A review of sustainable affordable housing: Issues and challenges

Abstract

Sustainability has been a significant concern in development and construction upon the rising environmental issues around the globe. As such, efforts have been made to come up with sustainable construction via the invention of sustainable housing. The sustainable concept is extended to housing as demand for sustainability development for energy saving. However, high prices of houses have been denoted as an issue in the housing industry. As conventional development is already associated with high costs and high prices, houses with sustainable features are offered and sold at even higher prices. This worsens affordability, which is already a problem in Malaysia. This paper explores sustainable affordable housing via a combination review of issues and challenges. This investigation sets to accomplish two objectives. Firstly, it includes studying issues concerning sustainable affordable housing. The second objective covers a detailed identifying the challenges of implementing sustainable affordable housing and gaps of this area of study around the globe. This paper structurally investigates the literature from valid databases and eminent journals from 2004 to 2018 in matters related to issues and challenges sustainable affordable housing. As very limited work has been carried out in the areas of issues and challenges of implementing sustainable affordable housing, this paper fills this knowledge gap in the context of a structured review. The findings of the research are critically discussed in light of the literature. In conclusion, the commitment of an organization or construction industry and the government will lead to actions that will accelerate the move towards sustainable development of the housing sector, especially affordable housing.