How self-built informal housing, has dominated homeownership options ,for low-income households in peri-urban Kenya

How self-built informal housing has dominated homeownership options for low-income households in peri-urban Kenya

Studies on self-built informal housing also known as Informal Homestead Subdivision (IFHS) in peri-urban areas are widely associated with developing countries, a form of housing that originates as illegal occupations on un-serviced plots. In the USA, “informal housing production embraced the trailer homes, with self-help home improvement on developed plots” IFHS are often situated in low-cost land markets and associated with low-income households with an urge to own their own homes, despite the limiting factors associated with accessing financing Ward and Peters (2007). They identify a research gap by stipulating that urban growth into peri-urban rural areas would be an important area for “planning and research in developed and less developed countries”.

These issues are founded on social and economic phenomena of informal housing ownership and its growth in peri-urban rural areas of Kenya. That is what Ward and Peters (2007) describe as low-cost land markets on the urban periphery and very low income households with no access to formal finance.
The phenomenon makes it a vital subject for research and leads to the research questions:
1) How financial factors impact households’ decisions to self-build their homes?
2) How non-financial factors impact households’ decisions to self-build their home?