ABSTRACT
The disparities of housing experiences in the UK over the last decade, together with a dominance of market-orientated housing policy, has fuelled both policy and academic interest in exploring housing markets. For policy makers and practitioners, guidance has been published instructing local authorities on how to undertake local housing market analysis to direct resources and rectify any apparent imbalances (see for example CLG, 2007; O’Sullivan et al., 2004; PTZ Peida Consulting, 2004; Welsh Assembly, 2002). Policy approaches to market analysis seek to provide an overview of a range of sociodemographic and socio-economic population profiles and their possible relationship to local housing costs and stock. However, there remains some concern regarding these overly data-driven quantitative approaches (Cole ampentity Nevin, 2004). Cole et al. (2003) suggest methods have paid insufficient attention to dynamic change within markets, and concentrated on obtaining ever-greater quantities of data without a suitable framework to aid the interpretation of this information. In addition, Cole et al. suggest that there has been an over-reliance on mapping and an adherence to a model of housing markets that is insensitive to local context. Recent guidance has gone only a limited way in rectifying these issues with its dependence on a myriad of secondary data sources (CLG, 2007).
