Economic criteria for sustainable affordable housing model

Abstract

Affordable housing and sustainable development are major challenges across the world, including Malaysia. To address the housing affordability issue, the government has provided affordable housing to the citizens. However, the economic sustainability of affordable housing remains questionable. Housing affordability is often defined by house price and household income without considering other criteria that affect long-term affordability. In fact, there are three ways to measure housing affordability, namely purchase, repayment and income. Therefore, there is a need to assess housing affordability by linking it with sustainability issues in order to provide affordable housing that is economically sustainable. The objectives of this research are to determine the economic criteria for sustainable affordable housing and to develop a model known as Economically Sustainable Affordable Housing Assessment Model (ESAHAM). From literature review and focus group discussion, it was found that there are 25 economic criteria for sustainable affordable housing grouped into the three categories of affordability. These criteria were then assigned its relative importance from the perspective of low- and middle-income residents in Iskandar Malaysia, Johor, who were selected by using probability sampling technique. 573 from 1,200 questionnaires were usable for descriptive statistical analysis and Analytic Hierarchy Process. The findings showed that all the economic criteria were important as each had a mean score of more than 3.0. These criteria were then assigned its weights to reflect its contribution to the overall criteria in the development of ESAHAM. Three affordable housing estates in Iskandar Malaysia were selected to test the applicability of the model and it revealed that these estates are economically sustainable. The assessment results showed that ESAHAM is able to measure the economic sustainability of affordable housing. As a conclusion, the findings of this research contribute to the government, policymakers, developers, home buyers and those who are involved in the housing industry by providing a guideline for economically sustainable affordable housing provision and determination.