published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

The concepts and definitions of housing affordability vary depending on the economic and social contexts of specific countries. However, irrespective of the context, housing affordability is not only influenced by the market conditions, but also by the prevailing policy environment, among other social and economic factors. The impact of the supply-side instruments of the policy environment, such as the regulatory regime, on the provision of affordable housing and housing affordability has been widely studied mainly in the context of developed or richer developing countries where strong regulatory and institutional frameworks exist. Little has been done in the context of developing countries with weak regulatory and institutional frameworks. This dissertation pioneers a study of this kind in the context of Bangladesh. It aims to investigate the housing affordability problems of the middle-income groups in Dhaka and to identify the underlying supply-side causes of the policy environment. A qualitative approach is adopted for this research. The social constructivist paradigm combined with the interpretive type of narration has been engaged as the research strategy. Both the ratio and residual-income based approaches of measuring housing affordability are used. Working definitions of housing affordability and income groups are also developed. Primary and secondary data were collected using various approaches such as document analysis, questionnaire survey and interviews. This study reveals that the formal housing market in Dhaka failed to provide affordable housing for the middle-income groups. The price-to-income ratio in Dhaka is one of the highest among the major South Asian cities. The middle-income groups struggle to maintain a minimum standard of living and largely rely on rental housing. However, rents are also unaffordable to them and Dhaka has the highest rent-to-income ratio in Asia. The housing units in the informal settlements could be affordable to them, but their social status inhibits them from living in these settlements. The regulatory and infrastructure development regimes are found to be non-enabling. Existing land-use regulations encourage land hoarding and land value speculation. Despite the weak urban growth control, the land price is very high and the land-supply fails to meet the demand. Further, the planning permission processes for residential development are significant time and cost inflators. Investment on infrastructure is not targeted to facilitate residential land supply. Serviced residential land is expensive due to the short supply of residential infrastructures. Institutionally, the non-participatory mode of governance, absence of a clear line of authority, and poor human resources capacities of the related government organizations are the main underlying causes of the non-enabling performance of supply-side regimes. This study recommends pro-active government initiatives to strengthen the enabling functions of the regulatory regimes. Utilization of planning tools such as planning incentives and mandatory contributions of affordable housing in private housing projects are recommended. Infrastructure investment targeting at facilitating residential land supply is suggested. Institutional restructuring and the establishment of a housing data bank are also recommended. This study enriches the literature related to the impact of the policy environment on housing by widening the debate to cover the developing countries. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

M. Tech. Economics and Finance / The main aim with the current study was to explore the complexity and mobility of rural-urban migration, as well as its relation to the housing crisis and many other rural-urban socio-economic implications in Namibia. The features of rural-urban migration were analysed, alongside the migration processes and socio-economic complications. The rationale with the present study was to identify the factors responsible for the rural-urban migration in Namibia and to investigate migration mobility patterns. In addition, policy implications were explored with the aim of formulating a possible new migration policy, as well as to offer recommendations to protect urban migrants' socio-economic status. Furthermore, the current rural-urban migration patterns and imbalances in housing - which has led to the illegal erection of informal settlements around towns and cities - were uncovered.

The aim of the study is to draw attention to the need for a housing design policy forming part of a comprehensive approach to the totality of production and with an understanding that the production activities of an individual or a society are the principal activities for its existence and development. An additional purpose is to define the necessary conditions for this change in production and to propose a process wherein dialectics will be in inherent part. For this purpose the study approaches the problem from the characteristic features of the physical environment production of a particular section of the community - namely the urban squatters - and establishes the relations between these characteristics with those of production as a whole. This totality - i.e. production as a whole also shows variations from one locality, one community to another and should be considered as feudal or capitalistic, as rural or urban, and as agricultural or industrial. Since these categories are not all exclusive a further conceptualization also becomes necessary. This we find in the concept of mode of production which embodies all variations according to the state of the productive forces and the nature of prevailing social relations which are derived from the production of the society. In other words the products of a society and their production process with its impact on the society are evaluated within a total which is defined as the mode of production of a society. This is done in three parts: in the first a particular case of physical environment production is analyzed. This is the squatter housing areas of Turkey which, although the intention, here, is not to provide a detailed review of squatter housing in all parts of the world, can also be found in the other under developed countries. First these areas are defined by their quantitative and qualitative characteristics characteristics, then they are defined as distinct from slums or rural settlements. Conclusions of this first part are based on the analyses of production relations, social organization and organization for physical environment production. In the second part the process of production is considered as a means for changing various social relations. Firstly the nature of these relations is discussed as an aspect of production in rural and urban societies. Secondly the nature of means in rural and urban contexts is defined with regard to material and conceptual tools of production, and finally the place of production of the environment within the totality of natural and human production processes is described. In the concluding part a summary of the characteristics discussed in the first two parts is followed by a summary of the requirements of a process of change. Then available means are studied as information and production processes, and a proposal is made in view of the afore discussed role of production. Here, one more factor is taken into consideration and it is that the process of production is also a dialectical process and the roles of dialectical relations, cause effect relations, quantity quality relations and contradictory relations should be regarded as the conditions to be satisfied by the proposed process. Finally the whole process is described by means of a model where the feedback and control mechanisms account for the requirements of cause effect and dialectical relations. Then the role of contradictory relations is further developed as a sub-process where the transition from one state to another could be materialized.

published_or_final_version / Urban Studies / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

Abstract not available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.