scholarly journals Renting shacks: Landlords and tenants in the informal housing sector in Johannesburg South Africa

Urbani izziv ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 25 (Supplement) ◽  
pp. S96-S107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Gunter
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Housing Sector ◽  
Informal Housing

Poor housing, good health: a comparison of formal and informal housing in Johannesburg, South Africa

2011 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
pp. 625-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thea de Wet ◽  
Sophie Plagerson ◽  
Trudy Harpham ◽  
Angela Mathee
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Informal Housing

Measuring the housing sector’s contribution to GDP in emerging market countries

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Acolin ◽  
Marja Hoek-Smit ◽  
Richard K. Green
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Market ◽  
Housing Price ◽  
Community Resilience ◽  
National Account ◽  
Housing Sector ◽  
Informal Housing ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Emerging Market Countries ◽  
Housing Services ◽  
Housing Investments

Purpose This paper aims to document the economic importance of the housing sector, as measured by its contribution to gross domestic product (GDP), which is not fully recognized. In response to the joint economic and health crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an opportunity for emerging market countries to develop and implement inclusive housing strategies that stimulate the economy and improve community health outcomes. However, so far housing does not feature prominently in the recovery plans of many emerging market countries. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses national account data and informal housing estimates for 11 emerging market economies to estimate the contribution of housing investments and housing services to the GDP of these countries. Findings This paper finds that the combined contribution of housing investments and housing services represents between 6.9% and 18.5% of GDP, averaging 13.1% in the countries with information about both. This puts the housing sector roughly on par with other key sectors such as manufacturing. In addition, if the informal housing sector is undercounted in the official national account figures used in this analysis by 50% or 100%, for example, then the true averages of housing investments and housing services’ contribution to GDP would increase to 14.3% or 16.1% of GDP, respectively. Research limitations/implications Further efforts to improve data collection about housing investments and consumption, particularly imputed rent for owner occupiers and informal activity require national government to conduct regular household and housing surveys. Researcher can help make these surveys more robust and leverage new data sources such as scraped housing price and rent data to complement traditional surveys. Better data are needed in order to capture housing contribution to the economy. Practical implications The size of the housing sector and its impact in terms of employment and community resilience indicate the potential of inclusive housing investments to both serve short-term economic stimulus and increase long-term community resilience. Originality/value The role of housing in the economy is often limited to housing investment, despite the importance of housing services and well-documented methodologies to include them. This analysis highlights the importance of housing to the economy of emerging market countries (in addition to all the non-GDP related impact of housing on welfare) and indicate data limitation that need to be addressed to further strengthen the case for focusing on housing as part of economic recovery plans.

JEFFREY A. NEDOROSCIK, The City of the Dead: A History of Cairo's Cemetery Communities (Westport, Conn.: Bergin and Garvey, 1997). Pp. 140.

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 574-575
Author(s):  
Camilla Gibb
Keyword(s):  
Housing Sector ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Housing Crisis ◽  
Informal Housing ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Dead ◽  
A Site ◽  
The City

Jeffrey Nedoroscik's book is a sensitive sociological survey of life in Cairo's City of the Dead, where more than 500,000 people are now enlisted to reside. In an attempt to both demystify and account for this phenomenon, Nedoroscik argues that life in the City of the Dead is as old, and as rich, as life in Cairo itself. Today, residence in and among the family tombs stretching across some five square miles at the base of the muqattam Hills, constitutes an informal housing sector that has developed as a response to Cairo's severe housing crisis. Historically, though, the cemetery also teemed with life as a religious center housing some of the Muslim world's most important monuments, and a site of temporary and permanent shelter to relatives to the deceased, guardians of tombs, itinerants, the poor, the sick, Sufis, and other religious leaders.

scholarly journals Helicopter-based censusing of domestic dogs in Gauteng Province, South Africa

2000 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
B.K. Reilly ◽  
F. Van der Vyver
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Decision Support ◽  
Domestic Animals ◽  
Domestic Dogs ◽  
Gauteng Province ◽  
Informal Housing ◽  
Density Estimates ◽  
Precision And Accuracy ◽  
Veterinary Epidemiology

Decision support in veterinary epidemiology often depends on density estimates of domestic animals. These estimates are usually based on ground surveys of various types. Ground surveys are difficult to undertake in the informal housing settlements that are frequently encountered in developing countries. In addition, they are time-consuming and expensive. In this study, field experience in enumerating wildlife from helicopters was used to count domestic animals in Gauteng Province, South Africa. Data for domestic dogs are analysed for precision and accuracy and the technique evaluated in terms of its value for decision support.

scholarly journals Risks Induced by Lithuanian Housing Policy for the Youth Living in the Private Rental Sector

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 454-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rasa Indriliūnaitė ◽  
Apolonijus Žilys
Keyword(s):  
Housing Policy ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Value Orientations ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Housing Sector ◽  
Informal Housing ◽  
Private Housing ◽  
Peculiar Case ◽  
Demographic Features ◽  
Housing Units

Rapid expansion of welfare state model and persistent processes of housing sector commodification are corroding the stable social security net and transforming the structure of housing sector at the same time. The growing private rent sector becomes a desirable option for those households which struggle to acquire housing in private housing sector. Lithuanian private rent sector is a peculiar case because the rent segment is poorly regulated and the practice of informal rent is widely spread. Even the general official framework of Lithuanian housing policy considers private rent sector an economic activity, but not the residential one – the rent is legally treated as just a contract between the renter and the tenant. The study aims at showcasing the situation of Lithuanian youth (18–35 yr.) who rent housing units privately, and their attitudes towards private rent sector. The analysis presents the differences in socio-demographic features and value orientations among young tenants and home-owners. The article describes several profiles of young tenants: they usually live in more compact housing units and are more likely to be single or cohabitate with a partner and without any children. Important feature of Lithuanian private rent sector is a quite short residential period, and the fact that the majority of young tenants have not declared or registered rented housing unit as their primary place of residency. Young tenants are more anxious about their liability to the renter, but not about their rights as the tenants. More than one quarter of young tenants participate in informal housing rent sector, only about half of young tenants have legal contracts with renters. All these features of the private sector allow concluding about the rent sector’s ambivalence or existence of various levels of residential security for young tenants.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ppaa.17.3.21958

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