Housing market areas and the strategic planning of housing in England

This article examines the experience of operationalising the housing market area (HMA) framework in England and reflects on the value of adopting HMAs in strategic planning of housing. The paper argues that the operationalisation of HMAs in the English regions has been a challenging exercise, but that HMAs have the potential to frame the development of housing market intelligence and to underpin the analysis of housing market functionality at sub-national level. The challenge for policy and practice lies in harnessing this evidence-framing and analytical potential more effectively than has been the case to date.