A culturally appropriate and economically sustainable housing delivery system for Malay urban low-income households in Malaysia

The purpose of this research was to investigate the feasibility of utilizing self-help housing approaches to improve the low-income housing delivery system in Malaysia. Squatters were identified as the unit of measurement for the low-income households. Twenty-six independent variables related to housing affordability and self-help issues identified from a review of the literature and questionnaire items used by previous researchers in the field of self-help and mutual aid were analyzed. The main source of data for this research was a face-to-face questionnaire survey of a random sample of 500 married Malay squatter households from 5 Malay squatter settlements in and around the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. A total of 486 responses was obtained. The second source of information was from governmental and private sector publications. As the data obtained were mostly nominal and ordinal scale data, univariate descriptive statistics and non-parametric statistical methods were used to describe, analyze and summarize relationships among the data. Results of the analysis indicated that the current approach of constructing ready-built housing units was not an effective housing delivery system for Malay urban low-income households in Malaysia. The analysis showed that residents of Kuala Lumpur who were rural migrants have greater ability for self-help than those from urban areas. The analysis further confirmed that a greater sense of place, belonging and accomplishment were present when households built their own homes. The principal participant in government and/or formal private sector housing were those who would not live in the constructed housing units while in self-help housing, households who were to live in the housing units were the principal participants. The research confirmed that there was a relatively inexpensive alternative to the provision of affordable housing for low-income households. Malay low-income urban households in Malaysia were culturally able, and economically capable of undertaking self-help housing. Therefore, it was recommended that incremental and assisted self-help housing approaches be formally introduced as an economically sustainable and culturally viable housing delivery system for Malay low-income urban households in Malaysia.