Modes of housing provision in developing countries

In the face of an estimated one billion people living in inadequate housing conditions in developing countries the need for scaling up housing supply has become an urgent focus of policy debate. To this end the expansion of t he role of the private markets has formed the central thesis of the 'enabli ng strategy' for developing the housing sector as a whole rather than relyi ng on project based approaches such as sites and services and settlement up grading programmes. Policy recommendations emanating from such a standpoint concentrate on adjustments to supply and demand through deregulation and i nstitutional development of the land and housing markets in developing coun tries in order to overcome largely external constraints to a more efficient market mechanism. This conception of the enabling strategy, however, has b een subject to much debate and criticism for its over-concentration on the private markets and exclusion of alternative/complementary modes of housing provision from serious policy consideration. By utilising the structure an d agency approach as its basic methodological tool of analysis this paper p rovides a comprehensive review of the scope and potential of different mode s of housing provision in different contexts in developing countries. There by providing a firm comparative basis for examining the potential for expan ded private market activity. The paper concludes that the severe underdevelopment of institutional capac ities and human and material resources coupled with intricate and complex s ocial, political, cultural and economic interactions between various agents and structures of provision create major obstacles to the efficiency of pr ivate land markets in developing countries. Therefore, while private market s can and should be supported they can not form the focus of the enabling s trategy in most developing countries. Instead, the paper argues for a compr ehensive approach to enabling strategies which combines adjustments to over all supply and demand conditions with the identification and inclusion of d ifferent modes and agents of housing provision in a holistic integrated pol icy. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd All rights reserved.