As with Latin America and Africa, the number of urban residents is fast expanding in Asia. Asia is also home to the largest concentration of poor people in the world (Chapman et al, 1999; Montgomery et al, 2001). About a quarter of the total urban population in Asia is living below the poverty line although the proportion may be higher in some countries. India and China each holds about a third of the region’s urban population with many living in relative poverty (Jacquemin, 1999). Of the 12 million people in Mumbai, for example, about 50 per cent lives in slums, dilapidated and on pavements. In the extreme, they join the number of homeless people, estimated to be in excess of 100 million in the world (UNCHS, 1999). In one recent estimate, Asia alone will need to invest a sum of US$280 billion a year over the next 30 years to meet the basic needs of the population in housing and other urban sectors (Brockman and Williams, 1998).