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AbstractHousing affordability remains a social and economic issue in New Zealand. Affordability policies such as Inclusionary Zoning have been promoted to streamline land delivery and boost the housing supply. This paper takes the Special Housing Areas (SHA) programme implemented in Auckland, New Zealand, as a case of a voluntary IZ, and explores the effects on the distribution of housing prices. We rely on a Difference-in-Difference framework as the general identification strategy to estimate quantile treatment effects. We use about 175 thousand sales transactions between September 2011 and September 2016. Considering all transactions, the results show that the SHAs program failed to reduce housing prices across the distribution; and, even in some cases, prices increased. We also find that, for new dwellings, the program decreased prices at the lower end of the distribution while increasing them at the upper end. We argue that the mechanism driving these results is the construction of larger dwellings in the upper part of the distribution. As the SHAs did not involve a mandatory mechanism for affordability purposes, we argue that non-affordable dwellings were built and delivered in the first place with the added price premium of a streamlined delivery. Therefore, as an example of a voluntary IZ program, the SHAs may have stimulated supply, but numerous implications arise as improvements in affordability are negligible or questionable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land policy interventions are important ways for municipalities to implement their spatial development objectives. Such interventions may, however, generate both intended and unintended effects to housing supply and its responsiveness. It is therefore essential to better understand how and through what kind of mechanisms local land policy interventions can influence the quantity of housing supply. This paper addresses these questions. First, we develop a conceptual classification of so-called intervention mechanisms that describes the linkages between local land policy interventions and the quantity and responsiveness of housing supply. The intervention mechanisms build on a review of the urban economics literature and are further developed empirically using extensive expert interview data on local land policy interventions and practices in 30 Finnish municipalities. Based on the understanding that such intervention primarily influences housing supply through either direct or indirect costs on development, we conceptualize seven intervention mechanisms in the Finnish land policy context. Second, we demonstrate the variation in the application of land policy interventions that contribute to the (in)responsiveness of housing supply at the municipal level. Our findings highlight significant variation in the application of such interventions, potentially leading to different outcomes in housing supply restrictiveness. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms by which land policy interventions operate to affect the (in)responsiveness of housing supply. • The paper scrutinizes the linkages between local land policy and the quantity of housing supply. • We develop seven intervention mechanisms to describe how land policy contributes to housing supply (in)responsiveness. • We document variation in the application of housing supply-relevant land policy interventions by Finnish municipalities. • The findings can provide support for municipalities in their land policy formulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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