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This thesis deals with the systems of housing and housing finance around the world with special reference to Lahore, Pakistan. Formal systems are predominantly functioning in the developed countries and informal systems are prevalent in the developing countries. The formal systems are very well established in the developed countries, but help only a fraction of the people in the developing countries. Informal systems of housing finance (such as personal savings, help from the family and friends, rotary credit system and borrowing from private money lenders) are the main source of financing a home in the developing countries and playa minor role in the developed countries. Four case studies of India, Kenya, Turkey and Brazil demonstrate that the formal systems are developing in these countries. Governments in the developing countries are trying to cope with the shortage of housing without viable housing finance systems. This thesis includes an investigation of the housing finance system in Pakistan and the field work looks at how the inhabitants of middleclass areas in Lahore finance the construction, purchase and improvements made to their homes. Households have used both formal and informal methods of saving such as personal savings, money from relatives and friends, HBFC, Commercial Banks, Rotary Credit System, remittances from abroad, also by selling jewellery and other assets, loans from their employers and from private money lenders. The access to the fonnal housing finance system is very difficult and time consuming and the people who borrowed money from this system contribute only a little as compared to the total price of the house. A contributory factor is also the breaking up of the joint family system increasing the demand for housing. The study of nine different middle-class localities in Lahore shows that the existing fonnal housing finance system does not reach the middle classes. The study also establishes that people have enough savings to put towards the deposit for the house and their incomes can support the monthly instalments if a housing loan is available to them. There is need of a viable housing finance system with which savings can be mobilised and then utilised for loans to house purchasers. If the government wishes to ease the housing shortage they should alter the system of land transfer (land registrations) by reducing the taxes which would encourage the market.

This thesis examines low-income housing policies adopted by Developing Countries in the last forty years and compares them with the economic development models implemented in these countries. The study argues that the changes in the housing policies adopted are a part of the general debate about the dualistic nature of underdeveloped economies. An attempt is made to place the issue of housing within the formal/informal and petty commodity sector polemic. The potential and limitations of Self-Help Principal of Housing as a concept and its practicalities are discussed. The centrepiece of the concept, that the users (in this case, the urban poor) are the best judges of dwelling requirements and that they strike a balance between their resources and their housing priorities, is seen as portraying only a partial view of the argument. Low-income earners are not only consumers but also producers of housing and most of the problems they face while housing themselves in the city are related with the production process of housing. Within this general context, attention is focused on the production process of low-income housing, and its relationship with the construction sector, the real estate market and the construction labour market. This study investigates the low-income housing production process in Lahore, Pakistan. A historical-structural approach is used to review the state of the local economy, the role of the urban poor and the low-income housing policies of the state. It is seen that the homelessness of the poor has become a major political issue and that Pakistani politicians try to gain popular support by offering token concessions to squatter households. The investigation into the house and land exchange process, type of building materials, and kind of construction labour used by the low-income households shows that the low-income housing production process, found to be existing in Lahore, is highly dependent on the formal sector of economy. The prospects of resolving the issue of housing the poor in Developing Nations, like Pakistan, by pursuing the housing policies based on the Self-HelpConcept, are limited. The ability of the urban poor to build their own dwellings rests on the access which they have to income-earning opportunities. Policies, therefore, should be framed to increase their employment opportunities in various sectors of the economy

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This thesis examines tile development of the urban housing. market in Britain during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During this period it was transformed from an essentially laissezfaire market based on private landlordism to one in which state housing and owner-occupation came to dominate the provision of new accommodation . The thesis looks in some detail at the form this transformation took and examines how and why it occurred . The pre-1914 structure of housing provision - which was based on private landlordism - was a small scale, localized system involving numerous actors within a fragmented social division of labour. This dominant structure of provision underwent a severe crisis during the Edwardian years - before the introduction of rent controls and state housing . The 1914-18 war saw a transformation in social relations within the housing market that ensured both the collapse of private landlordism and the intervention of the state in housing provisions After the war, two ' new structures of provision emerged involving a rationalized social division of labour and a larger scale of operations, based. on state housing and owner-occupation. ýLt the same time , the second-hand housing market was transformed: from 1915 much of the pre-war stock of dwellings was subject to rent and mortgage interest controls, while many landlords began to sell their dwellings to owner-occupiers. While many of these developments were a reflection of changes within the wider economy and society) the transformation was both accelerated and in part shaped by the effects of the 1914-18 war

On 4 February 1976 the Federal Military Government of Nigeria promulgated Decree No. 6, initiating the removal of the national capital from Lagos to Abuja. Thus Nigeria followed Brazil, Botswana, Malawi, Pakistan, and Tanzania to become the most recent developing country to arrange for a transfer of its centre of government. Abuja is now a city of 60,000 people where the citizens experience considerable crowding especially in public housing estates. Occupancy rates of three people per room are now the norm. Recent setbacks in oil revenues and soaring trade deficits have slowed down the overall construction programme of the Federal Capital and have led to a lack of new houses to relieve the growing congestion. The water and sanitation services can be seen to be severely overused especially in areas outside Phase One and there is an evident need for urgent action in housing supply. Policies developed by John Turner and others, and adopted by International Agencies, have been used in some African cities to secure substantial increases in housing stock through self-help both for new building and for improvement of existing housing environments. Through an examination of traditional Hausa culture, which can be seen to have survived almost intact to the present day, it was found that most of the assumptions which underlie such policies as slum upgrading and site and services are absent from, or in conflict with, Hausa culture. An advocative strategy has been developed which attempts to avoid the problems imposed by the sacral nature of housing and to benefit from the resources which are present in the culture and in the present characteristics of Abuja. It is aimed at providing a hospitable environment in which the more prosperous low-income households will be encouraged to build houses for themselves and some tenants. The existing Local Government Authorities in the Federal Capital Territory would be involved in planning and implementation, the economic potential of rental housing would be restored and the building of compounds in traditional materials would be encouraged.

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