The world has still to emerge fully from the housing-triggered Global Financial Crisis, but housing crises are not new. The history of housing shows long-run social progress, littered with major disasters; nevertheless the progress is often forgotten, whilst the difficulties hit the headlines. Housing Economics provides a long-term economic perspective on macro and urban housing issues, from the Victorian era onwards. A historical perspective sheds light on modern problems and the constraints on what can be achieved; it concentrates on the key policy issues of housing supply, affordability, tenure, the distribution of migrant communities, mortgage markets and household mobility. Local case studies are interwoven with city-wide aggregate analysis. Three sets of issues are addressed: the underlying reasons for the initial establishment of residential neighbourhoods, the processes that generate growth, decline and patterns of integration/segregation, and the impact of historical development on current problems and the implications for policy.

“This scholarly and informative study presents a long-term economic perspective on a range of housing and urban policy issues. … the ways in which the authors have set their thought-provoking research into a wider housing policy context make this a valuable study both for academics and policy-makers.” (Robert Smith, International Journal of Housing Policy, Vol. 17 (2), March, 2017)

Geoffrey Meen is Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Reading, UK, and Adjunct Professor at RMIT University, Australia.Kenneth Gibb is Professor in Housing Economics and Director of Policy Scotland at the University of Glasgow, UK.
Chris Leishman is Professor of Housing Economics at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK.
Christian Nygaard is Associate Professor in Social Economics at the University of Reading, UK.