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This study aims to examine the permit changes enacted by the city of Portland, Oregon, USA, on the construction and subsequent short-term rental of tiny homes. The permitting process was eased by the city in 2014. The city’s enforcement of occupancy and rental ordinances, sometimes called Airbnb laws, were tightened in 2019. The new code restrictions are tighter than the rental codes that existed previously.

This paper uses time-series data to first consider the thesis that relaxing building permit requirements for tiny homes has encouraged legal construction and increased the number of applications filed with the city planning office. The number of permits was the dependent variable and time-sensitive dummy variable was the independent variable. An adjusted T-statistic was calculated using a least-squares regression model with a moving average autocorrelation adjustment. The second regression model considers the financial relationship between active listings on Airbnb and HomeAway to a housing price coverage ratio and the aggregated dynamic-factor model used to calculate the economic activity index for Portland.

There were two reported case study findings. The first regression used a dummy variable measuring the application response to permit easing. It was positive and significant. The second finding measures active host listings on Airbnb whether they are directly associated with the calculated multiple of the changes in the S&P/Case–Shiller housing price index low tier divided by weekly employee income. Higher numbers for this coverage ratio suggest that listings on short-term rental platforms are increasing directly with the ratio. The economic activity index is insignificant when predicting the level of listings. Regression results indicate that property owners are financially motivated to list dwellings as visitor rentals and possibly motivated to install tiny homes behind their primary residences as short-term rental units. Local economic conditions do not seem to influence the number of properties listed on short-term rental websites.

Higher coverage ratios encourage property owners to list dwellings on short-term rental websites in the absence of enforceable rental restrictions. Without a method to quickly and feasible identify owners violating short-term rental restriction legislation and enforce fines there is a tendency for active listings to grow in a locale. San Francisco, California, under its new short-term rental ordinance requires online websites such as Airbnb to enforce permit requirements. San Francisco’s ordinance change seems to have resulted in a dramatic drop in active listings available for visitor rentals.

Information published by Inside Airbnb and Airdna does not separate entire dwelling information into categories such as single-family detached houses; tiny homes; apartments; or condominiums ownership types. Even public housing units are sometimes listed as short-term rentals. The aggregate data makes the relationship between active listings and the coverage ratio difficult to interpret. Listing information is limited and only available for a three-year rolling cycle on a quarterly basis for the city of Portland, Oregon.

Future research studies could consider how tiny homes might play a role in providing permanent housing to local residents or for providing a shelter for the homeless in cities experiencing acute long-term rental shortages. Does limiting the number of homes available as short-term visitor rentals noticeably increase the quantity of housing and lower the monthly rental rates available to permanent residents of the city? Cities have passed short-term rental codes with the objective of increasing the availability of rental housing available to residents at affordable prices.

Prior research studies focused on who purchases tiny homes; tiny homes used as housing for the homeless; communities composed of tiny homes; and the connection between tiny home living and political activism. The study herein links permit changes to tiny-home building applications. It uses the home price index low tier and the economic condition index for the Portland metropolitan area to predict the number of active listings on Airbnb and HomeAway websites pre-regulation enforcement.

To examine the recent popularity of the tiny house movement with a critical eye toward the growing commodification of sustainability in a market that continues to shelter economic and class privilege, despite that the movement itself emerges from a desire to consume less and contribute to community more.

Written from the position of a tiny house builder and dweller, this study reads a range of recently published accounts of the tiny house movement, informed by contemporary work in environmental sociology. Investigates current rhetoric surrounding the movement with special attention to issues of mobility, consumption, and the movement’s romanticism, with particular attention to the movement’s invocations of Henry David Thoreau.

Tiny house living can cultivate correctives to possible oversights or entitlements in environmental thought, challenge representations of the movement itself, and encourage those inside the “tiny” house movement to openly discuss the difficulties and capabilities endemic to tiny living.

Tiny houses, while still bound to forms of privilege, hold potential to be what some social science researchers have seen as best practice. Practices that link the practicality of realism with the zeal of romanticism can contribute to what has been found to be a positive correlation between conscious consumption and political activism.

This critique offers a gentle corrective to unmitigated praise of the current tiny house phenomenon in order to highlight the movement’s potential for addressing more pressing social justice and environmental issues.

This paper aims to provide an example of ways in which research plans may shift and how the research team dealt with necessary changes as they unfolded; within this context, the authors encourage the use of qualitative and narrative methods prior to and during the design process to better understand the population for which they are designing. Second, the stories from this case study illustrate the importance of understanding the overall context in design solutions, understanding the value of working with residents during the design process and using design as a tool for advocacy and empathy.

Initially, a traditional mixed method approach was developed to study the feasibility of tiny homes in homeless populations. Responding to unforeseen circumstances, the research team shifted to more appropriate narrative research methods, capturing a profile of the community. The paper shares narrative accounts from the tiny home village residents.

Overall, the stories from the Portland visit illustrate the importance of social impact and the understanding of the overall context in design. This study also advocates the use of qualitative interview and narrative methods in design research, especially when used to better understand the “houseless” or other special populations.

There were limitations to the research that likely affected the outcomes and the results. The most apparent limitation was the unanticipated shift in methodology that occurred during the research study, which is also arguably one of the best strengths. Also, because of the qualitative nature of this research, the results are not generalizable to a broader context and only valuable or applicable to special cases.

The true human condition of displaced people is often misrepresented in the minds of those who are unaffected. Designers are uniquely qualified to help solve seemingly unsolvable problems but must do so with caution.

For those taking on the challenge of designing for disadvantaged communities, this paper reveals that design research is more than just a problem to solve through habitable boxes. This study brings to light several social, economic and design complications that may arise in this vein of research.

This research methodology was unexpectedly altered when unforeseen events necessitated a shift in the research plan. This process revealed that sensitive social issues can be difficult to navigate and must be treated with utmost respect and flexibility. Issues such as affordable housing, homelessness and sustainability are all examples of wicked problems, which designers are uniquely qualified to help solve but must do so with caution and a true understanding of context. Many lessons were learned through this process.

The sustainability agenda has already become widely recognised in real estate analysis. However, two challenges are to overcome before sustainability issues are brought fully into the professional and academic mainstream: first, the provision of sustainability enhancing qualities; and second, to overcome deep-rooted scepticism towards the higher cost element of such qualities (i.e. creating economies of scale). Another potentially related issue is that the notion of innovation is gaining popularity in this field. Innovation-driven change is cyclical and unpredictable, which in turn calls for an explicit evolutionary and complexity perspective. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Critical literature review. The author’s own experience as participant of the discussions and debates is also used.

The conclusions suggest that, in line with evolutionary and complexity principles, innovations exist and emerge within the real estate industry itself, and in fields related to it – and this includes various aspects of promoting sustainability thinking.

This contribution uses valuation automata as an example of this argumentation.

The concept of complexity refers to emerging qualities found in the evolution of the development of an industry; the practical implication of complexity concerns the capability of managers to react competently in unfamiliar circumstances.

Thus, innovation in real estate is both economic and socio-cultural.

No similar (i.e. theoretically informed) papers on innovation or sustainability in real estate analysis have been written to the best of the author’s knowledge.

A personal narrative of my escape with my mother and siblings from South Sudan as refugees is presented. The narrative then chronicles the time in Egypt applying for refugee status and eventual resettlement in the United States. In the United States, resettlement began in Newark, New Jersey. I then document my move from Newark to San Diego, California to, eventually, New York City. In New York my life as a model, DJ, actress, and founder of Stand for Education is narrated.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the significance and relevance of social and habitual behaviours of home occupants to the building design process. It argues that introducing quantitative measures such as daylight level alone may not result in a “healthy and functional” kitchen without appreciating or factoring‐in the impacts of the social roles and user expectations of kitchens in high‐rise and compact urban situations.

The study investigated three common types of apartment buildings in Hong Kong. Case studies suggested that it is crucial to include in a design process proper considerations of human behaviours by way of preferred approaches and modes of living, space usage, and weightings of end‐user responses that would influence architectural design in a direct and crucial way.

The study noted that daylight quality of a kitchen is perceived by most families to be not as important as building control officials and designers thought it would. Instead, it is found that social and cultural factors are more important parameters for users. The study observed that designers rely on physical and quantitative approaches such as daylight factor, window size and window‐to‐room area ratio to qualify a design solution and ignore the socio‐cultural parameters.

The paper calls for designers and building control officials to incorporate the study of functionality and socio‐cultural preferences of users groups in the building design process. The study envisages that an integrated design methodology would enhance the living environment.

The purpose of this study is to understand the lived experience of workers who live in vans to explore how work and non-work interact when one's living environment is mobile.

In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 18 participants. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts, coded while listening to each interview recording, provided a rich account of the interaction of work and non-work life domains.

Several themes were identified, including seeing the van as a home, hidden or disclosed identity stemming from living in a van, financial freedom, career freedom and work/non-work synchronization. Overall, findings suggest that flexible home arrangements, the relocation of one's home to adapt to work, aligned work and non-work domains to positively impact their overall work and non-work satisfaction, providing career freedom and expanded career opportunities.

The understanding of workers who live in vans broadens one’s understanding of mobile work and the work/non-work interface, providing insight into the dual alignment of work and home to accommodate each other, which the authors term work/non-work synchronization.

This is one of the first studies to consider van living from a work and career perspective and for the first time conceptualizes the notion of flexible home arrangements.

Because of the gradual nature of the changes over the past 25 years, we may not have noticed the transformation of the British kitchen. The progress of the kitchen — and its contents — is clearly described, with forecasts to the year 2000.

Australians were recently awarded the dubious honour of building the largest homes in the world. Our new homes are now seven percent larger than those in the United States and nearly three times larger than those in the United Kingdom. At the same time, the price of an average residential property is now five times what it was 20 years ago. Although incomes have risen over the same period, they have not kept pace with rising house prices. In terms of disposable income, the cost of housing has almost doubled. While traditional housing affordability is measured in terms of house prices and incomes, a broader and more encompassing perspective also indicates that we can no longer ‘afford’ to build houses as we have done in the past. The environmental impact of modern Australian housing is significant. Australians have resisted the need for increased urban density as their capital city populations grow and new houses have been built on the outskirts of the existing cities, encroaching on the greenwedge and agricultural lands, destroying and degrading existing fauna and flora. The houses built have increased carbon emissions because of their size, embodied energy and reliance on the motor car. This paper discusses the environmental ‘affordability’ of current Australian housing and argues that this must be considered alongside traditional affordability criteria so that a more holistic approach to the issues is adopted.

Since 1991 with the advent of globalization and economic liberalisation, basic conceptual and discursive changes are taking place in housing sector in India. The new changes suggest how housing affordability, quality and lifestyles reality is shifting for various segments of the population. Such shift not only reflects structural patterns but also stimulates an ongoing transition process. The paper highlights a twin impetus that continue to shape the ongoing transition: expanding middle class and their wealth - a category with distinctive lifestyles, desires and habits and corresponding ‘market defining’ of affordable housing standards - to articulate function of housing as a conceptualization of social reality in modern India. The paper highlights the contradictions and paradoxes, and the manner in which the concept of affordability, quality and lifestyles are embedded in both discourse and practice in India. The housing ‘dream’ currently being packaged and fed through to the middle class population has an upper middle class bias and is set to alienate those at the lower end of the middle-and low-income population. In the context of growing agreement and inevitability of market provision of ‘affordable housing’, the unbridled ‘market-defining’ of housing quality and lifestyles must be checked.