Rental Housing: An essential option for the urban poor in developing countries

A large proportion of residents in cities and towns of developed as well as
developing countries are tenants. Despite this, the number of governments
actually trying to support rental housing development is rather small. Multilateral
agencies are little better. Although some agencies at least recognize the
importance of the rental housing sector, the majority are mostly remiss and
virtually never mention rental housing nor develop loan programmes to
encourage it. In 1989, a meeting of experts organized by UN-HABITAT concluded
that governments should review their housing policies and devise
appropriate strategies for rental housing which remove biases against nonowners.
Unfortunately, little has actually happened since, and recognition of
the important role played by the rental sector still constitutes the greatest hole
in many national housing policies.

This neglect of rental housing has, however, not been wholly uncontested.
A number of studies have appeared over the last two decades and, during the
1990s, a number of researchers argued that greater attention should be paid to
the rental-housing sector.

This report does not make an attempt to claim that renting is anything but
a partial answer to the housing problems that so many people in so many
human settlements both in developed and developing countries are facing. Nor
does it deny that rental accommodation is often inadequate, or contest that
many of the buildings in which tenants and sharers live would fail any
conscientious housing inspection. The report is in fact pragmatic rather than
visionary. Governments should not close their eyes to reality. They should not
perpetuate the myth of the achievability of universal homeownership. Instead,
they should accept that millions of households live in rental housing and that at
some point in their lives most people need rental accommodation. Governments
should thus modify the regulatory framework, develop credit programmes and
other forms of assistance to support housing production, with a view to creating
more rental housing and to improve the existing stock. To put it directly, many
politicians should change their attitudes regarding current housing policies, and
should try to do something practical to help those members of their society who
live in rental housing, as well as the ones who can provide those dwellings.

This report is published as a part of the Global Campaign for Secure
Tenure, one of the main advocacy instruments of UN-HABITAT towards the
implementation of the Habitat Agenda. The report’s argument for a balanced
view on the security of tenure for tenants as well as for landlords is an
important aspect of the Global Campaign, as well as an essential factor towards
the realization of target 11 of the Millennium Development Goals: “By 2020, to
have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million
slum dwellers.” An appropriate level of security for both tenants and owners is
in fact an essential requirement for the progressive realization of the right to
adequate housing.