New York’s Kings County is likely to have the most new apartment units delivered in 2016 of any submarket in the U.S., by Axiometrics’ estimation. Some 6,073 units have been identified for delivery in Brooklyn next year as of Nov. 16, a huge increase from the 969 that came to market this year. [...]

renters are able to pay the submarket’s average effective rent of $3,823 (asking rent minus concessions), according to October apartment data. — forbes.com

Santa Ana is the latest to embrace the granny flat; earlier this month, its city council directed staff to rewrite city code to make it easier to have granny flats, and to allow them to be larger. [...]

"It really is meant to expand people’s ability to help their families and to reduce the overcrowding" [...]

Berkeley city officials relaxed regulations to encourage granny flats in March. Pasadena and Los Angeles have also flirted with the idea of loosening restrictions on such units. — scpr.org

Los Angeles elected leaders announced Tuesday that they will declare a “state of emergency” on the growing homelessness problem in the city and commit $100 million toward housing and other services for homeless people. [...]

"If we want to be a great city that hosts the Olympics and shows itself off to the world,” Cedillo said, “we shouldn't have 25,000 to 50,000 people sleeping on the streets.” — scpr.org

WeWork, the $10 billion startup that leases space to startups, has bigger ambitions: it wants to rent you a "co-living" space where you work, too.

WeWork is busy launching its co-living apartments — known as WeLive spaces — in places like New York City and Washington DC, The Information reports. [...]

WeWork will offer more than 250 micro-apartments at that location, along with amenities like bike parking, an herb garden, and a library. — Yahoo! Finance

Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated cities on the planet. To accommodate a rapidly growing number of inhabitants in a limited area of land, the emphasis is on space efficiency – which often translates into extremes of verticality and compact living.

Alex Nimmo grew up in the English countryside but moved to Hong Kong three years ago. The contrast, as you might imagine, was sharp. — theguardian.com

the government’s recent planning policy – which could have resulted in property developers dodging up to £1bn in affordable housing payments – has been definitively quashed following a High Court ruling. [...]

the “vacant building credit” let developers convert empty buildings into housing without making the usual Section 106 contributions for affordable homes.[...]

The ruling was described as a “victory for common sense [that] will help generate more affordable homes in London” — theguardian.com

Luke Iseman, 31, leases a 17,000-square-foot warehouse in Oakland in which he has built 11 micro residences out of cargo containers, Bloomberg reports. He charges $1,000 per months for each of the makeshift homes, which aren’t legal, strictly speaking. [...]

“We have an opportunity here to create a new model for urban development that’s more sustainable, more affordable and more enjoyable.” — businessinsider.com

Pure House is among a handful of businesses that are renting rooms at a premium in exchange for access to amenities, a dormlike atmosphere and an instant community. For a certain set of New Yorkers, often new arrivals to the city with an income but no rental history, Pure House offers something of a reprieve. [...]

The arrangement is a commercial outgrowth of co-living, taking life with roommates to a different level. — nytimes.com

At what cost? The LAVA plan could be difficult to manage structurally, cost a significant amount of money and see Sirius occupants relocated anyway. But it could also be a more sustainable option than knocking down and rebuilding. — architectureanddesign.com.au

Seen exclusively by the Guardian, the document sheds new light on why so little affordable housing is being built across England; why planning policy consistently fails to be enforced; and why property developers are now enjoying profits that exceed even those of the pre-crash housing bubble. — theguardian.com

When Lord Rogers launched a campaign to save one of London’s most notorious housing estates from demolition, he was adamant that it was a desirable place to live. [...]

It is a claim he may regret. Unhappy residents of the estate have challenged the peer to be true to his word and swap his £12 million Chelsea townhouse for a few nights in one of their blighted flats. — telegraph.co.uk

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development embraced the trapezoid, dubbed Iberville-Treme, along with an exhaustive New Orleans plan that called for 2,314 apartments constructed within 54 months.

Yet after 48 months — four years — the work in New Orleans is far from done.

If construction continues at the same pace in coming years, the promised 2,314 apartments won’t be complete until 2026. — nextcity.org

The ideals of Novye Cheryomushki may have died, but its methods and techniques remain — having managed to make some people very wealthy. Moscow suburbia is not so much the remnants of a great experiment, perhaps, but suburbia like any other suburbia — a place of dreams and boredom, great ideas being implemented and then slowly crushed. — calvertjournal.com

The Ponte saga is a classic South African story. Once a Jacuzzi-filled playground for the segregated white elite in the apartheid era, then falling into chaos in the 1990s as the wealthy fled to the suburbs, then the object of failed luxury-condo schemes, the tower is now undergoing a renaissance as an icon of Johannesburg’s urban revitalization. [...]

The hollow core began to fill with garbage and rubble – several stories high. — theglobeandmail.com