Informal accommodation and vulnerable households Scale, drivers and policy responses in metropolitan Sydney A report prepared in conjunction with the Sydney Policy Lab and the Urban Housing Lab by Professor Nicole Gurran, Dr Madeleine Pill, Dr Sophia Maalsen, Dr Tooran Alizadeh and Dr Pranita Shrestha. April 2019 sydney.edu.au/sydney- policy-lab Get in touch For information or to contact the Sydney Policy Lab: Sydney Policy Lab Level 5 RD Watt Building The University of Sydney NSW 2006 (+61) 2 8627 5977 [email protected] — sydney.edu.au/sydney-policy-lab Contents Executive summary ............................................................................................................................................ 6 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 8 Aims of this study .......................................................................................................................................... 8 What is ‘informal housing’? ......................................................................................................................... 9 Research approach ...................................................................................................................................... 9 Interviews and focus groups ................................................................................................................. 10 Typologies of informal housing ............................................................................................................ 10 Contextual data ...................................................................................................................................... 11 Ethics and confidentiality ....................................................................................................................... 11 Limitations and contributions of this study .......................................................................................... 11 Structure of this report ............................................................................................................................... 11 2. Context and key drivers ........................................................................................................................ 13 Key points ..................................................................................................................................................... 13 The case study localities ............................................................................................................................ 13 Housing tenure ......................................................................................................................................... 15 Homelessness ........................................................................................................................................... 17 Unmet housing need and the drivers of informal housing ................................................................... 19 Barriers to the formal housing market ................................................................................................ 19 Affordability and owner-occupiers ..................................................................................................... 20 Gentrification and affordable rental housing in Waverley and Fairfield .................................. 20 3. Informal housing production .................................................................................................................. 22 Key points ..................................................................................................................................................... 22 Diverse housing and the NSW planning system ................................................................................... 22 “New generation boarding houses” .................................................................................................... 22 Secondary dwellings .............................................................................................................................. 23 Moveable dwellings ............................................................................................................................... 24 Informal housing production beyond the planning system .................................................................. 26 Illegal dwellings ...................................................................................................................................... 28 Understanding the scale and trajectory of illegal dwelling production ...................................... 29 Localities and neighbourhood morphologies ..................................................................................... 32 Key impacts and risks ................................................................................................................................ 33 Risks associated with illegal dwelling production ............................................................................. 34 3 Enforcing planning and building requirements, and potential for retrospective upgrading and approval ....................................................................................................................................................... 36 4. Informal housing tenures ........................................................................................................................ 37 Key points ..................................................................................................................................................... 37 Informal housing tenures ............................................................................................................................ 37 Pathways into informal housing ........................................................................................................... 39 Sharing ...................................................................................................................................................... 39 Secondary dwellings .............................................................................................................................. 41 Boarding houses ...................................................................................................................................... 43 International student housing ................................................................................................................ 43 Airbnb and short term rental housing in residential areas ............................................................. 44 Key risks and impacts ................................................................................................................................ 46 5. Typologies and dimensions of informal housing in Sydney: Implications for research and policy development .................................................................................................................................................... 47 Typologies of informal housing ................................................................................................................ 47 Policy responses .......................................................................................................................................... 49 Addressing informal dwelling production .......................................................................................... 49 Addressing informal housing arrangements and tenures ................................................................ 50 Implications for research and policy development .............................................................................. 51 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................................... 51 References ........................................................................................................................................................ 53 Tables Table 1: Selected characteristics, Fairfield and Waverley .................................................................... 13 Table 2: Change in social housing (dwellings), 2011-2016 ................................................................... 16 Table 3: Change of homelessness (persons), 2011-2016 ...................................................................... 18 Table 4: Spectrum of tenures, dwellings and legal rights ....................................................................... 38 Table 5: Airbnb listings and the housing market, Waverley .................................................................. 45 Table 6: Typologies and dimensions of informal housing ....................................................................... 48 Table 7: Existing and potential strategies for responding to illegal dwelling production ............... 50 4 Figures Figure 1: Case study localities ...................................................................................................................... 14 Figure 2: Annualised estimated resident population growth, Fairfield, Waverley, and Metropolitan Sydney 2001-2016 and 2011-2016 ............................................................................... 15 Figure 3: Tenure and landlord type (persons), 2016 .............................................................................