Low-Cost Housing Policies and Constraints in Developing Countries
There is broad consensus on the fact that housing has central importance to everyone’s quality of life and health with considerable economic, social, cultural, and personal significance.
The way in which housing is produced and exchanged impacts development goals as well as environmental sustainability and the mitigation of natural disasters.
The design of dwellings and neighborhoods reflects and protects important elements of values and culture.
The important role of housing production in employment generation, particularly for unskilled labor, is recognized globally.
Despite considerable progress has been achieved in developing countries in the past two decades in low-cost housing policies formulation, facilitating a shift of the public sector’s role to strengthening enabling strategies and focussing on the utilization of the potential and capacity of informal sectors.
There is a widening gap between low-cost housing policies formulation and the implementation process and the status of low-income housing delivery is far beyond being satisfactory.
There are many constraints to low-cost housing. Lack of effective implementation strategies, poor promotion of security of tenure, inadequate supply of affordable land and infrastructure, inadequacy of housing finance systems, poor utilization of local building materials and technologies.
Lack of support for small-scale construction activities, inappropriate standards and legislation, inadequate participation of communities in shelter development process and support to self-help, lack of focused research and experimental projects, and poor utilization of research findings, are among such major constraints.
UNCHS (Habitat) is contributing to the implementation of the Habitat Agenda’s specific goal of “Adequate shelter for all” by undertaking diverse activities in the fields of knowledge creation, facilitation of information and experience exchange, awareness raising and advocacy, low-cost housing policies formulation and advice, and technical cooperation.
A great majority of these activities focus specifically on the needs of low-income and other vulnerable groups and in this context related to low-cost housing.
Also Read: Low-Cost Housing for Lig Case Study