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Housing Affordability: Measurements and Trends

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Sustainable Cities and Communities

Definitions of Affordable Housing

One of the most frequently used terms in the era of rapid urbanization is perhaps “affordable housing.” However, to date, there seems no universally acceptable definition of affordable housing that exists among the academicians and practitioners. The concept of affordable housing can be relative (housing affordability through history) and subjective (classic assumption of individual with their rational self-interest) at the same time (Cai 2017). The term is very much contingent to economic development and income levels; hence, it does not have any uniform definition worldwide. Affordable housing in the ambit of wider meaning could constitute homes that are affordable to the maximum demographics, which indicates various levels of income groups. However, affordable housing concept has been defined in many ways based on various classifications, and they range from relative, subjective, purchase affordability, repayment affordability, and income...

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Acknowledgments

Part of the report was produced when the first author was doing internship at the Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines, in 2017. The first author also acknowledges support from his supervisors (then) Navendu Karan and Bruno Carrasco for their valuable comments and suggestions.

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Correspondence to Md Aslam Mia .

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Mia, M.A., Zull, E.I. (2020). Housing Affordability: Measurements and Trends. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A., Brandli, L., Özuyar, P., Wall, T. (eds) Sustainable Cities and Communities. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71061-7_89-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71061-7_89-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71061-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71061-7

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Housing Affordability: Measurements and Trends
    Published:
    14 January 2020

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71061-7_89-2

  2. Original

    Housing Affordability: Measurements and Trends
    Published:
    15 October 2019

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71061-7_89-1