Understanding Affordable Housing in the Context of Sustainable Development

Abstract

Looking at dictionary definitions of affordable, it is common to find entries such as "that can be afforded," "believed to be within one's financial means" (dictionary.com), "having a cost that is not too high" (merriam-webster.com), "inexpensive; reasonably priced" (oxforddictionaries. com), or "you have enough money to buy it/the financial means for it" (vocabulary.com). However, when talking about affordable housing, the connotation changes, and it usually makes reference to housing for a particular segment of the population: "housing that is not too expensive for people of limited means" (merriam-webster.com). There is no common definition of affordable housing, and the existing ones use a variety of indicators that often combine the person or household income and the house price. Differences appear between countries too, with the UK, for instance, considering a house is affordable if to pay for it, in mortgage or rent, you do not need to dedicate more than 35% of the household net income (Bibby 2015). In Australia, on the other hand, that threshold is set at 30% (New South Wales Government n.d.). Those figures are indicative and many other variables and ways to measure and define affordable housing exist. This piece of work intends to make a contribution to clarify the existing information available to the public on this matter.