The credit crunch and global recession have not only wreaked havoc across the housing sector in the UK, but all over the world.

To try to understand why the reversal of the housing and mortgage markets took place, the University of Glasgow organised an academic conference to examine the diverse effects and responses to this event.

The conference took place last month and was attended by delegates from more than 40 countries. Sessions outlined how the downturn has impacted on households, neighbourhoods, cities and nations worldwide and a number of key points emerged.

First, exposure to the downturn varied considerably according to the housing market, tenure structure and mortgage arrangements found in different countries. For instance, while the market decline and the social consequences were considerable in the United States, Ireland and Spain, the experience was milder in Australia and New Zealand.

Second, individual presentations highlighted the extent of housing problems that have been exacerbated by the wider recession. This was particularly evident in the paper on Japan by Yosuke Hirayama, professor of housing and urban studies at Kobe University, including shocking images of large-scale street homelessness and shanty towns in the middle of Tokyo.

Professor Dan Immergluck, of Georgia Tech University, mapped the dynamic geography of repossession in urban America, arguing that as many as 9 million US households will be affected directly or indirectly by the loss of a home.

Third, policy discussions reflected that most countries responded to the housing market collapse by attacking the symptoms of default and construction sector contraction. This is certainly true of the UK and other nations in Europe.

While more thorough than the response to the last boom and bust in the early 1990s, professor Duncan Maclennan, of St Andrews University, argued that these policies have largely failed to address the long-term causes of the instability in housing systems - mortgage markets, housing taxation, supply and insufficient rental alternatives.

Central to the event was the question of what lessons could be learned from the diverse policy responses identified by delegates.

Professor Susan Smith, of the University of Durham, argued for the development of financial products based on house price derivatives, which could be used to offset housing risk. Meanwhile, professor Chris Hamnett, of Kings’ College, London, produced a list of finance and mortgage market regulatory proposals to reduce the risk of future financial disasters.

Professor Kenneth Gibb is head of the department of urban studies at the University of Glasgow

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