Briefs

This AHURI Brief, and the series that follow, draw on themes that emerged from an International Housing Policy Exchange convened by AHURI, in collaboration with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in late 2020.

A key focus of the AHURI an US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) International Housing Policy Exchange was the response to helping people who are homeless and on the streets (i.e. ‘rough sleepers’) find appropriate housing or shelter during the pandemic.

With housing costs in New Zealand rising rapidly (up 23% in just 12 months),  the New Zealand Government has introduced reforms intended to reduce incentives for housing investors while increasing the supply of new housing. What exactly are the reforms being introduced in New Zealand and are there any lessons for Australia?

Although issues with the design and quality of living spaces in high density, high rise residential apartment buildings existed pre-COVID, the pandemic response restrictions that forced people to stay and work at home have focussed community concern on the problems of poor design and operation in some of these buildings.

When extremes of weather sweep in, either colder or hotter, the impacts of energy poverty for lower income households become severe, with more than 6 per cent of deaths in Australia each year due to living in cold environments and one per cent of deaths heat related.