Assessment of low-cost housing provision as government social responsibility towards achievement of sustainable development goal 11: stakeholders' perspective

Ebekozien, A; Aigbavboa, C; Thwala, W D; Samsurijan, M S; Hafez Ahmed, M A; Aliu, J and Adekunle, S (2025) Assessment of low-cost housing provision as government social responsibility towards achievement of sustainable development goal 11: stakeholders' perspective. International Journal of Construction Management, 25(7), pp. 802-812. ISSN 1562-3599

Abstract

Studies show that the government's role can improve low-cost housing (LCH) to achieve SDGs linked with housing. LCH provision as a government social responsibility to achieving Goal 11 may raise critical issues in Malaysia. Therefore, this study investigated the factors hindering Malaysia's Government from providing LCH as a social responsibility to achieving Goal 11. The research adopted a qualitative approach via phenomenology. It covered four major cities in Malaysia and achieved saturation at the 35th selected participant. Findings reveal that housing provision for all Malaysia's low-income earners (LIEs) is an issue. The complexity of the problems, such as government inadequate funding, housing market financialisation, faulty LCH registration system, LCH high development and construction cost, under-declaration of household income by an unqualified person, LIEs collateral lacking, inability to provide 10% down payment, reluctance by mortgage institutions to lend loans to LIEs, entitlement syndrome, and inadequate LCH data sharing between federal and states governments may hinder Malaysia's Government alone from LCH provision as a social responsibility to the low-income groups. Findings show that achieving Goal 11 may be threatened if these issues are not addressed and suggest measures to improve LCH to achieve Goal 11 via all-inclusive mechanisms.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: government; low-cost housing; Malaysia; social responsibility; sustainable development goal
Index terms: sustainable development goal, qualitative approach, complexity, mortgage, social responsibility, phenomenology, income, low-income group, housing, low-cost housing, funding, critical issue, housing provision, construction cost, Malaysia, household
Subjects: housing and residential development, financial and cost management, construction type, economic analysis, health safety and environment, risk assessment, sustainable design, Geography, research methods, methods and analysis, systems engineering, demography
Topics: Construction Technology, Risk Management, Engineering Principles, Urban Studies, Sustainability, Health and Safety, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Cost Management, Geographical Context
Descriptive scope: 4 PCTA

N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here