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For most of us, heading out used to be an everyday ritual, but COVID-19 has left an unexpected impact — many people are staying home more often, and this shift might just be the “new normal.” A recent study reveals that, compared to pre-pandemic life, people are spending almost an hour less each day on activities outside the home. Additionally, people are spending about 12 fewer minutes a day on travel.<br /><br />Researchers analysed a survey of 34,000 Americans, finding that this trend toward staying home reflects a larger shift that had already begun but has accelerated significantly due to COVID-19. The study shows a lasting change: while some out-of-home activities have slightly bounced back since the peak of the pandemic in 2021, Americans are still spending about 53 minutes less outside the home than they did in 2019. In 2023, the amount of time people spend outside remains considerably lower than before the pandemic, with <keyword id="23763147" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="in-home-activities" source="keywords">in-home activities</keyword> taking up more of the day.<br /><h2>The new routine</h2>This drop in out-of-home time is partly due to more people working and shopping from home. The study found a marked decrease in out-of-home activities like work and shopping. With <keyword id="20665553" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="remote-work" source="keywords">remote work</keyword> becoming more popular and online shopping more efficient than in-person errands, people are finding fewer reasons to go out. The researchers suggest that cities may need to rethink their policies around commercial and residential spaces, relaxing restrictions on converting offices into housing and creating more space for delivery services rather than traditional commuter parking.<br />    <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="114823699" title="Uber drops after its bookings results and forecast fail to impress" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>The authors of the study see this as an opportunity for cities to embrace a new role as “centers of consumption.” Since office workers are no longer essential to urban economies, central cities may focus more on their appeal as hubs for recreation, culture, and dining — areas that can attract residents who choose to live in more urban settings. This shift could also make cities more affordable by reducing housing and transport costs.<br /><br />Technology advancements played a significant role in this new preference for staying in. During the pandemic, people adapted quickly to working, socialising, and even exercising at home. For example, sales of <keyword id="20751231" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="home-gym" source="keywords">home gym</keyword> equipment surged, and now many people are working out at home rather than visiting gyms. Meanwhile, activities like TV watching did not rise post-pandemic as much as one might expect, with only a brief increase in screen time at the height of COVID.<br /><h2>Less commuting, fewer emissions</h2>The study also shows a continued decrease in travel time, which initially dropped due to fewer commutes. Even as the world reopens, travel hasn’t bounced back completely, indicating that people are limiting outings beyond work as well. This decrease in driving and public transport use could have <keyword id="21198065" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="environmental-benefits" source="keywords">environmental benefits</keyword>, including lower emissions and fuel consumption. However, it raises questions about the potential downsides of extended time at home, such as <keyword id="20787438" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="social-isolation" source="keywords">social isolation</keyword>.<br />    <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="114822872" title="I&amp;#39;m an American who&amp;#39;s lived in South Korea for 10 years. Here are 9 things I don&amp;#39;t miss about the US." mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>As more people choose to stay in, the researchers suggest that cities may need to adapt by focusing less on peak travel demands and more on pedestrian and cyclist safety, as well as accessible services for lower-income residents. These adaptations could improve urban life, particularly in dense areas where the need for safer and more walkable spaces is high.<br /><br />The study’s authors point out that, although this trend toward “cocooning” at home has been growing for years, the pandemic has caused a much steeper drop than expected. Moving forward, cities and communities may need to embrace this new lifestyle by designing policies and spaces that cater to a society that prefers staying home— whether it’s about creating vibrant urban hubs or ensuring services are available to all residents. While only time will tell if this trend endures, one thing is clear: staying in has reshaped our daily lives and could change the face of our cities in the years to come.<br /><br />The findings of this research have been published in the <em>Journal of the American Planning Association </em>and can be accessed <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2024.2385327">here</a>.<br />

The COVID-19 pandemic has made people more reluctant to go out, study finds

As Mumbai, India's financial capital, witnessed vertical growth over the years with highrises dotting its skyline, some 'gaothans' (villages) have held onto their heritage and legacy. Ranwar, in the heart of Bandra, is one such village that has resisted the urge to make way for towering structures. <br /><br />Dwarfed by highrises, the East Indian-majority village has narrow streets lined with old quaint bungalows and crosses outside homes. With jazz music streaming in the air, walking around the area can transport you to a simpler time. <br /><br />While Bandra developed rapidly and became home to Bollywood's elite and a burgeoning street shopping hub, residents of Ranwar maintained their old bungalows. The coexistence, however, has come at a price, causing traffic issues and crowding. <br /><br />And now, plans are afoot to give the 300-year-old village a facelift while preserving the past. <br /><br />Talking to PTI, <keyword id="23283968" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Johan-Dharmai" source="Orion">Johan Dharmai</keyword>, BJP secretary and a member of the East Indian community, said, "Locals want to preserve the heritage. One of the steps in the facelift plan is to close vehicle movement and build a walkway so that tourists can take a stroll and enjoy the architecture." <br /><br />Though many houses in Ranwar are now being redeveloped, Veronica Street has maintained its old-world charm. It has a square erected in 1866. However, honking rents the air on this street, as motorists see it as a shortcut to Bandra Reclamation and other areas. Mehboob Studio is just a stone's throw away, and senior citizens living on Veronica Street recall seeing actors Helen and Zeenat Aman around Ranwar. <br /><br />A beautification, restoration and conservation project is being initiated to improve safety, regulate traffic and create awareness about the centuries-old village. <br /><br />Mumbai BJP president and <keyword id="20238930" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bandra-West" source="keywords">Bandra West</keyword> MLA Ashish Shelar recently met locals to discuss ways to move the project forward. <br /><br />"The beauty of Bandra West is its 'gaothans'. The heritage needs to be protected and showcased. I have asked the government to allocate funds from the District Planning Development Committee (DPDC). <keyword id="23283965" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ranwar-Village" source="keywords">Ranwar village</keyword> will get a facelift. The work has begun on roads, CCTV cameras, street light illumination, parking and traffic plan will be in place with the help of locals and architects," Shelar told PTI. <br /><br /><keyword id="23283967" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Architect-Samir-DMonte" source="keywords">Architect Samir D'Monte</keyword> has been working with the Ranwar Veronica Street Residents' Association since 2009, and they identified a range of problems that the area faced. <br /><br />D'Monte said improvements were made to open spaces and common areas, roads, sewage and drainage systems, street signage, street lighting and traffic and parking management. <br /><br />Apart from this, individual houses were restored, and an innovative fire system was also introduced. <br /><br />Locals say most residents are senior citizens and want to live peacefully without disturbances by motorists. <br /><br />Kaevan Umrigar of Khaki Tours, who works to create awareness about Mumbai's heritage, said Bandra comprised 23 gaothans that housed fisher folk, Kunbis (a farming community) and the agris community who had salt pans. <br /><br />"Ranwar was a farming village, and the area had paddy fields. Later, these paddy fields made way for urban settlements. These little villages are now trapped in the city. Now, only 10 to 15 gaothans in Bandra have survived," he said. <br /><br />But preserving heritage comes at a cost, and if a 'gaothan' comes under heritage guidelines, it becomes difficult to upgrade a home in the area or live a modern life, Umigar said, adding that heritage should be made attractive by tapping the tourism potential of these areas. <br /><br />'Gaothans' in Mumbai and the larger Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR) are urban villages that house the city's original inhabitants. <br /><br />The Mumbai suburban district collector and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have been roped in for Ranwar's facelift plan. <br /><br />Umigar calls land scarcity a threat to 'gaothans', with only 100 left in the city. <br /><br />"When someone wants to develop gaothans, they want to do it vertically. There is a constant battle between heritage and development. They (villages) survive because the houses are tightly packed and on narrow lanes. So individual houses are not attractive for redevelopment, and parking becomes an issue," he said.

300-year-old Bandra village to get facelift to conserve its glorious past

Imagine two <keyword id="19914811" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="children" source="keywords">children</keyword>: one growing up in a bustling urban <keyword id="19939494" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="environment" source="keywords">environment</keyword>, surrounded by towering buildings, crowded streets and the constant glow of artificial lights; the other living in a rural setting, where the day begins with the chirping of birds and playtime unfolds in the green spaces just outside home. It seems intuitive to assume that the child in the countryside would naturally have a stronger connection with nature. However, this assumption might not hold up under scrutiny.<br /><br />In a study conducted by researchers at <keyword id="22924618" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Swedens-Lund-University" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Sweden’s Lund University" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Sweden’s Lund University">Sweden’s Lund University</keyword> and published in <em><keyword id="22924619" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="People-and-Nature" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="People and Nature" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="People and Nature">People and Nature</keyword></em>, it has been revealed that a child's <keyword id="21711495" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="connection-to-nature" source="keywords">connection to nature</keyword> is less about whether they live in a city or the countryside, and more about the socioeconomic conditions they grow up in.<br /><br />The study challenges the common belief that rural upbringing automatically fosters a deeper bond with nature.<br /><br />Urbanisation has long sparked concerns about a growing disconnect from the natural world, with less outdoor engagement being linked to poorer health outcomes. This makes the question of how to nurture or rekindle our connection to nature increasingly relevant, especially for children. After all, it’s during childhood that our foundational relationships with the environment are established.<br /><br />To delve into how urban and rural children relate to nature, and whether this connection is influenced by socioeconomic factors, the researchers undertook a detailed study. <br /><br />Surprisingly, they found that a child’s relationship with nature is not dictated by their geographic location. Instead, factors like income and education levels emerged as key determinants.<br /><br />For instance, children from areas with higher education levels showed better species knowledge, which correlated with more positive attitudes toward wildlife.<br /><br />Moreover, children from wealthier backgrounds were more likely to engage in nature-based activities, enhancing their connection to the environment. This pattern held true regardless of whether they lived in urban or rural settings.<br /><br />The study also revealed significant variations between schools, indicating the crucial role that educators and schools play in shaping children's relationships with nature. Adults, including teachers and parents, bear considerable responsibility as role models, influencing how children perceive and engage with the natural world.<br /><br />However, it’s worth noting that the study was conducted in Malmö, Sweden's third-largest city with a population of 3,50,000. This very fact raises intriguing questions about how the findings might differ in much larger cities, where access to natural environments could be even more challenging.<br />

Socioeconomic status—and not urban or rural living—likely to shape your child's connection to nature: Study

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Jeremy Ng and Amanda Misso bought the first floor of a 1950s house in Singapore for about $1.34 million.</li><li>The house had previously been split into 7 bedrooms and was rented out to foreign workers.</li></ul><p>After three years in their condo in Geylang, a neighborhood in the eastern region of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/singapore-lifestyle-food-shopping-malls-weather-heat-misconceptions-2023-9">Singapore</a>, Jeremy Ng and Amanda Misso were on the hunt for a new space.</p><p>While they were keen to stay in the same part of the city, they wanted something with a bit more character than the typical, run-of-the-mill apartment.</p><p>It took about 20 viewings before they settled on a first-floor residential unit in Joo Chiat, a quaint neighborhood known for its <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/shophouses-singapore-renovation-figment-coliving-spaces-before-after-photos-2022-4">colorful shophouses</a>, cozy cafés, and quaint boutiques. There's a wide array of food options nearby, from <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-chicken-rice-singapore-hawker-maxwell-tian-tian-review-michelin-2023-12">hawker fare</a> to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chef-left-michelin-restaurant-open-hawker-prawn-noodles-singapore-2024-10">fancy restaurants</a>.</p><div type="image" title="A couple poses for a photo" height="960" width="1280" msid="115324789" hostid="261" sizebytes="132218"></div><p>Built in the 1950s, the couple's 1,900-square-foot unit isn't quite a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coliving-shophouse-experience-figment-tenants-singapore-2022-4">shophouse</a> but features a similar layout thanks to its narrow frontage and long floor plan.</p><p>"In the 1950s, if you had bought it, you would have bought both floors as a single unit," Misso, 35, told Business Insider</p><p>But over the years, the house — along with other homes that sit in the same row — had been split into separate upstairs and downstairs units, she said. Now, they have neighbors living above.</p><div type="image" title="The exterior of the house." height="960" width="1280" msid="115324797" hostid="261" sizebytes="80562"></div><p>"Sometimes, when you go to viewings, every other condo looks the same. The same windows, the same layout," Misso, who works in finance, said. "This was something that came up that was a bit out of the blue."</p><h2 id="21bf64fc-f307-40ca-b0d4-4e663e4e415a"><strong>Turning a rundown unit into a home</strong></h2><p id="21bf64fc-f307-40ca-b0d4-4e663e4e415a"><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/singapore-urban-planner-regrets-liu-thai-ker-architect-bicycle-squatter-2024-7">Singapore</a> — tied with Zurich — is the most expensive city to live in, according to The Economist Intelligence's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/11/29/these-are-the-worlds-most-expensive-cities">Worldwide Cost of Living survey</a> in 2023. The city-state was ranked first place in nine of the past 11 years.</p><p id="21bf64fc-f307-40ca-b0d4-4e663e4e415a">Housing is expensive, largely because the country is small; Singapore's total land mass measures about 284 square miles. Despite that, it has one of the highest homeownership rates in the world, at nearly 90%, according to the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://knowledge.uli.org/-/media/files/research-reports/2024/uli-hai-report-2024.pdf?rev=fa8ccf919aab4719b7c11b5818f9436a&amp;hash=4C197578A9232F6CAB93EE954CAE4717">2024 Home Attainability Index</a> published by the Urban Land Institute Asia Pacific Centre for Housing.</p><p id="21bf64fc-f307-40ca-b0d4-4e663e4e415a">Most people in Singapore live in <a target="_blank" rel="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/see-inside-public-housing-singapore-hdb-million-dollars-blue-zone-2023-11"><u>public housing apartments,</u></a> known as HDB flats. In recent years, the success of the country's public housing plan has seen prices of these flats <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/housing/number-of-million-dollar-hdb-flats-resold-hit-all-time-high-in-june-prices-up-18-srx-99co">soaring above $1 million Singapore dollars</a>, or about $743,000.</p><div type="image" title="The primary living area." height="854" width="1280" msid="115324801" hostid="261" sizebytes="52130"></div><p id="21bf64fc-f307-40ca-b0d4-4e663e4e415a">About a fifth of the country's resident population lives in private housing, which includes condominiums and landed property. The median price of private homes in Singapore was 13.5 times that of the median annual household income of $97,124, per the Home Attainability Index report.</p><p>The couple had chanced upon the listing while browsing for homes online, Ng, 44, told BI. The large, rectangular floor plan drew them in.</p><p>The unit had been divided into seven different rooms and was being rented out to foreign workers, he said: "It was very rundown — it looked nothing like this."</p><div type="image" title="A collage of an old bathroom and a dirty bedroom in the house." height="1080" width="1440" msid="115324807" hostid="261" sizebytes="21260"></div><p>It was still tenanted when the couple showed up to tour the unit, Ng, who works in hospitality and entertainment, said.</p><p>"When we came in, the agent was trying to show us the bedrooms. He wanted to knock on every bedroom door to open it, and we were like, 'It's OK, we don't even need to see those,'" Misso said. "Because we're going to gut everything anyway, we just needed to see what had to be done."</p><p>The couple paid almost $1.8 million Singapore dollars, or about $1.34 million, for the property in 2022.</p><div type="image" title="A shelf dedicated to vinyl records." height="960" width="1280" msid="115324791" hostid="261" sizebytes="43458"></div><p>Despite the extent of the work required, the renovations went smoothly. In addition to an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/interior-design-trends-that-are-making-your-home-look-dated-2021-5">interior designer</a>, the couple also had an architect to help them plan the space.</p><p>"This would have been our fourth place together, and we kind of already knew the functionalities we wanted in the house, so we built the space around it," Misso said.</p><p>For instance, the couple knew they wanted a large dining and kitchen area where they could have an island counter. While the master bedroom would have an ensuite, they wanted a Jack and Jill bathroom for the other two bedrooms.</p><div type="image" title="The bathroom." height="1280" width="854" msid="115324802" hostid="261" sizebytes="55108"></div><p>They also wanted to preserve some of the house's original features, like the red brick wall that runs along the hallway and into the courtyard in the back.</p><p>That got them thinking about using other pops of colors to brighten their space, Ng said.</p><p>They went with olive green cabinets for the kitchen and got a dining table in a matching shade.</p><div type="image" title="The kitchen features pops of color." height="854" width="1280" msid="115324793" hostid="261" sizebytes="22764"></div><p>To spice things up, they opted for an icy blue water dispenser, which occupies a prime position in the center of their kitchen island. An orange sculptural lamp hangs overhead.</p><p>"Our previous place was more <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/make-home-look-mid-century-for-cheap-according-to-designers">mid-century</a> and grunge. Now when our friends come by, they're always like, 'Oh, it's so different!'" Misso said.</p><p>It took about eight months for the renovation to be completed.</p><div type="image" title="The master bedroom." height="854" width="1280" msid="115324804" hostid="261" sizebytes="22402"></div><p>"This was a bit different from what we were used to when we renovated our condo," Misso said. "Even after we moved in, we were still mending a few things, which we didn't realize we needed to until we moved in."</p><p>The couple estimates that they spent about SG$500,000 on the entire renovation.</p><h2 id="8c7ed784-62af-4994-aa3d-85dafcc27621"><strong>Simple in the front, party in the back</strong></h2><p id="8c7ed784-62af-4994-aa3d-85dafcc27621">The living room and the study are located in the front part of the house. Bedrooms are off to the left, and a long corridor covered with a skylight leads to the open kitchen and the courtyard in the back.</p><div type="image" title="A long corridor that leads from the primary living area to the kitchen and dining space, which is at the back of the house." height="854" width="1280" msid="115324811" hostid="261" sizebytes="104490"></div><p id="8c7ed784-62af-4994-aa3d-85dafcc27621">And it's the back of the house that the two of them love.</p><p id="8c7ed784-62af-4994-aa3d-85dafcc27621">"I think the front is more functional. It's really just a living room where we watch TV, but I think the back is where we spend quite a bit of time," Misso said. "We have dinners here, and when we have friends over, they hang out here. I think everybody just naturally gravitates here."</p><p id="8c7ed784-62af-4994-aa3d-85dafcc27621">Likewise, for Ng, the dining area is his favorite.</p><div type="image" title="Three paintings hand along the walls of the dining space." height="1280" width="854" msid="115324795" hostid="261" sizebytes="60274"></div><p id="8c7ed784-62af-4994-aa3d-85dafcc27621">"I'm quite pleased with how it turned out because, in our previous place, our dining area was on the balcony to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-make-bedroom-look-bigger-tips-interior-designer-2023-3">maximize the space,</a>" he said. "So here, it's so nice to still be able to do things, have a drink, and have everyone gather around here."</p><p id="8c7ed784-62af-4994-aa3d-85dafcc27621">Automated metal shutters flank a glass brick wall that separates the courtyard from the back alley, where the couple sometimes hosts barbecue parties.</p><div type="image" title="A bike parked by a glass brick wall, flanked by two automated shutter doors." height="853" width="1280" msid="115324814" hostid="261" sizebytes="72306"></div><p id="8c7ed784-62af-4994-aa3d-85dafcc27621">Thanks to the shutters, the courtyard also functions as a mini motorcycle garage for the couple's bikes: A gray Vespa scooter and a black Triumph motorbike.</p><p id="8c7ed784-62af-4994-aa3d-85dafcc27621">"Everyone who sees them goes, 'Amanda, your bike is so cute!' And I'm like, 'That's not mine,'" Misso said. She rides the black Triumph.</p><p id="8c7ed784-62af-4994-aa3d-85dafcc27621">The shutters offer a streamlined way for the couple to park their bikes.</p><p id="8c7ed784-62af-4994-aa3d-85dafcc27621">"So what happens is one bike comes in and goes out, while the other one comes in and reverses out," Misso said.</p><div type="image" title="The dining space." height="960" width="1280" msid="115324790" hostid="261" sizebytes="80768"></div><p id="8c7ed784-62af-4994-aa3d-85dafcc27621">Ng started riding as a teenager, and Misso picked it up some years ago. For them, riding is a more economical and convenient way of getting around the city compared to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/singapore-car-expensive-city-buy-certificate-of-entitlement-millennial-cost-2024-1">driving a car</a>.</p><p id="8c7ed784-62af-4994-aa3d-85dafcc27621">"It's so much easier to get to work in the morning and come home in the evening when you're not stuck in traffic," Misso said. Now both of their commutes to work are about 15 minutes.</p><div type="image" title="Two bikes parked in a courtyard by a small plant." height="854" width="1280" msid="115324805" hostid="261" sizebytes="130606"></div><p id="8c7ed784-62af-4994-aa3d-85dafcc27621">As much as they love their house, there's just one tiny thing they wish they'd changed about the place.</p><p>"It's just that the bathroom mirror in the master bedroom is a bit too far from you. So when you're doing your makeup or something, you've got to lean in quite a bit because our vanity top is quite big," Misso said. "It's such a small thing, but I look at it every day."</p><p><em>Have you recently bought and renovated your dream home? If you've got a story to share, get in touch with me at </em><a target="_blank" href="mailto:agoh@businessinsider.com"><em><u>agoh@businessinsider.com</u></em></a><em>.</em></p>

A millennial couple in Singapore spent 8 months turning a rundown unit into their dream home. Take a look inside.

In today’s market, where convenience is the king, it's getting increasingly possible to get almost everything under the Sun home-delivered in urban India. But not the alcohol! Now, major players like <keyword id="19896956" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Swiggy" source="keywords">Swiggy</keyword>, Zomato, <keyword id="20069203" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Blinkit" source="keywords">Blinkit</keyword>, and BigBasket are eyeing this lucrative opportunity, ready to transform the way we enjoy our evenings (or feed our vices depending on how one takes it). <br /><br />As regulations offer hopes of loosening with the rising consumer demand, the question on everyone's mind is: will <keyword id="22432889" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="alcohol-home-delivery" source="keywords">alcohol home delivery</keyword> become the new norm? As per the media reports, the quick commerce platforms might soon start delivering low-alcohol drinks like beer, wine, and liqueurs, at least in some parts of the country. <br /><br />A report from the Economic Times reveals that states like New Delhi, Karnataka, Haryana, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Goa, and Kerala are thinking about trying out this service. Industry executives say that authorities are currently looking at the advantages and disadvantages of allowing alcohol deliveries.<br /><br /><h2>State authorities collecting feedback</h2>State authorities are reportedly collecting views from <keyword id="22432890" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="instant-delivery-platforms" source="Orion">instant delivery platforms</keyword> and spirit manufacturers for assessing the pros and cons of delivering low-alcohol liquors. <br /><br />"This is to cater to a growing expat population, especially in larger cities, changing profiles of consumers who perceive moderate alcohol-content spirits as recreational drinking along with meals, and women and senior citizens who have flagged buying from traditional liquor vends and shop-front experiences as unpleasant," one of the executives told Economic Times.<br /><br />According to the ET report, only Odisha and West Bengal allow home delivery of alcohol at the moment. During the COVID-19 lockdown, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Assam also allowed it temporarily, and it was successful despite some restrictions and hurdles. <br /><div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="111758782" title="Zomato and Swiggy increase platform fee by 20% – food deliveries to get costlier" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div><br /><h2>Enthusiasm grows across sectors</h2>Retail industry executives say that online alcohol deliveries have increased sales by 20-30% in West Bengal and Odisha. Although the idea of online home delivery of liquor faced several challenges including political backlash and pressure from physical retail bodies.<br /><br />For now Swiggy and Spencer’s retail delivers spirits in West Bengal. Dinker Vashisht, vice president of corporate affairs at Swiggy said “Online models ensure end-to-end transaction records, age verification and adhere to limits. Further, online tech stacks synchronise with regulatory and excise requirements, ensuring adherence to timings, dry days and zonal delivery guardrails”<br /><br />Beer manufacturers like United Breweries and AB InBev are also interested in this concept, an industry executive told ET. “Beer blends more with grocery shopping, especially for consumers in big cities, and needs to be chilled, which limits its visibility in liquor vends.” <br /><br />In 2020, AB InBev started Beerbox, a platform that listed places delivering alcohol within a 3-4 km range. This was after Maharashtra temporarily allowed home deliveries during the pandemic.<br /><br />Overall, as regulations, consumer demand, and the capacity of online quick-commerce platforms align, the days of cancelling the evening plans to avoid stepping out to buy alcohol might soon be behind us.<br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:</strong><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/jio-financials-gets-rbi-nod-to-become-core-investment-company/articleshow/111677548.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink" target="_blank">Jio Financials gets RBI nod to become Core Investment Company</a><br />

Will alcohol home delivery be a reality soon? Swiggy, Zomato, and Blinkit smell an opportunity

<ul class="summary-list"><li>In 2019, the Brooklyn apartment where I had lived for 10 years burned down.</li><li>That apartment was my refuge; it was gone in a flash, taking my cat with it.</li></ul><p>At 4:49 p.m. on April 3, 2019, my phone rang. It was a crystal clear spring day with gusty winds, and my neighbor informed me that my <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nyc-brooklyn-apartment-rent-renvation-before-after-photos-2023-11">Brooklyn apartment</a> — and home of 10 years — was on fire.</p><p>I bolted from the desk where I <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/i-quit-being-an-influencer-to-enter-the-corporate-workforce-2023-10">worked in marketing</a> for a SoHo startup, breathing in ragged gulps, thinking of my cat Crackers trapped inside. </p><div type="image" title="Brooklyn building" height="3024" width="4032" msid="113698808" hostid="261" sizebytes="1244282"></div><p>Off the train, I jogged up the hill, where I spotted a crowd, eyes to the sky. Thick smoke billowed out of the windows of the six-story brick building, the anchor on the corner since 1931. Sirens wailed as the entire roof and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-not-to-do-in-a-fire-2019-7">top floor turned to ash</a>.</p><h2 id="bd29d7f7-7103-4ff8-a644-f02bafddc7b5">I bought my apartment in my late 20s</h2><p>I <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sunset-park-brooklyn-home-prices-restaurants-tour-2017-10">moved to Sunset Park</a>, a middle- and working-class neighborhood in South Brooklyn, in 2002 while I was in college. It encapsulated much of what I'd left Maine for New York to find: cultural diversity, grassroots activism, vibrant urbanism, and a stunning view of the Manhattan skyline. There was nowhere else I'd rather live.</p><div type="image" title="Home office" height="3024" width="4032" msid="113698815" hostid="261" sizebytes="545080"></div><p>In 2009, in my late 20s, I was able to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-to-do-with-your-money-in-your-20s-2017-4">purchase an apartment</a> in my beloved neighborhood, a privilege I recognize was out of reach for many. When I moved into the junior two-bedroom with original parquet floors and golden western light, I felt I'd stepped into a secure future. </p><p>I held <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/making-friends-as-an-adult-stranger-dinner-party-review-2023-10">dinner parties</a> around the blonde wood kitchen table. I filled the living room with legal education sessions for immigrant neighbors and fundraisers for local organizers. Daily, I sat on the fire escape to admire the sunset. For a decade, the apartment was my refuge, and in a flash, it was gone.</p><h2 id="8a117c13-9476-47cc-9781-a7e3e6664c3f">I cremated my cat and temporarily moved blocks away</h2><p>In the aftermath, I launched into action. I paid $200 to cremate my cat and have her remains delivered to my office in a plain cardboard box. I explained to the gas company why a final meter reading was impossible. I moved into a temporary rental nine blocks away. I spent hours on the phone with my insurance agent, learning the technical meaning of "total loss." I filled out a spreadsheet calculating the value of my destroyed items, soothed by the order of neat lines, columns, and numbers. </p><p>I was grateful for my personal property coverage, but I soon found that many of my neighbors had no insurance at all, and the condo board woefully underinsured the building as a whole. A payment for the full value of our homes was unlikely.</p><p>Once I'd checked all the bureaucratic boxes, I was forced to confront my loss. </p><h2 id="4877f986-6cf6-4a9c-9962-d99d9df0af91">My friends and family supported me</h2><p>While I was sinking into grief, my community threw me a lifeline. Fellow building members shared support and commiseration via group text as we scattered across the city. My parents hastily arranged a visit. Neighbors organized a collective fundraiser and benefit concert. A colleague insisted I couldn't have a new home without books, and mobilized other writers to help me replace my favorites. My old classmate's father sent me a pressure cooker. An ex replaced my gym shoes. Coworkers brought food to my door. The library forgave fines for destroyed books and hosted a communal dinner. At the gathering, Father Kevin, a local Irish Catholic priest who said Spanish mass, gave a blessing for our departed pets. A committed agnostic, I was grateful for this ritual, knowing my Catholic grandmother would have been proud.</p><p>My friends helped me salvage my life so I could look towards what was next. In disposable coveralls, hard hats, and N95 masks to protect from any asbestos from the burnt roof, they carried my father's mid-century desk, crates of records, and a still living fiddle leaf fig tree down five flights of sooty stairs. I swore I wouldn't get another cat, but another found a rescue that resembled the pet I'd lost. A few days later, Biscuit and I stared at each other, wondering what we were both doing in this new living arrangement.</p><p>After the fire, I realized that support comes to us when we need it through the relationships we've built and invested in. Now in my 40s, I've moved to rural Southern California because it's no longer financially feasible for me to live in New York. However, when I think of my Brooklyn home, I don't only see a charred husk or a future I lost, but the web of people that held me and helped me heal.</p>

I lost my apartment in a fire. I learned that community is what makes a home. 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Homebuyers are paying more for smaller homes, per Realtor.com data.</li><li>The median US home size has shrunk by 128 square feet over the last five years.</li></ul><p>The housing market hasn't been spared from shrinkflation, the unfortunate phenomenon of paying more for less.</p><p>Similar to other <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/shrinkflation-grocery-stores-pringles-cereal-candy-bars-chocolate-toilet-paper-cadbury-2021-7">items purchased by US consumers in recent years</a>, homes are rising in price while shrinking in square footage. </p><p>The median-sizes US home has shrunk from 1,996 square feet to 1,868 square feet in the last five years, according to <a target="_blank" href="http://Realtor.com">Realtor.com</a> data. Yet, the median price for a US home has climbed to $429,990 as of August, up 36% from August five years ago, when the median price of a home stood at $315,791.</p><p>Home prices have climbed largely due to a demand outpacing the supply of homes for sale. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/housing-market-home-prices-falling-buying-a-home-outlook-supply-2024-9">Active listings surged 36% last month</a>, but home prices are expected to remain elevated in the near term as easing mortgage rates bring buyers back to market and stoke fresh demand. </p><p>"The specifics will vary from market to market, but the data suggest ongoing opportunity for many sellers," Danielle Hale, Realtor.com's chief economist, said in a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://mediaroom.realtor.com/2024-06-04-Realtor-com-R-May-Housing-Report-Median-Price-Per-Square-Foot-Experiences-Monumental-Rise-Growing-52-7-Since-2019">June</a> note, referring to the rising price-per-square foot of homes for sale. "Though with mortgage rates still much higher than many existing homeowners enjoy, this opportunity favors sellers who don't have to replace a mortgage, such as investors or second homeowners looking for an exit, or equity-rich homeowners looking to downsize in their current area or to a lower-cost region, as well as those planning to rent their next home."</p><p>Here are the five housing markets in the US seeing the worst case of housing shrinkage coupled with rising prices, according to data from the real estate listings site:</p><h3 id="a60ebdce-aa36-460d-a454-b8f62f0c04da">1. Colorado Springs, CO</h3><div type="image" title="Colorado Springs downtown buildings" height="1060" width="2120" msid="113203355" hostid="261" sizebytes="364244"></div><p>Median square footage: 2,351 (-21.19% from 2019)</p><p>Median price: $525,000 (+25.3%)</p><p>Price per square foot: $223.30</p><h3 id="dc3ff7d8-2ad1-43af-9eab-06dd8da6f16b">2. Charlotte–Concord–Gastonia, NC–SC</h3><div type="image" title="Charlotte, North Carolina skyline" height="1061" width="2121" msid="113203357" hostid="261" sizebytes="269560"></div><p>Median square footage: 2,031 (-20.26% from 2019)</p><p>Median price: $441,170 (+23.06)</p><p>Price per square foot: $217.21</p><h3 id="58c50b5b-793b-4173-a31c-3129afe34b09">3. New York–Newark–Jersey City, NY–NY–PA</h3><div type="image" title="New York City, New York skyline" height="1060" width="2120" msid="113203354" hostid="261" sizebytes="389804"></div><p>Median square footage: 1,556 (-19.38%)</p><p>Median price: $789,000 (+34.87%)</p><p>Price per square foot: $507.06</p><h3 id="936eabbb-6e29-4bd8-bb5c-821e0868b2b9">4. Urban Honolulu, Hawaii</h3><div type="image" title="Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii beach" height="1061" width="2121" msid="113203360" hostid="261" sizebytes="295020"></div><p>Median square footage: 1,010 (-18.81%)</p><p>Median price: $725,000 (+3.79%)</p><p>Price per square foot: $717.82</p><h3 id="f44230cc-76f7-4880-a9e1-1ce39b0b3143">5. Hickory—Lenoir—Morganton, NC</h3><div type="image" title="Union Square in Hickory, North Carolina" height="1061" width="2121" msid="113203358" hostid="261" sizebytes="345284"></div><p>Median square footage: 1,920 (-17.67%)</p><p>Median price: $375,420 (+25.56%)</p><p>Price per square foot: $195.53</p>

The 5 markets hit hardest by housing shrinkflation, with buyers paying up for smaller homes

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The US is facing a nationwide housing shortage.</li><li>VP Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have both proposed building homes on federal land.</li></ul><p>America is facing a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/buying-home-not-easier-interest-rate-cuts-prices-rent-crisis-2024-8">severe housing shortage</a>. That's one thing the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates agree on.</p><p>They also agree that the federal government should be a landlord — by opening up more of its property for housing.</p><p>However, their proposals differ. While former President Donald Trump has proposed <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-freedom-cities-build-housing-conservatives-scoff-at-leftist-plan-2023-3">building entirely new cities</a> on federal land, Vice President Kamala Harris would likely continue the Biden <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/policy-and-practice-publication-2024-july.pdf">administration's efforts</a> to open up certain parcels for dense affordable housing.</p><p>Building homes on government-owned land isn't new. State and local governments often lease or sell land to builders, including affordable housing developers, particularly in areas with high demand for homes. </p><p>And out West, the federal government is the major landowner. The feds <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/could-building-on-public-land-address-the-housing-crisis/">own about half of the land</a> in 13 Western states. Many of these states, from <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/housing/welcome-to-las-vegas-housing-crisis-in-2024-3075247/">Nevada</a> to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/2024/03/08/5-numbers-that-show-just-how-bad/">Utah</a>, are experiencing severe housing affordability crises.</p><p>In a rare overlap of goals between the two campaigns, Harris and Trump have both proposed building housing on federal land.</p><p>"It speaks to the underlying agreement over there being a housing supply issue," Matthew Murphy, executive director of NYU's Furman Center, told Business Insider. "And then the following logical question being, what can the government do about it? What are the ways it can intervene?"</p><h2 id="761aedd1-7cbe-4215-960a-54c25c346d79">Low-hanging fruit in the nation's hottest housing markets</h2><p>The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy's Center for Geospatial Solutions <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://cgsearth.org/cgs-who-owns-america-government-land-report">found in a new study</a> that there are about 276,000 acres of underused government-owned land in urban, transit-accessible areas that could be used to build 1.9 million additional homes.</p><p>The vast majority of buildable public land in dense, urban areas is owned by city and county governments. While the federal government doesn't have much prime, vacant land in cities to devote to housing, it has a role to play in providing financial and regulatory support to incentivize state and local governments to make their land available, McCarthy said.</p><p>The report found that Massachusetts and Florida have the most buildable square acreage of any state in the country.</p><p>"What surprised us the most is that actually that land is in some of the hottest housing markets in the country," McCarthy said.</p><div type="image" title="A map of buildable public land in Massachusetts." height="628" width="1200" msid="112948644" hostid="261" sizebytes="25600"></div><p>Local governments tend to be cautious in selling, leasing, or otherwise repurposing the land they own, in part because of anti-development pushback from local communities. But in some states, city, county, and state governments regularly team up with developers to build housing.</p><p>In one case, San Mateo County, just south of San Francisco, leased a parcel of land in Half Moon Bay to an affordable housing developer, MidPen Housing, for $1 a year for 99 years. MidPen used it to build 160 units of new affordable senior housing, now known as <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.huduser.gov/portal/casestudies/study-122419.html">Half Moon Village</a>.</p><p>Because the area has extremely high land values and demand for housing, the fact that the county government owns the land made the project financially feasible. Privately owned land in the city would likely be too expensive for affordable housing to pencil out. And because the county owns the land it has some control over what's on it. In this case, that means ensuring the housing remains affordable.</p><p>"It's effectively a land donation, which helps make the project more feasible, allows us to move more quickly, build the housing more quickly," said Abby Goldware Potluri, a senior vice president and co-head of housing development at MidPen.</p><div type="image" title="A map of underused government-owned land in urban areas." height="912" width="1817" msid="112948638" hostid="261" sizebytes="52930"></div><h2 id="90e58408-27c6-4990-95d7-f7ca2e83d8e5">'Freedom cities' versus affordable housing near transit</h2><p>Trump and Harris couldn't be farther apart on most issues, including the bulk of their housing agendas.</p><p>Harris wants to funnel a lot more federal money into subsidizing first-time homebuyers and affordable home construction, while Trump wants to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/01/business/economy/trump-interest-rates-fed.html">lower interest rates</a>, which presidents don't historically have control over, and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/29/us/politics/trump-suburbs-housing-white-voters.html">protect restrictive zoning</a>.</p><p>While Harris has put forth a plan to construct <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-kamala-harris-plans-to-build-3-million-new-homes-2024-8">3 million additional homes</a> by slashing red tape, Trump has said he'll <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-deport-20-million-immigrants-reduce-home-prices-rents-2024-7">deport millions of immigrants</a> to free up housing.</p><p>Last year, Trump floated a proposal to build 10 so-called "freedom cities" on federal land in the style of a futuristic <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/saudi-neom-first-eco-city-experts-design-architecture-2024-7">Saudi desert city-building project</a> with plentiful single-family housing. Economists and housing experts — and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-freedom-cities-build-housing-conservatives-scoff-at-leftist-plan-2023-3">even some conservatives</a> — have generally dismissed the plan as unworkable or undesirable for political, economic, and environmental reasons.</p><p>Some Republican lawmakers agree that more federal land should be used for homes. Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah has introduced <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.lee.senate.gov/services/files/1581B75E-3A53-44A2-9F1D-E516702DBB9D">a bill</a> to allow state and local governments to buy land from the federal Bureau of Land Management to use for new housing.</p><p>Housing experts generally advocate for denser housing construction, particularly in areas near mass transit. When it comes to federal land, this would mean repurposing property in transit-rich urban areas that happens to be owned by the feds. Think new apartments above post offices, homes where parking lots used to be, and new condos in former federal office buildings.</p><p>In that vein, the Biden-Harris administration has pushed to free up government-owned property for housing. The current administration has <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/07/16/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-major-new-actions-to-lower-housing-costs-by-limiting-rent-increases-and-building-more-homes/">urged state and local governments and other entities</a> — including healthcare institutions and faith-based organizations — to look into whether they could also become landlords. As part of that effort, the US Postal Service is supposed to "pilot the repurposing of certain surplus properties for housing."</p><p>"Depending on which side of the aisle you're on, the nature of the housing you're going to build is going to be quite different," George McCarthy, who heads the Lincoln Institute, told Business Insider. "But finding the land is, of course, issue number one."</p><p>Trump has attacked Democrats for pushing for more affordable, multi-family housing. He's framed the Republican Party as <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-protecting-suburbs-preserving-american-dream-americans/">protectors of single-family zoning</a>.</p><p>Democrats' plan also addresses challenges governments face when trying to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/14/business/sale-surplus-federal-buildings.html">sell or transform</a> underused old buildings or unique structures. It's sitting on <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.route-fifty.com/management/2023/07/federal-government-has-more-8000-vacant-properties-why-arent-they-being-used-house-homeless/388312/">nearly 8,000 unused properties</a>, according to congressional lawmakers. The General Services Administration — the federal government's landlord — has <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/facilities-construction/2023/11/gsa-accelerates-plans-to-offload-federal-buildings-it-no-longer-needs/">listed for sale many buildings</a> it no longer uses nationwide, from a courthouse in Fort Lauderdale to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/11/29/dc-downtown-webster-school/">a historic school building</a> in downtown DC.</p><p>Buyers are hard to find. Sometimes, the costs of repairing the property, particularly those protected by historic preservation laws, are too high. In other cases, it's more expensive for the government to move workers out of a building and prep it for sale than to keep operating a half-empty property. But with the right government incentives, developers could turn property that sucks value out of a community into a boon for residents.</p><h2 id="aac76a0d-817b-4bd1-96a5-0ccbd458c8d5">Boosting housing in a swing state</h2><p>One state with lots of immediate potential also happens to be a key swing state with a particularly severe housing shortage. Nevada is a national outlier when it comes to its government-owned land: <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-nevada/how-much-of-nevadas-land-is-owned-by-the-feds-more-than-you-might-think-3050451/">more than 80% of the state's land</a> is owned and controlled by the federal government.</p><p>The Biden administration has proposed <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/lands-and-realty/regional-information/nevada/snplma/affordable-housing-reservations">selling hundreds of acres</a> of land in Nevada controlled by the Bureau of Land Management to local governments to build thousands of new homes. In <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.blm.gov/press-release/blm-seeks-input-proposed-sale-public-lands-affordable-housing">one proposal</a>, it wants to sell 20 acres of BLM land just outside Las Vegas — priced at $100 an acre — to the county government to use for about 150 units of housing for those who make up to 80% of the area median income.</p><p>"Building towards affordable housing on these lands could have a transformative impact, especially because land costs are a major barrier," Maurice Page, executive director of the nonpartisan Nevada Housing Coalition, told Business Insider.</p><p>But repurposing federal land for new residential communities in Nevada would likely mean more sprawl, which comes with both environmental and economic concerns. The farther people live from their workplaces and other amenities, the more they need to drive, which is expensive and polluting. When building new housing means sprawl, developers have to factor in infrastructure and other costs — and that could start to look more like Trump's desert cities than a climate-friendly urbanist vision.</p><p>"If we build housing, we have to make sure that it can be affordable with the right transportation and other infrastructure pieces being aligned with it, so education, law enforcement, hospitals," Page said.</p>

Thousands of homes on $1 land: The new housing crisis solution sweeping the country

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A new model of public housing is gaining steam among Democratic lawmakers across the US.</li><li>AOC is behind a new bill to create a federal social housing developer.</li></ul><p>All over the country, skyrocketing rents and home prices have made housing one of the most urgent issues facing voters in this election.</p><p>About half of renters <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/half-american-renters-ignore-key-financial-rule-on-housing-spending-2024-9">spend more than 30% of their income on housing</a>, while <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/housing-crisis-homeowners-struggling-mortgage-interest-rates-insurance-home-equity-2024-6">homeowners</a> are facing rising insurance premiums, home repair costs, and property taxes. At the same time, government housing aid for the neediest <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/19/us/politics/housing-aid-rent-costs.html">recently hit a quarter-century low</a>.</p><p>Vice President Kamala Harris has zeroed in on the issue, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-kamala-harris-plans-to-build-3-million-new-homes-2024-8">promising to</a> build 3 million new homes over her first term, send $25,000 in downpayment assistance to first-time homebuyers, and spend billions on housing innovation. But some progressive lawmakers in Washington want to go much farther.</p><p>In September, two Democrats — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota — <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/aoc-democrats-build-european-style-social-housing-lower-home-costs-2024-9">introduced a bill called the HOMES Act</a> that would create a federal housing development authority charged with building and rehabilitating more than a million permanently affordable homes. The housing would be owned and operated by local governments, nonprofits, or some kind of cooperative, and rent would be capped at a percentage of income. The legislation aims to solve the fundamental issue plaguing homebuyers and tenants: a shortage of affordable homes.</p><p>"There has been a lot of talk about building new housing in this country, but too often we don't talk about who will be building that new housing," Ocasio-Cortez said <a target="_blank" rel=" nofollow" class="" href="https://x.com/SenTinaSmith/status/1836472272481386676"><u>last month</u></a>. A spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez didn't provide comment before publication of this story.</p><p>The new developments would be so-called "social housing," which means it exists outside the for-profit market, caps rent at a percentage of income and is owned by the government, a nonprofit, or some kind of cooperative.</p><p>Unlike traditional American public housing, which is usually reserved for low-income families, social housing is intended to be mixed-income. Under the HOMES Act, 70% of a given development's units would be reserved for low- and extremely low-income people, while 30% of homes would be reserved for people making up to the area's median income.</p><p>But some pro-housing policy experts — who subscribe to the YIMBY, or Yes in My Backyard, movement — are skeptical that a federal social housing authority makes sense. They want to see more experimentation at the local level first and don't think many state governments — let alone the federal government — have the resources or know-how to do the work of developers and real estate companies.</p><h2 id="56639616-796e-430b-a657-ba434db7f258">Local and state governments are experimenting with social housing</h2><p>A 2022 trip to Austria changed how New York State Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher views housing.</p><p>Gallagher, a Democrat who represents gentrifying neighborhoods in North Brooklyn, was struck by the stability created by social housing in Vienna. Residents "were not thinking about their rent getting raised. They were not worrying about being displaced and the things that consume New Yorkers' minds," she said.</p><p>So, earlier this year, she introduced legislation to establish a new state housing authority tasked with building permanently affordable housing for both very low-income and middle-income New Yorkers.</p><p>Progressive policymakers across the country, including Rhode Island and Atlanta, are exploring the model, too. California <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB555">passed a bill</a> last year to study the concept. The wealthy DC suburb of Montgomery County, Maryland, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/25/business/affordable-housing-montgomery-county.html">has already built its own</a> social housing.</p><p>In Reno, Nevada, Mayor Hillary Schieve, who's prioritized housing in a state facing a severe shortage, argued that the success of a social housing effort would likely rely on the quality of the local housing authority and the partners it works with. "It just worries me because we aren't developers," she said. "You have to have very knowledgeable people at the table."</p><p>While "high-capacity, wealthy local governments with political will" can make it happen, "Jenny Schuetz, an expert in urban economics and housing policy at the Brookings Institution, said many other localities lack the resources or know-how.</p><p>"The reality is many states and authorities are not going to be interested in building housing themselves," said Shane Phillips, a housing researcher at UCLA's Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies.</p><p>Unlike traditional public housing — which relies on fickle federal lawmakers to supply funding for maintenance and operations — the social housing that US lawmakers have proposed would be funded in part by marketing bonds and operated by a range of local organizations, including nonprofits and tenants unions.</p><p>Schuetz is concerned that co-ops and tenants' unions might not be able to tap the kinds of capital that real-estate companies have access to and that's needed to continue investing in the buildings. Local housing authorities also have limited budgets. "The challenge is always where do you come up with the money 10 years out, 15 years out, when you have real capital expenses?" she said.</p><h2 id="3c31ea6f-abfe-4e31-af57-7237875ee96a">Tricky politics in Washington</h2><p id="e2204244-a8ac-4cf7-97c5-91cb8e177d80">Federally funded public housing has a flawed history. Between the 1930s and the 1960s, the government <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.npr.org/2017/05/03/526655831/a-forgotten-history-of-how-the-u-s-government-segregated-america">reinforced racial segregation</a> by clustering public housing in poor Black and brown neighborhoods, even as it built highways <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/america-highways-inequality/">that tore through those same communities</a>. A lack of ongoing congressional funding meant the housing deteriorated over time, and much has been demolished.</p><p>Over the last several decades, the US has moved away from the tarnished model of publicly built and owned housing and embraced federal subsidies for privately built below-market-rate development powered by the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.</p><p>Under the Homes Act, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development would have to work with states and cities to take on the role of the developer. Schuetz argued that the federal government would have to outsource so much of the work to local governments and developers that a national approach would look pretty similar to the Low-Income Tax Credit model of development.</p><p id="e2204244-a8ac-4cf7-97c5-91cb8e177d80">"Could HUD even hire a team of people who know how to work through the land development and entitlement and construction process in localities around the country?" Schuetz said. "There's a reason we've evolved from public housing to LIHTC."</p><p>Congress would likely not support a federal social housing authority until there is evidence of its success at the state level.</p><p id="cae34282-0875-431d-a722-49db84e5e71e">After states build out their programs, "it's far easier to go back and say, 'Okay, we need a national coordination entity to manage this,'" one national affordable housing expert, who requested anonymity to protect his relationships in Congress.</p><p id="cae34282-0875-431d-a722-49db84e5e71e">Schuetz would also like to see HUD invest in a range of local pilot programs to experiment with different versions of social housing, evaluate them, and then help scale whichever model is most successful. "It's not as headline-grabbing and sexy as a social housing program, but would actually be a lot more effective and more likely to get through Congress," she said.</p>

AOC and progressive allies want the federal government to build over a million homes. Even YIMBYs don't think it's a good idea.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>North American downtowns are struggling as remote work dominates the white-collar workforce.</li><li>A University of Toronto study shows a gradual uptick in <keyword id="21391815" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="downtown-foot-traffic" source="keywords">downtown foot traffic</keyword>.</li></ul><p>As remote work cements its grip on the white-collar workforce, North American downtowns are working to fight off a downward spiral.</p><p>Many are attempting the transition from office-only districts to mixed-use neighborhoods with new residents and businesses. But breathing new life into areas dominated by half-empty office buildings is proving challenging.</p><p>A newly updated report from the <a target="_blank" href="https://downtownrecovery.com/charts/trends">University of Toronto</a> analyzing anonymized cellphone data shows the largest North American downtowns have generally seen a gradual uptick in foot traffic over the past year.</p><p>Many cities are working to turn <keyword id="21391817" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="vacant-offices" source="keywords">vacant offices</keyword> into homes, give restaurants and other businesses tax breaks to move <keyword id="24721" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="downtown" source="Orion">downtown</keyword>, and otherwise turn office districts into vibrant neighborhoods. But it takes time.</p><p>"Downtowns are going through this painful transformation to 24/7 social districts from being office districts," said Karen Chapple, the director of the School of Cities at the University of Toronto and a coauthor of the downtown-recovery study.</p><p>The researchers found that while most cities had seen their office occupancies stagnate, they'd seen an uptick in nighttime and weekend activity.</p><p>"You've got a really striking picture of many cities where weeknights and weekends are completely back to normal, but the overall recovery rate is being dragged down by the working-hour activity, which is still slow," Chapple said.</p><p>Overall, the rate of new downtown activity from March 2023 and February 2024 has slowed and even fallen in some cities. The median rate of change over the year was 9.3%, and 50 of the 64 downtowns saw increased activity, the researchers found.</p><p>"So many of them have just sort of stagnated in their recovery," Chapple said, adding that the data aligned with office-building vacancy rates.</p><p>The University of Toronto researchers, along with the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley, have been <a target="_blank" href="https://schoolofcities.utoronto.ca/downtown-recovery/">analyzing foot traffic</a> since January 2020 to understand how downtowns are coping with the impacts of the pandemic. Chapple said it'd probably take years for many downtowns to attract the numbers they had pre-pandemic. Some probably never will.</p><p>"2022 was a big upswing year," she said. "And then in 2023, that upswing slowed dramatically, and in 2024 it's slowing even more because we've reached what people are calling the new normal."</p><p>Pandemic-induced remote work has exacerbated the decline of many downtowns that were struggling long before COVID-19 hit and threatens to send many others into a so-called "<keyword id="21391814" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="urban-doom-loop" source="keywords">urban doom loop</keyword>." As offices empty and residents leave, experts warn that declines in tax revenue could force the government to cut funding for municipal services such as schools and mass transit.</p><p>Certain downtowns haven't seen much progress over the past year. San Francisco, for example, has kept its spot in last place for downtown activity, seeing a 21.6% decline in foot traffic over the past year. But others — including several <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/midwest-america-cities-downtown-crisis-office-apocalypse-urban-doom-loop-2023-6">Midwestern cities that struggled in the past few years</a> — have seen their activity levels tick up. Minneapolis is ranked in first place: The Minnesota city has seen a 45.3% increase in foot traffic since March of last year. Chicago, Louisville, and Cincinnati are also among the top 10 fastest-growing downtowns.</p>

Many cities are fighting the urban 'doom loop' by turning empty offices into 24/7 social districts

<ul class="summary-list"><li>People living in RVs or cars has surged in Bozeman, Montana, as housing costs have spiked.</li><li>"Urban camping" has made the city's unhoused population more visible.</li></ul><p>So-called urban camping — when people live in RVs or vehicles parked on city streets — has risen rapidly in Bozeman, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/montana-mountain-town-seeley-lake-largest-employer-closes-costs-housing-2024-3">Montana</a>, where locals are getting priced out by rising housing costs that are impacting many communities in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/colorado-ski-town-steamboat-springs-high-housing-costs-2024-3">the West</a>.</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/left-new-york-city-bought-million-home-bozeman-montana-happier-2023-8">Bozeman</a>, located in the Rocky Mountains about 80 miles north of Yellowstone National Park, has a population of around 56,000 people. City officials say the number of Bozeman residents living in their RVs or cars spiked by 200% in two years, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/montana-city-grapples-with-rise-of-unhoused-people-living-in-vehicles">Montana PBS</a>, which cited the city. Since 2020, the overall unhoused population has grown by 50%.</p><p>The rise in residents experiencing homelessness comes as housing costs have spiked. The median listing price for a home has gone from $669,000 at the start of 2020 to $1.2 million in 2024, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://belonging-in-bozeman.hub.arcgis.com/pages/housing">city data</a>. Meanwhile, rental costs in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kbzk.com/news/local-news/gallatin-association-of-realtors-optimistic-housing-market-is-starting-to-change">Gallatin County</a>, where Bozeman is located, increased nearly 19% from 2019 to 2022 and continued to rise, leaving the county with the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.kbzk.com/news/local-news/gallatin-association-of-realtors-optimistic-housing-market-is-starting-to-change">highest rents in the state</a>.</p><p>"Homelessness has always been on the radar," Bozeman Mayor Terry Cunningham told PBS. "This — with urban camping, RVs, more cars — This is a recent phenomenon."</p><p>Though homelessness in the city has been rising since the pandemic, the increase in RVs and campers on city streets made the problem more visible, resulting in tensions over how to address it.</p><p>"First, these folks are our residents too," the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bozeman.net/our-city/city-projects/unhoused-in-public-rights-of-way">city website</a> says when discussing how it's addressing urban camping. "Many contribute to the workforce, send their kids to our local schools, and may not appear 'homeless' when you see them at their jobs and in the area."</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-vrbo-short-term-rentals-bozeman-montana-regulations-bans-2023-6">Bozeman residents</a> are divided over whether the city has been too lenient in addressing the issue. In some locations, the city has installed dumpsters and trash cans near areas with campers to prevent litter and provide the unhoused with a place to dispose of their garbage.</p><p>A group of local business owners sued Bozeman last fall, arguing the city was not doing enough to enforce existing laws that would prevent people from camping on public streets. Business owners say they have dealt with theft, vandalism, and instances of harassment.</p><p>Residents have also complained that some people living in their cars are not doing so out of necessity but just to save money on rent, pointing to the presence of new cars and generators on the some of the campers, PBS reported.</p><p>Mayor Cunningham told the outlet part of the issue is that the city cannot easily determine why individuals are living in their cars or RVs, and people are not required to disclose that information.</p><p>In November, the city implemented an ordinance aimed at limiting urban camping. It prohibits camping at the same location for more than 30 days without getting an extension and also prohibits camping in front of certain places, like businesses and schools.</p><p>The result has been like playing musical chairs, people living in their campers told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, which reported the city has hired three roles to enforce the ordinance.</p><p>"They're making it harder to be homeless. It's already hard enough," Steven Ankney, who lives in an RV with family, told the outlet. "I understand they don't want us on the street, but it's going to happen until they get livable places for us, or affordable houses for us, or places that we can live."</p><p>The city says it is working on bringing more <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/american-moved-to-cuenca-ecuador-cant-afford-move-home-montana-2024-4">affordable housing</a> to Bozeman and is working with the nonprofit Human Resource Development Council to build a 24/7 shelter.</p>

'Urban camping' in this Montana city has spiked 200% as priced-out locals move into cars and RVs

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Kamala Harris says she wants to 'cut red tape' to boost the housing supply and reduce costs.</li><li>There's new evidence out of Zurich that reducing restrictions on housing construction boosts supply.</li></ul><p>As part of her housing policy agenda, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-kamala-harris-plans-to-build-3-million-new-homes-2024-8">promised to</a> "cut red tape and needless bureaucracy" to build millions of additional homes and bring down costs.</p><p>Economists and urban planners say that to make housing more abundant and affordable, we need to loosen zoning regulations in many neighborhoods and legalize the construction of denser, taller housing, such as duplexes, townhomes, and apartment buildings.</p><p>A few countries have already figured out how to do that.</p><p>Zurich, Switzerland offers the latest model. As a small, mountainous country with limited buildable land and high demand, Switzerland has long been sensitive to urban sprawl. Starting in the mid-1990s, Swiss citizens voted to densify various parts of the Canton of Zurich, one of the country's 26 states and home to its biggest city.</p><div type="image" title="Apartment buildings are pictured behind farm houses in Affoltern, just outside Zürich." height="837" width="1280" msid="113149723" hostid="261" sizebytes="224202"></div><p>The canton didn't uniformly alter its zoning laws. The citizens of each municipality voted on various proposals to "upzone" or allow more housing units by loosening zoning restrictions. The process was slow and staggered, and the average upzoning was quite incremental — think of a home with three floors that can add one extra floor. Much of the rezoning took place in neighborhoods surrounding Zurich's medieval city center, which is protected by historic preservation.</p><p>Twenty-five years into this process, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119024000597#sec2">a new study by Swiss researchers</a> has found that upzoning boosted living space and housing units by a significant amount — about 9% in the subsequent five to 10 years — while keeping rent growth under control. The study found that areas that were hungriest for new housing were the most responsive to the policy changes. Areas with high demand, evidenced by high rents and home prices and already constrained by limits on housing, saw the most new construction. And the more density allowed, the more impactful the effect.</p><p>One of the study's key findings is, "if you upzone, upzone a lot," said Simon Büchler, coauthor of the study and an assistant professor of finance at Miami University. "Give people the incentive to build."</p><p>It provides more evidence that supply and demand can be harnessed to keep housing prices in check. Another example comes from New Zealand, where Auckland's upzoning measures legalizing the construction of medium-density housing <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/america-lower-rents-home-prices-build-more-houses-new-zealand-2023-8">slowed down skyrocketing housing costs</a>. And <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w29440/w29440.pdf">a study of São Paulo's upzoning</a> found similarly positive impacts.</p><p>Zurich shows that upzoning is necessary but not sufficient. Allowing for more housing boosts affordability, but it takes time. There are a slew of other necessary fixes to bring housing costs down — from building-code changes to long-term expansion of services, infrastructure, and amenities.</p><p>"People think they're going to upzone and they're going to solve the affordability crisis in a couple of years. They're wrong," Büchler said. "This is a long-term solution, but it is a solution that's necessary and that works."</p><div type="image" title="Homes in the town of Küsnacht on the banks of Lake Zurich in Switzerland." height="696" width="1280" msid="113149727" hostid="261" sizebytes="131134"></div><h2 id="8d4a990d-dceb-46a3-a92c-5f7d590f5db3">Knee-capping NIMBYism</h2><p>There are a few elements of Swiss law and society that make parts of the country more welcoming to development and resistant to NIMBYism, or "Not In My Backyard" anti-development sentiment, that cripples so much new construction in the US.</p><p>Unlike most American cities, Zurich is a society of renters rather than homeowners. More than 70% of households are tenants. While property owners are incentivized to oppose additional housing in their neighborhoods that would boost supply and depress their home values, renters tend to be much more supportive of development that keeps rents affordable.</p><p>It also helps that European cities are generally more accomodating of higher-density living. A whopping <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ft.com/content/dca3f034-bfe8-4f21-bcdc-2b274053f0b5">64% of Swiss residents live in apartments</a>, compared to just 28% of US residents, and the country also has an especially comprehensive and well-connected public transportation network. While Zurich's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.zh.ch/de/soziales/bevoelkerungszahlen.html?keyword=einwohner#/home">population has grown significantly</a> over the last quarter century, European cities tend to have more restrictive immigration laws than their counterparts in Canada, the US, and New Zealand.</p><p>"This evidence from Europe is important as it shows that upzoning can increase supply even in places where density is relatively more common and accepted, and overseas migration is less of a factor," Matthew Maltman, an Australian economist who's closely studied New Zealand's housing reforms, told Business Insider.</p><p>There's also a lot of certainty around how regulations function in Zurich, as opposed to in the US or New Zealand, which include more veto points in the building process, Maltman said. While developers can't apply to local authorities to bypass zoning regulations, local residents also can't lobby to stop a project from happening if it abides by the rules.</p><p>At the government level, municipalities are incentivized to welcome new residents because they disproportionately rely on income taxes for revenue, Büchler noted. Property taxes in Switzerland are very low, so the more density a city or town allows, the more income tax they can collect.</p><p>Büchler plans to investigate how rent changes in Zurich compare with other parts of Switzerland to get a better sense of the price impacts of upzoning. Ideally, deregulating zoning would bring prices down. But Büchler considers it a win that rents were unchanged in Zurich, when adjusted for housing quality, even as the canton's population and demand for housing grew. "It doesn't mean that upzoning didn't help. What it means is that without the upzoning, we would have seen even more rent increases than what we've seen," he said.</p><p>Zurich's example is crucial in informing policy change in places like the US because real-world evidence of the effects of upzoning can help convince governments and voters to act.</p><p>"Economists have argued the case for zoning reform based upon other evidence — usually based upon economic theory or sophisticated economic models," Maltman said. "It can be easier to sell the public on place X implemented policy Y and it had Z effect."</p>

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