Review of: "Navigating Urban Housing Dynamics: Exploring the Interplay Between Real Estate Development and Housing Demand in Post-1991 Ethiopia (original) (raw)

Real estate developments and the housing supply issue in Ethiopia - Case studies from Addis Ababa

Zede Journal, 2004

The production of builr up space in urban areas has been transforming from user-producer to a commodified form of production. Kesearch indicates that the manner of production is an indicator of the level of urbanisation of° a country/or a city. Real estate development is a specialised form of builtspace production for sale or rent. In this paper, the awhor has critically reviewed the manner of real estate form of housing development in Ethiopia and has tried to show whether or not the w~ it operates creates access to housing to the low-income group. The author argues that manner of land ownership and its allocation in Ethiopia play a pivotal role in making real estate-developed housing less accessible.

Urban growth and the housing problem in Ethiopia

Cities, 1985

This article briefly examines the pre-1974 situation in Ethiopia and the impact of post-1974 government policies and programmes Implemented In the aftermath of the revolution on urban growth, the structure of the national urban system, and the provision of urban social infrastructure, particularly urban housing. It concludes that, although reforms in rural and urban areas may have brought substantial redistribution of income, the living standards of the urban poor have not improved because of wage and salary freezes, price rises, and shortages of basic necessities such as food, housing and jobs .

AFFORDABLE HOUSING: PRACTICES AND PROSPECTS OF HOUSE SUPPLY IN ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA

The city of Addis Ababa is burdened with both political and socio-economic activities of the country. People are flooding from all over the nation for employment, education, business and other reasons. Providing affordable houses for the rapidly increasing demand has become a challenge. It is demanding a solution more than building houses in the city. Even building houses by itself has its own bottlenecks such as gaps in project management and financial access. The integrated housing development program has brought some important insights. It was successful to some extent of its objectives. However, it lags far behind from the soaring demand of Addis Ababa residents for affordable housing. If continues in the same way or worse, the program won’t be relevant anymore to benefit the poor and even the middle-income community members. The heavy burden of affordable housing provision can never be alleviated by whatever good done in the city. In contrary, the investment in the city is attracting more people and hence more demand, for the vicious circle to continue. Thus, all stakeholders need to assume their responsibility for robust, integrated and nationwide effort, so as to guide urbanization for its optimal benefit. This paper analyzes the practices and prospects of affordable housing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. At the end, it proposed recommendations that are drawn from the research findings.