While most cities in the developing world are undergoing a rapid urbanisation process, they are confronted with a heightened challenge to meet the housing needs of low-income populations. In these cities, millions of urban households are compelled to live in precarious conditions and sub-standard housing structures since they can hardly find better alternative housing that is decent and affordable. In Kigali in Rwanda, the scarcity of affordable housing has turned into a persistent crisis for income-constrained households. This thesis aims to find out how the affordable housing problem is addressed and why responses have been slow even if the government has portrayed the issue as a priority. The literature has mainly focused on describing the local housing needs or establishing links between urbanization trends and housing unaffordability. As a result, this dissertation applies a holistic approach to the affordable housing sector to examine the perspectives of key actors directly affected by the lack of or those involved in affordable housing responses. This way, the specific objectives for the study are to: (1) explore how housing affordability for tenant family households has evolved in recent years in Kigali city, (2) examine key actors in the affordable housing sector and how the underlying institutional framework supports their interests, objectives and strategies for affordable housing provision, and (3) identify institutional constraints hindering key affordable housing providers given the institutional environment.
An institutionalist approach was adopted to guide the empirical study. More precisely, the New Institutional Economics conceptual tools of institutions and transaction costs form the theoretical basis for the study. Given the nature of the study and the research questions it raises, a case study research design was suitable. Kigali city in Rwanda was selected as a holistic single case study to investigate the phenomenon. Empirical data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with key actors in the affordable housing industry, documents and secondary data consisting of two household surveys.
For research objective one, the changes in housing affordability for tenant family households between the 2010 and 2017 periods are analysed. The study found that the share of family households able to afford a standard two-bedroom house unit decreased by 1.1% during the same period considering a 30% rent-to-income affordability ratio. Besides this, the study also found that the share of tenant family households living in overcrowding conditions increased by 9.4% during the same period. Drawing on tenants’ perspectives, the difficulties to secure affordable housing are low income and informal employment conditions, regulatory challenges, and inability to afford and access houses provided under the state-funded affordable housing program.
Concerning research objective two, the key actors, institutions and rules governing affordable housing provision were identified and analysed. The study found that the affordable housing sector attracts multiple actors aligned to the public, private and third sectors. The public sector ensures the industry’s coordination and regulation. In contrast, the private sector leads the building of affordable housing, which is in light of policies postulating the sector as an area with investment potential, yet hardly exploited. However, the state retains a strong influence on decisions thanks to hierarchical governance structures in place. Although policy acknowledges different strategies to deliver affordable housing, private sector-led housing remains the favourite approach by which the government is persuaded to achieve the best possible outcomes. Nevertheless, the disjuncture between policy and reality does not lure sufficient private investments, further undermines some fringe actors and, more importantly, diminishes the prospects of some strategies to have more impact and new solutions to emerge.
Thirdly, the institutional constraints hindering interventions of the key affordable housing providers are examined. On the one hand, formal institutions-related constraints stem from legislations and policies that are either stringent, ambiguous or absent. These affect the smooth running of the housing building process, from registering housing cooperatives, land acquisition, acquiring building permits, and post-construction management. As a result of the above constraints, housing providers encounter different forms of transaction costs during the housing development process, namely: negotiation costs, information costs and enforcement costs that affect private developers, cooperatives, and public and private housing providers, respectively. On the other hand, informal institutions in the form of values and practices held in connection with house building negatively impact the marketability of developer-built houses. In this way, the alienation to single-family detached housing, susceptibility to unfamiliar construction materials, and prevalence of the self-building practice undermine developers’ endeavours in affordable housing provision.
Overall, this thesis offers a fresh perspective about local institutional difficulties in responding to a global challenge of meeting the affordable housing needs of low-income populations. Applying a case study approach with mixed methods in Kigali city, the dissertation aims to contribute recommendations on how affordable housing policy and practice can be improved in other contexts with similar urban experiences and to the scholarly debates on the affordable housing institutions nexus.:Figures viii
Tables ix
Abbreviations xi
Abstract xiii
1 INTRODUCTION AND PROBLEM STATEMENT 1
1.1 Background to the research problem 1
1.2 Problem statement and justification 3
1.3 Research questions, objectives and propositions 12
1.4 Thesis structure 14
2 AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROVISION: A LITERATURE REVIEW 17
2.1 Introduction 17
2.2 Defining affordability and affordable housing 17
2.3 Importance of housing affordability 21
2.4 Factors influencing the affordable housing challenge 23
2.5 Key strategies for affordable housing provision 26
2.6 Summary 42
3 CONCEPTUAL AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 43
3.1 Introduction 43
3.2 Theoretical approaches for housing analysis 43
3.3 Theoretical choice for the study: New Institutional Economics (NIE) 47
3.4 Operationalization of the conceptual framework in Kigali (Rwanda) context 51
3.5 Summary 54
4 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 55
4.1 Introduction 55
4.2 Ontology and epistemological stances of the study 55
4.3 Research design 58
4.4 Data collection and analysis methods 67
4.5 Ethical considerations 73
4.6 Summary 74
5 HOUSING AFFORDABILITY SITUATION FOR LOW-INCOME TENANTS 75
5.1 Introduction 75
5.2 Changes in rental affordability between 2010/2011 and 2016/2017 75
5.3 Perceptions about constraints to secure affordable housing 77
5.4 Discussion 97
5.5 Summary 99
6 ACTORS, INSTITUTIONS AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROVISION STRATEGIES 100
6.1 Introduction 100
6.2 Key actors engaged in the affordable housing sector 101
6.3 Institutional framework for affordable housing provision 127
6.4 Affordable housing provision in policy versus the practice 141
6.5 Discussion 161
6.6 Summary 163
7 INSTITUTIONAL CONSTRAINTS FOR KEY AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROVIDERS 164
7.1 Introduction 164
7.2 Constraints related to formal institutions 165
7.3 Constraints related to informal institutions 187
7.4 Perspectives on conditions to enable affordable housing delivery 191
7.5 Discussion 194
7.6 Summary 196
8 CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 197
8.1 Introduction 197
8.2 Results summary 198
8.3 Research contribution 202
8.4 Implications of the study 205
Bibliography 208
APPENDICES 231
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:82572 |
| Date | 07 December 2022 |
| Creators | Nkubito, Fred |
| Contributors | Müller, Bernhard, Thum, Marcel, Kwaku Ahadzie, Divine, Technische Universität Dresden |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:doctoralThesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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