Housing and City Planning MSc

The Housing and City Planning MSc is for urban professionals and graduates from the fields of planning, property, architecture and project management looking to specialise in housing development.

About the course

Shelter is one of the most basic human needs, but the provision of that shelter - ie the development of enough housing of the right type and quality, in the most appropriate locations - is a challenge that few, if any, governments in the developed world have fully addressed.

Planning systems do not always direct new housing to the right places, and the old housing that societies inherit (or even the new housing that is being built) is only very rarely as good as it could be.

The quality of housing development needs to be judged against several key benchmarks. Housing must:

• Be part of the solution to the environmental challenges that all societies face
• Contribute to a sustainable future
• Be delivered in a way that contributes to achieving social justice
• Be accessible and affordable
• Satisfy basic human requirements - it must have the potential to function as a home.

In response, the Housing and City Planning MSc brings together three critical perspectives in three linked streams on the housing question, examining how planning policy and practice contributes to the wider environment for development, how housing development is financed and managed, and how new housing may have a lighter environmental footprint, and older housing retrofitted to lessen its impact.

Our three critical perspectives are:

• Planning for Housing examines the role and nature of planning through application to housing development. In this stream we explore the the potential and shortcomings of planning in delivering development, initially through a wide-ranging overview of the sector, and subsequently through engagement in a live project.

• Sustainability and Design examines the sustainability of homes themselves and housing within its broader design and built environment context. The first half of this stream deals with sustainability in new-build housing, extending to a consideration of sustainable neighbourhoods and cities, linking therefore to the planning for housing core theme. The second half deals with low energy housing retrofit, recognising that it is existing homes and buildings that have the greatest capacity to contribute to future energy use and carbon reductions.

• Development Economics and Project Delivery is concerned in its first part with the financing and economics of speculative development (as a central plank of housing delivery), and in the second half with the management of the delivery process.

Our course examines development from multiple perspectives, examining its regulatory context, seeing it as a project (large or small) to be financed and managed, and viewing it also as an opportunity to contribute to broader environmental and social goals through good design. We aim to provide you with a rounded perspective on housing development, imparting a critical understanding from planning, design and project-management perspectives.

Upon completing the Housing and City Planning MSc, you will be able to demonstrate your ability to work within the regulatory context, and develop realistic proposals for housing development that are feasible in terms of policy compliance and financing. You will also develop an in-depth understanding of housing design and retrofit and be able to relate these to the management and financing of projects.

Why choose to study housing and city planning at The Bartlett?

We offer you:

• An opportunity to acquire a broad range of skills and knowledge, while setting foot on the path towards specialisation
• A principle- and theory-driven course giving both conceptual understanding and the skills needed to tackle practical problems
• The Bartlett, UCL’s Faculty of the Built Environment, has been ranked #1 in the world in the Architecture and Built Environment field in 2023, according to the QS World University Subject Rankings. 
• UCL is ranked among the top 10 universities worldwide for the 12th year running, in the 2024 QS World University Rankings and has been named The Times and Sunday Times 'University of the Year' 2024.

Who should apply?

We welcome applications from urban professionals and graduates from the fields of planning, property, architecture and project management who are looking to specialise in the area of housing development.

Apply now

Course structure

Read more about our core modules

• Planning for Housing: Process (15 credits)
• Planning for Housing: Project (15 credits)
• Sustainable Housing Design: Principles (15 credits)
• Low Energy Housing Retrofit (15 credits)
• The Economics and Finance of Housing Development (15 credits)
• Management of Housing Projects (15 credits)
• Dissertation in Planning (60 credits)

Read more about our topics to help you specialise through your studies

In addition to the range of optional modules on offer across The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment (subject to availability), you can use your optional modules to specialise in subject areas offered by the The Bartlett school of Planning in more depth. Our specialisms operate best in module pairs, but many of these modules can also be taken as standalone units. 

Our specialism topics at The Bartlett School of Planning include:

Infrastructure Planning:

This specialism consists of two modules addressing the question 'what constitutes a successful infrastructure project, programme or plan'. The first module 'Infrastructures as Agents of Change' defines the characteristics of infrastructure projects, programmes and plans of various kinds and examines their roles as agents of change. It encompasses an understanding of past perspectives of the role of such investments and investigates 21st century perspectives in a context of global interdependencies of economic growth and environmental impacts as sustainability concerns loom large as key challenges. The second module 'Critical Issues in Infrastructures Funding, Finance and Investment' focuses on issues that cross all infrastructure sectors in the developed and developing world. It examines challenges seen to be critical to sustainable investments. While not exhaustive, the module examines the: role of PPPs, impacts of corruption, ‘Section 106 & Community Infrastructure Levy, Property value uplift and Tax Incremental Financing and impact of fiscal devolution.

Investigating Urban Transformation in Historic Cities: 

This specialism provides interdisciplinary theoretical and practical tools to investigate the context and dynamics of urban transformation in historic cities. The two modules, 'Planning Discourses for Historic Cities' and 'Planning Practices in Historic Cities', analyse planning processes - both discourses and practices - used to conceptualise and regulate the rate and direction of physical change in historic urban environments. The specialism is open to students from different backgrounds and Masters programmes who are passionate about querying the complexities of urban conservation and development from different perspectives (research, policy, design and practice).

Planning for Housing: 

This specialism examines the context for and process of residential development in the UK and is divided into lecture-based and project-based components. The lecture-based component, 'Planning for Housing: Process', begins by looking at the drivers of residential development including the demographics of growth. It considers who provides housing and at the evolution of the UK policy context and its current objectives. The component then looks at the residential development process from strategic and development planning, land acquisition to the occupation of homes under different tenure arrangements. The lecture programme is divided into three parts: concerned firstly with broad perspectives on housing growth, policy and planning; secondly, with housing providers, processes and delivery; and thirdly, with critical debates and outcomes today. The project-based component, 'Planning for Housing: Project, challenges students to apply and extend their knowledge of development drivers, actors and practices to real-life housing development opportunities in London. Via small group organisation, students will co-ordinate the completion of a comprehensive feasibility study and housing development brief for a specific site. Groups will be allocated strategic mandates reflecting the current policy context and objectives explored in 'Planning for Housing: Process' and will then plan, design and initiate the implementation of a development scheme from a selected development actor perspective, reflecting tenure, design, and organisational intentions. Schemes will be collectively proposed and managed and then presented by each team to an audience of peers, staff and relevant experts in the field.

Planning for Sustainability, Climate Change and Inclusion Planning for Urban Design:

This specialism looks at the inter-related themes of sustainability and inclusion. In the term one module 'Planning for Sustainability and Inclusion', a variety of conceptual issues surrounding the governing process for achieving urban sustainability are examined alongside the challenges involved in defining and achieving inclusion in the planning process. Students then have a choice in term two. If they wish to focus more on environmental sustainability and, in particular, the climate emergence, they can take 'Sustainability, Resilience and Climate Change'. If they wish to delve further into the problematics of inclusionary planning, they can take the 'Participatory Urban Planning Project'. Both of the term two modules take the form of a project, pursued through teamwork and in collaboration with external stakeholders.

Planning for Urban Design:

This specialism considers design across a range of different scales of operation, from those dealing with settlement form, to those dealing with land use mix, to those concerned with detailed design and individual site layout and comprises 'Urban Design: Density and Form' and 'Urban Design Governance'. To that extent planning is undoubtedly a design discipline and planners need to be aware of, and be concerned with, the design consequences of their decisions on the ground. To explore this role, the Urban Design Specialism is divided into two parts, reflecting the two primary means through which planners engage in urban design – first as members of collaborative design teams, who critique and advise on design proposals, and second as policy and guidance writers. Part one examines the design process through analysis, critique and the generation of alternatives for site-specific design projects. Part two addresses the process of design guidance writing and implementation.

Smart City Theory and Practice:

Run by UCL’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), these modules give you an introduction to the theory and science of cities, and technological perspectives on ‘smart cities’. Term one deals with more general perspectives on cities developed by urban researchers, systems theorists, complexity theorists, urban planners, geographers and transport engineers will be considered, such as spatial interactions and transport models, urban economic theories, scaling laws and the central place theory for systems of cities, etc. Term two then looks more specifically at the development of smart cities through a history of computing, networks and communications, of applications of smart technologies, ranging from science parks and technopoles to transport based on ICT. The course will cover a wide range of approaches, from concepts of The Universal Machine, to Wired Cities and sensing techniques, spatio-temporal real time data applications, smart energy, virtual reality and social media in the smart city, to name a few. Overall, students will develop a critical approach to more technological and quantitative understandings of the development and management of cities.

Sustainable Development Themes and Goals:

This pair of modules is concerned with sustainable development in relation to the theory of urban development and spatial planning practice in cities associated with sustainable development goals. The first module 'Sustainable Urban Development: Key Themes' focuses on sustainability debates and literature, with a specific focus on cities. The second, 'Sustainable Development Goals and Spatial Planning', explores how the Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are implemented at the local or municipal level in cities.

Urban Regeneration:

This specialism is concerned with innovation, urban and regional economic development and regeneration and comprises two modules – 'Urban Regeneration: Urban Problems and Problematics' (term 1) and 'Delivering Regeneration Projects II' (term 2). The issues are analysed in the context of development economics, the new space economy, the agglomeration of innovative high-technology industries, the concepts of the innovative and creative milieu and emerging forms of urban governance. These analyses are brought to bear on project work, which allows for the examination of the relationship between those broad trends and specific local contexts and processes. The specialism comprises 2 modules: the first focuses on the theoretical framework for the understanding of the spatial and socio-economic dynamics of contemporary cities, the second is structured around a project in which students are invited to apply the theory and develop their own strategies for the regeneration of a locality.

Please note: Whilst you are free to take any optional modules from across the Faculty, with the consent of module coordinators, it is important that you agree your choices with the Programme Director for the MSc Housing and City Planning. 

More details of these modules can be found in the UCL module catalogue.

Please note that the course structure and list of modules given here is indicative. This information is published a long time in advance of enrolment and module content and availability are subject to change.

Field trips

Our course also includes a residential field trip during which themes relevant to the course are explored in different place contexts. This is an opportunity for our students to consider built environment issues in real world settings and network as a course community. The cost of travel and accommodation for the field trip are covered by UCL although students will need to cover meals and other personal expenses.

Careers and employability

We prepare our students for careers in planning practice and housing delivery through our introductions to research skills. We help our students develop and test these skills through the completion of a dissertation which demonstrates independent thinking and working.

Graduates of the Housing and City Planning MSc have been very successful in gaining subsequent employment, and at present there is a growing demand for our master's graduates from a wide range of both public and private employers, with our graduates particularly pursuing careers in local and central government planning, and planning-related consultancies in the sectors of housing and transport, planning urban regeneration, and environmental agencies. Graduates of our course have also gone on to take up roles in teaching and research. 

Staff

Programme Director

Dr Iqbal Hamiduddin
Director of Housing and City Planning
View Iqbal's profile

Teaching staff

Professor Nick Gallent
Professor of Housing and Planning
View Nick's profile 

Professor Ben Croxford
View Ben's profile