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In the Global North, affordable housing has evolved and thrived, and it is now gaining traction in the Global South, where governments have been vocal supporters of the concept. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the important criteria for selecting affordable housing units in Ghana.

A quantitative research approach was used, and a survey was administered to the residents. The data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The relative importance index technique was used to rank the important criteria, and the EFA technique was used to create a taxonomy system for the criteria.

The hierarchical ranking of the most significant criteria for selecting affordable housing includes community safety, waste management and access to good-quality education. Furthermore, the important criteria for selecting affordable housing are classified into two groups, namely, “sustainability criteria” and “housing demand and supply and social service provision”.

This study has implications for the real estate industry and construction stakeholders, as this will inform decision-making in terms of the design of affordable housing and the suitability of the location for the development.

These findings provide a baseline to support potential homeowners and tenants in their quest to select affordable housing. Furthermore, these findings will aid future longitudinal research into the indicators or criteria for selecting suitable locations for the development of low- and middle-income housing.

Though alternative building technologies (ABTs) have been encouraged to address accessible and affordable issues in low-cost housing (LCH) provision, their adoption is still overwhelmed with encumbrances. The encumbrances that hinder ABT adoption require an in-depth study, especially in developing countries like Nigeria. However, studies regarding ABT and its role in improving Nigeria's LCH to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 are scarce. This research investigates encumbrances to ABT adoption in Nigeria's LCH provision and suggests feasible measures to prevent or reduce the encumbrances, thereby improving achieving SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities).

This research utilised qualitative research and adopted a face-to-face interview as the primary data collection. The interviewees comprised ABT practitioners and end users in Nigeria who were chosen by a convenient sampling technique. The study's data were analysed manually through a thematic approach.

This study shows that stakeholders should embrace ABT in LCH provision to improve achieving SDG 11 in Nigeria. Also, it clustered the perceived 20 encumbrances to ABT adoption in LCH provision into government/policymaker, housing developers/building contractors, ABT users and ABT manufacturers-related issues in Nigeria's context. This study suggested mechanisms to mitigate encumbrances to ABT adoption in LCH provision, thereby improving achieving SDG 11.

This research adds to the limited literature by analysing ABT adoption encumbrances in Nigeria's LCH provision, which could assist policy formulation for the uptake of ABT in LCH provision and improve achieving Goal 11.

Informal housing stands out as a major challenge surrounding the massive reconstruction of Syrian cities, devastated by a bloody war and a terrible earthquake. The purpose of this article is to assess the adequacy of the Syrian Law to adequate provide a solution to this problem.

With the purpose of informing the question, this paper offers a legal-institutional analysis of the informal housing phenomenon and the corresponding regulatory responses in Syria. A literature review is conducted, and functional analysis of the legal texts and their effective implementation is provided.

First, informal housing in Syria has been fostered by the existence of an erratic regulation, particularly burdened by the incoherence of passing repressive provisions against informal housing while master plans were conspicuously absent or incomplete. Second, the regulatory policy seems to be leaning toward the urban renewal option, indicating a supply-oriented housing approach that may face serious challenges due to the scarcity of capital. In this context, regulation should not underestimate any policy tools at hand (renewal and upgrading; with the contribution of public, private and cooperative sectors).

Although there have been several studies on informal housing in Syria, none has taken a legal institutionalist approach. Furthermore, this study offers an up-to-date account of the problem, taking into account the problematic after the 2023 earthquake and the content of Law 2/2023.

This study aims to contribute to the literature on migration by examining the nexus between migration-related fears and housing affordability in France, Germany, the UK and the USA using new datasets for migration-related fears.

This study adopts the feasible quasi-generalized least squares approach wherein a predictor can be isolated in the estimation process. Thus, rather than specifying a multi-predictor model that may also lead to parameter proliferation, a single-predictor model (for the predictor of interest) is formulated while also accounting for other salient features resulting from suppressing other important factors that may not be of interest to the current study. Such salient features include persistence, endogeneity and conditional heteroscedasticity issues.

Overall, the results show heterogeneous responses of housing affordability to migration fears across the four developed countries, as the latter deteriorates housing affordability in Germany and the USA and improves it in France and the UK. Similarly, the GFC makes housing less affordable in all four countries as low interest rate passes the mediation test in the nexus. The results, especially for low interest rates, are robust to different uncertainty measures.

As is often the case with economic phenomena, no single model can capture all the factors influencing an economic variable. Thus, besides examining the nexus between migration fears and housing affordability, the authors also account for the role of GDP per capita, given the influence of population and income dynamics on housing affordability. However, incorporating GDP per capita alone does not substantially enhance the model’s ability to predict housing affordability. Future research should explore additional macroeconomic and social factors, such as human capital development, to further enhance this subject.

The findings have significant implications for policymakers regarding the use of low interest rates to counteract the adverse effects of migration-related fear on housing affordability. Specifically, to mitigate the potential negative impact of migration and the associated fear on housing affordability, monetary authorities could adopt a more accommodative stance on mortgages. By allowing real estate investors to obtain loans at lower rates, this approach would help increase housing supply and reduce the housing gap exacerbated by migration influx.

The values of this study lie in its examination of housing affordability in relation to migration fears from both the demand and supply sides of the market. Furthermore, the analyses are conducted to cover out-of-sample forecast evaluation as in-sample predictability may not guarantee out-of-sample prediction.

This study aimed to identify and assess the barriers to implementing modular construction systems (MCS) in developing country's architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry, targeting built environment professionals from Nigeria and South Africa.

The study adopted a quantitative research method, using a structured questionnaire to seek the opinions of the professionals on the identified categories of barriers.

Results indicated that all identified categories of barriers were statistically significant using a one-sample t-test at p = 0.05 significance level which indicates they are critical towards the implementation of MCS in developing countries. Assessment of the opinion of the professionals using the Kruskal–Wallis scale showed that they hold similar views on the barriers to the adoption of MCS. Pearson correlation shows a high correlation coefficient amongst the barrier categories and an acceptable level of significance (p = 0.05).

This study is limited to two significant African countries (Nigeria and South Africa) selected based on the gross domestic product (GDP). Further studies can consider developing countries outside Africa and investigate broader respondents.

The study provides implications on the barriers affecting MCS in developing countries for the academia, industry and government to have an insight into the barriers and make informed decisions and policies.

The research satisfies the need to study the barriers affecting the MCS in developing countries that can mitigate housing deficits. This innovative construction method has been adopted and implemented in developed countries, and the result has been positive.

Property guardianship is increasingly being viewed as an alternative and, in many cases, a last resort to the unaffordable private rental market. This upsurge in the incidence of guardianship necessarily amplifies the existing legal grey areas and the inherent insecurity and precarity in the sector for guardians. Drawing on interviews with property guardians and archival research, the purpose of this study is to explore the background to the guardianship occupation model; highlight the key problems guardianship generates and, building on this, propose recommendations for reform to the regulatory landscape of guardianship. This study argues that a culture change in property guardianship is needed so that guardians can be better protected, and local authorities empowered to be more proactive in overseeing standards of guardian properties in their areas.

This study draws on qualitative semi-structured interviews with 46 property guardians and archival research.

The author argues that property guardians routinely enter the sector largely as a matter of last resort based on financial considerations or following difficult life experiences. Insecure and precarious, guardianship operates under licence agreements which provide less protection for guardians. Coupled with ambiguity around the application of existing housing legislation to guardianship and research showing non-engagement by local authorities with guardianship, this study suggests regulatory reform is urgently needed.

With traditional residential tenancies in the private rental sector increasingly unaffordable for many and guardianship becoming a viable alternative, this study argues for significant regulatory reform to the guardianship sector to ensure guardians are adequately protected under the law. This study presents a series of proposals to deliver a culture change in the sector.

This paper aims to unravel the puzzle that the United Kingdom’s high-quality government accounting and fiscal architecture is associated with low-quality outcomes, including poor productivity growth, high public debt, public services which do not meet citizen expectations and historically high levels of taxation. It contributes to public sector accounting research in the fields of fiscal transparency and governance.

This paper uses Miller and Power’s (2013) economization framework and Dunsire’s (1990) concept of collibration to explain why being a global leader in public sector accounting reform and in fiscal and monetary architecture has not protected the UK from weak governance. The intersection of economization’s roles of accounting with modes of government accounting clarifies the puzzle.

Whereas accruals government accounting contributes to fiscal transparency, this is not a sufficient condition for well-judged policy and its effective application. Collibration is the dominant mechanism for mediation in the fiscally centralized UK, but it has failed to deliver stable outcomes, in part because Parliament is limited in its ability to hold back inappropriate behaviour by the Executive. Subjectivization has disrupted adjudication because governments at all levels resist constraints on their behaviour, with unpredictable and often damaging consequences.

This paper provides insights through the combined lens of economization and modes of government accounting, demonstrating the practical value of this conceptualization. Although some causes for unsatisfactory outcomes are specific to the UK, there are cautions for accounting and fiscal reformers in other countries, such as Member States of the European Union.

The purpose of the study is to emphasise the urgent need for pension policy reform within Indonesia’s social security system.

The methodology employed in this research includes qualitative techniques such as in-depth interviews and thematic content analysis.

The findings suggest various measures for pension reform, including revising eligibility criteria, adjusting benefit designs to cover housing and transportation costs, promoting Defined Benefit Plans, enforcing compliance, addressing insufficient contributions, advocating for transparency, and aligning social assistance programs with pension system enhancements. However, there is a trade-off between the adequacy of pension benefits and the amount of resources required.

This study is limited by the need for more individuals knowledgeable about pension issues in Indonesia, primarily due to their high-ranking positions, making access challenging and potentially compromising the small sample size in research.

The research underscores the importance of maintaining policy consistency. It proposes a gradual increase in pension contributions as a pivotal strategy to ensure sustained financial security for retirees, particularly in the face of fiscal constraints. Also, the government should undertake comprehensive reforms, encompassing the revision of eligibility criteria, adjustment of minimum benefit designs, encouragement of employer contributions and effective management of compliance issues.

Social implications emphasise the importance of enhancing the financial security of retirees within Indonesia’s ageing population.

The originality and value of the research lie in guiding pension reform from the viewpoint of key policymakers involved in Indonesia’s pension system.