Abstract
The chapter examines urban housing in Sri Lanka and shows that the housing market is segmented in terms of housing for low- and high-income population. In terms of two affordability indicators: housing cost as a percentage of monthly household income and monthly housing rent as a ratio of weekly household income, low-income households find housing unaffordable. The findings from hedonic rental pricing models provide insights into the manner in which housing characteristics influence rental prices, in different submarkets for urban housing in Sri Lanka. These findings indicate that planning of smaller housing and housing for low-income population should focus on structural characteristics such as floor area, flooring and roofing in an effort to maintain affordability for occupants. On the other hand, planning of larger housing and housing for high-income population, in addition to structural characteristics, location and neighbourhood characteristics need to be carefully considered to ensure the required demand by the target population.
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Notes
- 1.
This estimate is based on an Urban Development Authority definition.
- 2.
8435 out of 91,806 households.
- 3.
Urban housing rent is focussed here due to an absence of data on house purchase values and attributes.
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Weeraratne, B. (2020). Urban Housing in Sri Lanka. In: Bandyopadhyay, S., Pathak, C., Dentinho, T. (eds) Urbanization and Regional Sustainability in South Asia. Contemporary South Asian Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23796-7_8
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