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Urban population growth has increased housing density, which has expanded the construction of low-cost low-rise residential in urban areas. Good building performance and effective low-cost low-rise residential quality lead to higher user satisfaction and improve building sustainability. This study aims to focus on the factors influencing the sustainability of low-cost low-rise residential in the West Malaysia urban area to assess resident satisfaction.

A mixed-mode approach with both qualitative and quantitative were used in this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 stakeholders to identify the common factors influencing sustainability in low-cost low-rise residential. Subsequently, questionnaire surveys were formed and distributed among building users to determine the satisfaction level with low-cost low-rise residential building performance.

The finding demonstrates that accessibility is the key factor to achieving sustainability of low-cost low-rise residential. The finding also related to the factor that influences both stakeholders and building user satisfaction levels. This study also identifies key areas that require attention to improve user satisfaction with building sustainability and building performance of low-cost low-rise residential.

This study aims to determine stakeholder and building user satisfaction levels in relation to the sustainable building factor. A few indicators have been set up to identify the factors that most influence the sustainability and environment of low-cost low-rise residential buildings. Each subchapter has a few recommendations to improve the performance of low-cost low-rise residential. Each of the factors mentioned is related to social, economic and environmental sustainability. In addition, the study discovered a strong connection between low-cost low-rise residential performance and user satisfaction.

The purpose of this study is to use a lifetime income measure to evaluate the long-run housing affordability for an understudied cohort of households in the literature – the millennials. The authors do this in the context of Malaysia, measuring long-run affordability for four housing types across geographic locations and income distributions.

This study calculates a long-run housing affordability index (HAI) using data on house prices and household incomes. Essentially a ratio of predicted lifetime incomes to house prices, the HAI is computed for four common housing types in Malaysia from 2005 to 2016 and for six states in the country. The HAI is also compared across four income percentiles.

The analysis reveals varying patterns of housing affordability among different states in Malaysia. Housing affordability has declined since 2010, with most housing types being unaffordable for millennial-led households with the lowest income. Housing is most affordable for those in the highest income bracket, although even here, there are pockets of unaffordable housing as well.

Based on the findings, this study proposes three targeted interventions to improve housing affordability for Malaysian millennials.

This study fills a gap in the literature by examining the long-run housing affordability of Malaysian millennial-led households based on both geographic location and income distribution. The millennial population is understudied in the housing affordability literature, making this study a valuable contribution to the field.

This study aims to demonstrate how the process of quality function deployment (QFD) is used to identify the basic requirements of the customers in designing and executing the commercial business center.

This study was considered with the aim of determining the approach of QFD methodology used in the planning and designing of commercial business centers. The methodology used in the study is a customer-driven process that includes customer requirements in each and every aspect of the planning and designing of the project. The main focus of this study is to understand the requirements of the customers and to design and execute a commercial business project.

This study illustrates the quality requirements of the projects that benefit from the QFD process to obtain customer requirements for the planning and designing of commercial business centers. A case study is used to demonstrate the use of QFD process. This helps to explain the effective application of QFD in the planning and designing of business centers and similar constructions.

The planning and designing of the commercial business center using the QFD process were challenging and hence it is limited to the design part. The strategic objectives are not taken into account while performing QFD in this case study and the risk of market research is lacking. House of quality (HOQ) can be too complicated at times; hence, the adaptability in the traditional QFD is lacking. Most of the work in the HOQ matrix is done through subjective evaluation. Therefore, this research is mostly useful for a single party responsible for all phases of the planning and designing of the project.

In the construction industry, the use of the QFD process for project performance analysis and application is restricted. As a result of the scarcity of studies on the planning and design of construction projects, this study on the planning and design of a construction project was inspired.

As public–private partnerships (PPPs) have become preferred and veritable approach to deliver affordable housing, the seemingly lack of understanding of the significant factors that impact on success has become a notable setback. This study aims to delineate significant factors that can support decisions in affordable PPP public housing delivery.

Largely, a questionnaire survey was adopted to elicit insights from practitioners, policymakers and experts to develop an evaluative decision support model using an analytical hierarchy process and multi-attribute utility technique approach. Further, an expert illustration was conducted to evaluate and validate the results on the housing typologies.

The results revealed that energy efficiency and low-cost green building materials scored the highest weighting of all the criteria. Furthermore, multi-storey self-contained flats were found to be the most preferred housing typology and were significantly influenced by these factors. From the model evaluation, the scores on the factors of sustainability, affordability, cultural values and accountability were consistent across all typologies of housing whereas that of benchmarking, governance and transparency were varied.

The decision support factors captured varied dimensions of key factors that impact on affordable PPP housing that have not been considered in an integrated manner. These findings offer objective and systematic support to decision-making in affordable PPP housing delivery.

One of the greatest challenges faced by the 1994 post-apartheid government in South Africa is the housing problem that has persisted for almost 30 years into democracy. Innovation in research and practice is required to address this problem. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned objective.

This paper presents an argument for housing knowledge management as one part of a much larger system of housing provision and critically compares information variations on one hypothetical, low-cost housing unit adapted for varying climatic regions. It aims to enquire if there is an overlap in information.

The findings do confirm a noteworthy overlap in the information of the varying units. Therefore, knowledge management of the information would prove effective and may contribute in part to housing provision.

The study is limited to assessing the information changes made to the contract documentation of the housing unit.

The paper argues that knowledge management of this overlapping information could impact housing provision by providing knowledge power to those affected by the housing problem.

The findings are a unique perspective presented through a knowledge management lens. In addition, the said knowledge management lens provides a platform to raise additional questions. When seeking answers to these questions, it is expected that research sub-themes would be identified focussing further research studies towards finding answers.

This paper aims to help understand how adopting risk allocation criteria impacts the delivery of public–private partnership (PPP) mass housing in Nigeria with the view of promoting the adoption of PPP housing scheme in Nigeria.

The research design adopts the census sampling approach by using well-structured questionnaires distributed to stakeholders involved in PPP-procured mass housing projects, i.e. consultants, in-house professionals, contractors and the organized private sector, registered with PPP departments in the Federal Capital Territory Development Authority, Abuja, Nigeria. Sixty-three risk factors, nine risk allocation criteria and nine project delivery indices were submitted for the respondents to rank on a Likert scale of 7. Two hypotheses were formulated to test whether the risk allocation criteria impacted PPP mass housing delivery or otherwise. The study adopts partial least square-structural equation modeling to model the effect of risk on risk allocation criteria on project delivery indices and risk severity.

The finding shows that project risk allocation criteria have less effect on project delivery indices than on risk severity. The study concludes that risk allocation principles do not directly affect the delivery of PPP-procured mass housing projects. This is evident by the path coefficient of 0.724 values, which is not statistically significant at a 5% alpha protection value. The study concludes that allocating critical risk factors influences the performance of PPP-procured mass housing projects, as the path coefficient of 0.360 is also not significantly far from 0 and at a 5% alpha protection value.

The study is one of the recent studies conducted in PPP-procured mass housing projects in Nigeria owing to the novelty of procurement option in the sector. It highlights the risk factors that can jeopardize the PPP-procured mass housing project objectives. The study is of immense value to PPP actors in the sector by providing the necessary information required to formulate risk response methods to minimize the impact of the risk factors in PPP mass housing projects.

The COVID-19 impact across major sectors did not exempt the low-cost housing (LCH) sub-sector. This may have increased the existing LCH demand-supply gap, especially in developing countries such as Malaysia. Studies showed that government policy (GP) aids in mitigating COVID-19 impact on goods and services, including housing-related issues. However, there is an academic literature scarcity regarding GP on LCH demand-supply gap during the COVID-19 crisis in Malaysia. Hence, this study aims to investigate the moderating effect of GP on the relationship between LCH demand-supply gap and COVID-19 impact in Malaysia.

The research utilised a quantitative method in collating the data from four major cities in Malaysia. SmartPLS was utilised to analyse the usable 305 questionnaires retrieved from respondents. Structuralist Theory supported the developed framework.

Findings show that GP moderates the relationships between the LCH demand-supply gap and COVID-19 impact on Malaysia's low-income groups' (LIGs) homeownership delivery. It implies that the study's findings provide more understanding of issues influencing LCH demand-supply gap in the COVID-19 era via applying GP to mitigate the gap and improve homeownership for the disadvantaged.

The study intends to stir policymakers toward formulating policies and programmes that will mitigate LCH demand-supply gap during the present and future pandemics.

Besides the theoretical value of the developed model, policymakers can use the study's recommendations to mitigate future LCH demand-supply gaps during pandemics in developing countries using Malaysia as a case study.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of financialisation on the changing structure of housing supply in Malaysia. The share of newly launched sub-MYR250,000 houses has been decreasing continuously in the past decade. This implies that housing developers are launching more expensive houses. The greater focus on higher cost housing could be attributed to inflation. But while input cost is rising, the housing sector has also become increasingly financialised. This claim can be supported by the rising share of mortgage and real estate loans in gross domestic product. Financialisation is a process in which the financial sector becomes more dominant relative to the real sector. The extent to which this process is responsible for the changing structure of housing supply in Malaysia is investigated.

A survey of the literature suggested that the decreasing the proportion of newly launched sub-MYR250,000 housing could be result of rising input cost, greater degree of financialisation and changing market concentration. Thus, long-run cointegrating equations were formulated and estimated. These equations linked housing share with financialisation, market structure and input cost. The quantitative and qualitative impact of financialisation on the structure of housing supply is of interest.

The analyses of secondary data suggested that financialisation and input cost did indeed contribute to the decrease in proportion of newly launched sub-MYR250,000 housing. However, the impact of market concentration on housing share was ambiguous. This conclusion survived several robustness checks.

The financialisation of the housing sector implies that developers are increasingly building for profits instead of accommodating the social objective of providing shelter. This result is unsettling because access to adequate housing is a human right. The transformation of housing from the concept of a shelter to a tradable, money-making asset could be a major contributor to the declining housing affordability in the country. Thus, efforts to improve affordability must take account of the effects of financialisation.

An empirical framework for assessing the changes in the structure of housing supply was developed. Existing studies tended to focus only on the volume of housing supply. It is a comprehensive study on changes in the structure of housing supply. Second, while existing studies on the financialisation of housing are mostly qualitative in methodology, this paper offers a quantitative assessment of the financialisation in the housing sector.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the feasibility of mud brick houses as an alternative to the more widely adopted emergency shelters used in war-torn Syria. It focuses on the mud houses’ sustainability, cost effectiveness, cultural preference, income generation and security.

This study uses a qualitative research approach to a single case study. Interviews were conducted with field experts from the Qatar Red Crescent Society and members of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) community living in mud brick houses.

The findings reveal that the utilisation of mud houses is a good alternative in relief efforts. The houses are sustainable and cost-effective, take into consideration cultural dynamics and provide economic empowerment to IDPs. However, the maintenance of mud brick houses turns out to be the largest flaw, and this problem requires further research.

The paper highlights the inefficiency of current emergency sheltering practices in Syria and reveals that tents are not a preferred mode of shelter. It further sheds light on a unique case study in which mud houses were used by an aid and development organisation, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses. This paper contributes to practical discussion and ideation on more appropriate housing for IDPs.

The increasing growth of urbanisation, especially in developing countries, coupled with affordable housing leakages, may thwart achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 (sustainable cities and communities). Studies regarding affordable housing leakages and their aftermath to Goal 11 in one study are scarce in Malaysia. The study investigated Malaysia's low-cost housing (LCH) leakages and their aftermath to Goal 11 and proffered measures to achieving Goal 11 and its targets. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.

The researchers covered four of Malaysia's major cities via a qualitative approach. The study used 40 participants via semi-structured virtual interviews, and saturation was achieved. The study adopted a thematic approach for the collected data and honed them with secondary sources.

Findings group Malaysia's LCH leakages into government/agencies/departments in housing, housing developers/building contractors and client/building owners' root causes in Malaysia's context. It shows a threat from Malaysia's LCH leakages to achieving Goal 11 and proffered measures to enhance achieving Goal 11. Achieving Goal 11 will strengthen and improve Malaysia's many SDGs accomplishments because of their link.

Apart from proffering measures to mitigate long-standing issues (leakages) in Malaysia's LCH delivery from achieving Goal 11, findings will stipulate the accomplishment of other SDGs related to housing delivery.