i kompetansebygging for fremtidens planleggere og statsvitere.
The project StrategicHousing departs from earlier findings (EVAPLAN) that housing policy objectives of accommodating households at all income levels in all areas in the city is mostly reflected at the higher tier of planning, if at all, and seldom in the local plans. The project StrategicHousing will gain new insight in the relationship between policy instruments and the housing market and contribute to social sustainable urban development through broaden the understanding of how the planning system can realize political aims of more inclusive housing markets.
The excellence of the work relates to the invention of new housing market measuring instruments, the analyses of local markets dynamics and the systematic linking of market characteristics to cities planning practice and use of policy means. By combining empirical analysis of housing market statistics and empirical studies of the housing policies and use of instruments in seven cities, the project will:
- develop innovations to identify and measure local market characteristics (index/indicator development);
- investigate local market dynamics and robustness;
- investigate the relationship between planning practices and local market supply elasticity
- investigate the relationship between spatial-sensitive use of policy instruments and housing markets;
- analyse how cities use the mix of planning tools, strategies, and housing policy measures strategically;
- establish learning- and co-creational arenas for this purpose, in cooperation with users partners (cities) and R&D suppliers, that enable cross-sector dialogue about how to reduce inequality and increase local market inclusiveness through planning measures and use of targeted housing policies.
In sum, this will give new insights in how municipalities can use planning instruments more strategically, in combination with other tools, to ensure housing market supply elasticity and housing market heterogeneity.
