Assessing the factors affecting rental housing: a case study of Lucknow city

Abstract

As with growing population the need of infrastructure is also increasing. And considering the infrastructure like water demand, electricity, land, etc. housing demand is also increasing. As per the statics it can be seen that a significant amount of residents in the cities and towns are tenants. In developing and developed countries it can be seen that millions of people prefer to stay in a rental unit rather than owning a house. The reason may be different for different people. For low income group of people the affordability’s the issue, as they can’t afford to buy a new house, so until they improve their financial condition they prefer to live in rental units while the recent urban migrants usually prefer to stay in rental units that are situated near the central part of the city or town, which gives them flexibility, then there are young people who value mobility so they usually shift from place to place. And individuals mostly have other priorities rather spending their money on accommodations. In India currently the major supplier of rental housing is individual home owners only who provide some part of the house which can be a room or a floor in exchange for market rent. In India Rental housing is neglected while the government is highly involved in promoting home ownership under various schemes. As per the “A policy guide to Rental Housing, UN HABITAT” “governments pretend that they can achieve homeownership for everyone, this is neither achievable nor desirable” The choice of rental housing varies from person to person as per their preference. There are several factors that affect the rental units, like location of house with respect to the workplace, Size of the unit, Quality of the house, availability of services and amenities in the area, Socio economic condition of the household. So, in this study three wards are selected on the basis of highest percentage share of the households living in rental units and the highest percentage of slum share in one ward as the major requirement of rental housing from Government side is from Economically Weaker Section of the society. The Data was collected through primary surveys using Random Sampling Method. iv The socio economic assessment has been done as different socio economic group of people prefer different types of housings. So their space use pattern, monthly rent, quality of housing has been assessed. And the factors have been divided into sub parts to detail out the determinants of rental housing. The variables are divided into two parts dependent and independent variable. As the dependent variables are those variables that depend on other determinants which is Rent, while the Independent variables are things that when it varies it affects the rental price which includes several determinants like, Income, quality of available infrastructure, Size of the unit, Number of Rooms, Floor level, Separate Toilet facility, separate kitchen, Construction Material of the house, Distance to nearest amenities and services. Thus to find out how these dependent and independent variables are correlated with each other and at what degree. As these determinants will help in figuring out at what factors the government should look into details in order to find the best suitable locations and provide quality affordable rental housing to them.