Publications
Past research reports by our recipients
Publications and reports produced by our research grant and support program recipients are available for download.
Research publications
- Communities of Practice: Getting to the heart of workplace learning, sharing and innovation - Donald Proctor
Full report (pdf, 2.1MB) | Summary (pdf, 880KB) - Council Decision Making and Independent Panels - Yolande Stone
Full report (pdf, 4.9MB) | Summary (pdf, 882KB) - The ways of the world: implications of political donations for the integrity of planning systems - Julie Walton
Full report (pdf, 871KB) | Summary (pdf, 470KB) - Housing supply outcomes from codification in Sydney - Keiran Thomas
Full report (pdf, 891KB) | Summary (pdf, 680KB) - The effect of land use planning decisions on the landholdings and viability of NSW local Aboriginal Land Councils - Stacey Miers
Full report (pdf, 5.8MB) | Summary (pdf, 280KB) - Decentralisation - could it help our fast growing cities? - James Colman
Full report (pdf, 1.1MB) | Summary (pdf, 420KB) - Value Capture on Urban Road and Rail Projects: Are There Too Many Free Rides? - Steve Skinner
Full report (pdf, 2.7MB) | Summary (pdf, 419KB) - Potential Roles for the Private Sector in Affordable Housing Supply: Working in Collaboration Across Sectors - Richard Benedict
Full report (pdf, 1.5MB) | Summary (pdf, 259KB) - ePlanning and open data: transforming insights into the Sydney housing market - John Hudson
Full report (pdf, 6.8MB)
- Pole position: transport and wellbeing in a greenfield estate
Full report (pdf, 2.3MB) - Intersections of stigma, social capital & community engagement in the suburbs: a social network analysis
Full report (pdf, 4.3MB) - Resident involvement in urban development in Sydney: the new politics of the city
Full report (pdf, 860KB) - Assessing environmental impacts of major transport infrastructure projects: where does human health fit?
Full report (pdf, 2.9MB) - Enabling audience participation and collective content generation through urban media as a diagnostic method in urban planning
Full report (pdf, 2.8MB) - Open access policy analysis and visualisation
Full report (pdf, 700KB)
- GDP Growth Versus Sustainability - Dodo J Thampapillai
Full report (pdf, 745KB) - Facilitating professional engagement with planning research - Joe Hurley and Elizabeth Taylor
Full report (pdf, 1.1MB) | Summary (pdf, 460KB) - Value capture in Australia: ideologies, methods and analysis - Les Stein
Full report (pdf, 1.9MB) - Finding the Right Mix in Public Housing Redevelopment: Review of Literature and Research Findings - Michael Darcy and Dallas Rogers
Full report (pdf, 997KB) - The Effect of Zoning on Housing Prices - RBA
Watch the short film - An Introduction to Inclusionary Zoning - RBA
Watch the short film
- Health in strategic planning
Full report (pdf, 1.6MB)
- Organising the 21st Century City - Kurt Iverson, Amanda Tattersall
Full report (pdf, 632KB)
Post Doctorate Explainers
HouseMate
A Proposed National Institution To Build New Homes & Sell Them Cheap to Any Citizen Who Does Not Own A Home
Dr. Cameron K. Murray
Henry Halloran Trust, The University of Sydney
January 2022
Housing is one of the biggest worries for Australians, especially renters and new buyers. Yet any policy that significantly reduces the market price of housing—rents or prices—will wipe billions in revenue from landlords and trillions in asset value from all homeowners (currently 65% of Australian households).
Australian homeownership rates declined from 2006 to 2016 (though may have risen recently). This headline figure hides a disproportionate decline in homeownership for younger and poorer households. Households headed by a person aged 25-34 saw homeownership decline from 60% in 1981 to 45% in 2016, while for the households aged 35-44, homeownership declined from 71% to 62% over that period. Households aged over 65 had no declines. The bottom 20% of households by income are spending more on housing rents than ever.
Young Australian adults, especially parents, face the uncertainty and rising cost of renting that undermines quality of life. Homeownership early in life provides security and stability, which is why it has traditionally been a public policy goal.
Bad Housing Supply Assumptions
Dr. Cameron K. Murray
Henry Halloran Trust, The University of Sydney
May 2021
Glaeser and Gyourko (2003) (G&G) famously argued that if the marginal cost of a square metre of housing lot land is less than the average cost, this is evidence of a price effect from “artificial” supply constraints. They call this price gap a “regulatory tax”, but it is also known as a “zoning effect” or “zoning tax”.
Their logic has been relied upon by hundreds of other studies and in numerous replications of their approach, including by economists from the Reserve Bank of Australia, whose results were widely publicised (Kendall and Tulip, 2018). However, the economic assumptions behind G&G’s approach are implausible. Although popular, their method should not be relied upon to infer anything about the nature of housing supply. This note explains why.
Taxing Rezoning Windfalls (betterment)
Dr. Cameron K. Murray
Henry Halloran Trust, The University of Sydney
May 2021
In its 2021 budget, the Victorian government announced a new tax on windfall land value gains from rezoning (also known as a betterment tax)
This note explains the economic principles behind such a tax, the benefits of applying such a tax, implementation issues that need to be considered, and lessons from the operation of similar taxes elsewhere.
Property is, conceptually, a finite bundle of rights. Rezoning grants additional property rights to owners of an existing set of property rights. Those new rights could instead be sold at a market price. A tax on the value gain from rezoning at anything less than 100% is equivalent to selling the new property rights from the community to the current property owner at a discount. Just like selling other property rights from the public to the private sector does not add to market prices in property markets, nor does selling rezoning rights.
Do taxes on property cause high house prices? No.
Dr. Cameron K. Murray
Henry Halloran Trust, The University of Sydney
September 2021
Housing industry lobbyists in Australia and abroad often claim that property-related taxes comprise a large and growing share of the price of new housing and are hence pushing up the market price of new and existing dwellings.
Land taxes, stamp duties on property transactions, GST on value-added investments, and other fees and charges are generally included in this analysis, as are many inferred price effects that are assumed to be due to regulations.
This note explains four reasons why the claims of this tax summation approach are not valid.
Many of the included costs are not taxes on new housing.
Adding indirect taxes double counts.
Assumed price effects are implausible.
Taxes on property assets reduce market prices, not add to them.
Feasibility Guide for Town Planners
Dr. Cameron K. Murray
Henry Halloran Trust, The University of Sydney
2020
Densification of established suburbs is often a desirable planning outcome, providing benefits in terms of the efficiency of transport networks, land use, and provision of public services. However, planning for density will not entice private landowners to redevelop to higher density unless it is also economically advantageous to do so.
"There are economic limits to density as well as regulatory ones"
This guide is designed to help planners incorporate considerations of the economic limits to, and benefits of, density in the creation of planning instruments to ensure that their objectives align with those that are also economically viable.
We first describe the residual land value model that forms the basis for understanding the economic effects of planning on land values and development feasibility. We then outline the three key economic conditions that exist for development to be viable.
Total market price must exceed total development cost
The marginal cost of additional density equals the market price at the optimal density
Land value at the optimal density use must exceed the value for current uses
These conditions need to be considered in the development of planning policies if they are to achieve their objectives.
