Mixed-Tenure Development: Literature Review on the Impact of Differing Degrees of Integration

Mixing tenures in new developments, although complex in implementation, can be boiled down to mixing market housing (bought, sold and leased on the open market) with subsidised housing of various types. Mixing tenures is typically used as a proxy for mixing household income groups. And, more broadly, is underwritten by a higher order objective of mixing social groups. Social mixing is, necessarily, impossible to guarantee through tenure mix. Neither market nor subsidised tenures necessarily reflects the diverse spectra across which communities can be measured – whether by age, ethnicity, household type, education, cultural interests, and so on. Market conditions and neighbourhood contexts affect the mix of occupants of market housing. And, although potentially shaped more deliberatively, subsidised housing occupant mix is affected by objectives other than social mixing (like housing seniors on a limited fixed income, for example). Despite these limitations, mixing tenures goes some way to redress the ‘business as usual’ development processes in large metros, which have tended to lead to a higher degree of socio-economic segregation. And, as such, mixing tenures is seen as an important planning policy, contributing to a range of desired outcomes