Housing Consumption and Urbanization

Rapid urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa
places immense pressure on urban services to meet the needs
of the burgeoning urban population. Although several
country- or city-level reports offer insight into the
housing challenges of specific places, little is known about
regional patterns affecting housing markets. This lack of
clear knowledge on the relative importance of the factors
influencing households' housing demand in countries in
Sub-Saharan Africa inhibits policy makers, researchers, the
private sector, and development partners from making
informed decisions when addressing affordable housing
provision and the rapid increase in and growth of informal
settlements. To shed light on the contours of housing
patterns and impediments impacting the region's
households, this paper provides a systematic review of
housing conditions in Sub-Saharan Africa. By drilling down
into the housing issues in the region from the perspective
of the household, the paper analyses the trade-offs
households make in allocating their budgets over time to
housing and other amenities and provides a first
approximation at understanding the differences in
households' expenditure patterns and housing decisions
across countries. The findings suggest that rather than
emphasizing policies that purport to increase expenditures
on housing at this stage of development, policy makers in
Sub-Saharan Africa should focus on extending access to basic
services and strengthening coordination between land use
planning and service provision. As incomes increase, this
focus would allow households the opportunity to access
houses that are equipped with basic infrastructure and help
countries move toward better overall quality of housing.