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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Mia, M.A., Zull, E.I. (2020). Housing Affordability: Measurements and Trends. In: Leal Filho, W., Marisa Azul, A., Brandli, L., Gökçin Özuyar, P., Wall, T. (eds) Sustainable Cities and Communities. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95717-3_89
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