Home ownership affordability has been a serious issue among the low and middle income households in Malaysia. Main contributors to this issue are low income, high cost of living and growth in income that does not commensurate the rise in... more
Home ownership affordability has been a serious issue among the low and middle income households in Malaysia. Main contributors to this issue are low income, high cost of living and growth in income that does not commensurate the rise in property price. This research intends to identify the level of home ownership affordability among those who are unable to have a house and are tenants. In addition, it intends to examine the factors that affect their home ownership affordability. The study focuses on people residing at rented units in Kajang, an urban city in Selangor, where primary data was collected using questionnaire method. The target group was low and middle income households, whose head of household aged between 21 to 50 years and total household income capped below RM7,500. The success rate was 74 percent based on 250 households met. The research findings indicate that the level of home ownership affordability varies by ethnicity, household income and educational level. Meanwhile, four main factors that influence home ownership affordability are price of house, affordable mortgage loan, proximity to workplace and government policy on affordable housing. Majority of the respondents are still pessimistic of their ability to own a residential unit.
Résumé L’Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal (OMHM) gère le parc immobilier d’habitation à loyer modique de l’île de Montréal et est, à ce titre, la plus importante entreprise publique de logements locatifs au Québec. Le « virage... more
Résumé
L’Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal (OMHM) gère le parc immobilier d’habitation à loyer modique de l’île de Montréal et est, à ce titre, la plus importante entreprise publique de logements locatifs au Québec. Le « virage locataire » de l’OMHM, ces dernières années, s’est notamment traduit par une forme de gouvernance partagée qui vise l’engagement des locataires dans le déroulement des travaux majeurs de rénovation en cours. Nous nous appuyons sur les propos d’acteurs engagés (gestionnaires, locataires, administrateurs), afin d’analyser cette nouvelle forme de gouvernance et d’en discerner les forces, les paradoxes et les limites. Peut-on mettre en place une gestion locale habilitante alors que le service à la clientèle demeure la raison d’être de l’entreprise ?
Abstract
Major Renovations of the Low-Income Housing Stock of the Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal: Strengths and Limitations of Shared Governance with Tenants
The Office municipal d’habitation de Montréal (OMHM, or Montreal Municipal Housing Office) manages the stock of low-income housing on the island of Montreal and, in this capacity, is the largest public rental housing agency in Quebec. In recent years, the OMHM’s “new focus on tenants” has taken the form of shared governance aimed at involving tenants in major renovation projects that are under way. We consider what committed stakeholders (managers, tenants, administrators) have to say in our analysis of this new form of governance and in identifying its strengths, paradoxes and limitations. Is it possible to set up a form of empowering local management when customer service remains the agency’s raison d’être?
A full-scale business structure (IT-BO) for providing ICT-supported services in a domestic environment has been set up in collaboration between a major Swedish telecom company and a leading housing company in a suburb of Stockholm,... more
A full-scale business structure (IT-BO) for providing ICT-supported services in a domestic environment has been set up in collaboration between a major Swedish telecom company and a leading housing company in a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden. There four working ICT-supported services, viz. a new electronic key, a digital bulletin board, a new access telephone system and free internal telephony have been implemented in a multi-storeyed residential building. These services have been evaluated using an evaluation model including a mix of methods and fields of knowledge. The theoretical model was introduced earlier but here it has been developed and tried in practice. The final discussion points out the importance of building ICT-supported services on existing and well-known functions for high user acceptance and frequent use. But also can delays in implementations cause concern of unfulfilled expectations among the tenants.
The article examines how the perception of gender identities of tenants and owners was constructed in normalizing discourses regarding re-privatization/property restitution in Warsaw in 2004-2016. As a theoretical approach, it applies the... more
The article examines how the perception of gender identities of tenants and owners was constructed in normalizing discourses regarding re-privatization/property restitution in Warsaw in 2004-2016. As a theoretical approach, it applies the feminist post-structur-alist perspective developed by Sophie Watson (2000a). The data were collected with discourse analysis, as proposed by Judith Baxter (2008a). The article identifies two discourses pertaining to re-privatization/property restitution in Warsaw: 1) property restitution discourse , under which returning property to former owners (or their heirs) is presented as a moral imperative; and 2) expropriation of tenants discourse, focusing on abuse, fraud and human misfortune stemming from the passage of municipal housing stock to the descendants of former owners. In both discourses, tenants were ascribed a feminine identity, and owners a masculine one (G. Hofstede, G. J. Hofstede, 2007). That affected the tenants' and owners' positions in the housing policy process.
