Understanding Affordable Housing Compliance: Trends and Policies

Housing, especially the affordable form, is a problem that touches on the lives of millions of people around the globe.

National and local administrations, United Nations agencies and those forming public policies are still trying to contain measures to ensure sufficient shelter with affordable costs.

Traditionally, affordable housing is housing for sale or rent for which median-income households can reasonably spend no more than 30% of their income.

But, the policies and measures for maintaining affordable housing are different in every country of the world.

This blog looks at major affordable housing compliance issues and developments in various parts of the world as well as understanding how various nations are dealing with this important subject.

1. Affordable Housing Compliance in Developed Nations

Across the world but specifically in the developed countries of the west, affordable housing is subject to public policies, incentives for the private sector and legal barriers to inhibit development violence on occupants.

These policies deemed to offer and sustain the housing stock that is accessible to low and middle-income people through provision of subsidies or tax incentives.

United States:

The United States has both federal, state, as well as local programs that are aimed at making affordable housing compliance.

Probably the most famous of this kind is the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) where the government provides credit to the private developers who produce cheap houses.

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is also important in giving subsidy to low income families through Housing vouchers. Others include find and include; axial zoning, which requires that developers include a number of cheap homes in their new projects.

But even with these measures in place, various city still struggles with options for affordable housing, mainly because of cost of land, increments in the rates of property and increase in demand for the houses especially in the urban areas, which contribute to gentrification.

European Union:

Particularly in European countries, there are observed certain differences in the contribution of the affordable housing policies for public housing.

Both Germany and Netherlands have had the tradition of offering social housing units which are owned and controlled by the government or other nonprofit making organizations yet they are let out to low income earners at relatively cheaper charges.

Social housing is also import in European Union and EU provides funds to the member countries through European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for affordable housing.

Sweden and Finland are sometimes described as the most advanced because their housing policies fully correlate public ownership of housing, rent controls and long-term strategic plans to provide long term affordable housing.

2. Affordable Housing Challenges in Developing Nations

Challenges that developing nations face in relation to affordable housing compliance are not the same.

The challenges include high population density, high growth rate of urban population, and most importantly inadequate capital to support construction of affordable houses.

Even in these regions most governments fail to adopt policies that will offer much-needed succor thus leading to formation of more and more of slum or informal sectors in housing.

India:

The government of India has initiated several programs for addressing the affordable housing problem based both on urbanization as well as the rural population.

The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) has major objectives of constructing affordable homes for the urban and rural poor under the title of ‘Housing for All by 2022’.

This is in the form of loans to beneficiaries, and in other ways it seeks to encourage developers to construct affordable dwelling units.

Nonetheless, the execution of the strategy has been overwhelmed by factors such as delayed schedules, gaps in funding, bureaucratic complexities, which hinders the achievement of envisaged goals.

However, acquiring land and providing the required infrastructure also continue to be major challenges towards affordable housing compliance in India.

Brazil:

Brazil also has positive policies aimed at towards increasing affordable housing; Minha Casa, Minha Vida (My House, My Life) which has effectively delivered millions of homes to the low-income populace.

Nevertheless, controversy over the construction, quality, and inadequate complementary infrastructure in some of the developments has been cited as a major setback to the success of the exercise.

In addition, factors like skyrocketing property prices in the core business areas and lack of appropriate legal means for housing have remained a major factor that has hampered the development of sustainable housing policies.

3. Innovative Approaches and Future Directions in Affordable Housing Compliance

Globally, there is emerging a number of strategies as far as policy compliance for affordable housing is concerned.

All these approaches are centered on low cost, sustainable provision, and accessibility in the long run.

Public-Private Partnerships (PPP):

Among them the most promising is the role of Public Private Partnership (PPP) experienced a stable increase during recent years.

These relationships mean that the risk and the resource are shared between governments and private developers hence producing affordable housing projects at an affordable cost.

For instance, South Africa has adopted PPPs in affordable housing projects due to the country’s worst housing backlog but while doing it the government set principles enshrined under PPP acts.

Sustainable Housing Models:

Besides, the issue of economic rationality, many countries can speak about environmental sustainability.

More affordable housing compliance now integrates green building standards, which save the cost of energy for low income earners, and are important for climate mitigation.

For instance, energy-efficient architectural designs and installation of efficient sources of power and light in society’s housing projects has made Singapore an example of a sustainable city.

Rent Control and Tenant Protections:

Only some areas of the world, mainly European, are concentrating on the Justice regulation measure predominantly concerning rent levels.

Germany and France for example have placed policies in place whereby rent prices can only be reviewed sporadically hence extending the time in which their citizens can afford housing.

Moreover, robust tenant protection laws guarantee that persons occupying affordable housing units have secure occupancy rights to deny eviction right by force.

Conclusion

Adoption of affordable housing compliance continues to be a big issue globally, however, effective policies, multi-stakeholder approach and increasing attention to sustainable solutions have been developed.

Whereas developed countries continue to sharpen their policies in form of regulations and incentives to developers, the developing countries are responding to housing deficits through highly centralized large-scale public housing initiatives.

The prospective future for building affordable homes is to take the clues from the past as well as embrace the innovative off-the-shelf solutions that will consider the economic as well as environmental impacts.

Also read: Private Capital for Affordable Housing Development: Getting to Scale