Roles of Land Use Planning Policy in Housing Supply and Affordable Housing

Abstract

Land use planning policies are a critical component of the institutional architecture that frames housing policy. Indeed a core goal of land use planning is to ensure an ‘adequate supply’ of housing. This chapter has three main components. Drawing on planning and land economics principles, it first examines the ways that land use planning measures, such as ‘inclusionary zoning’, can generate affordable housing and the generic arguments for such measures. Secondly it identifies features of Australia’s land use planning system that have direct implications for supporting affordable housing and discusses the various ways in, and extent to, which Australian governments have experimented with these. The chapter concludes by contesting popular claims that Australia’s land use planning regimes are a major cause of housing unaffordability.