Encouraging self-building of houses

All cultures have over time developed their own adequate and affordable housing solutions. Most often these solutions have utilized local indigenous building materials to the maximum and require little, if any, housing finance. Land used to be abundantly available, the people themselves mastered the traditional construction methods and were also able to maintain their shelter. Settlements developed on sites where water supply was guaranteed and where involvement in various productive activities provided for the settlers' basic needs.

Governments can influence the construction sector through the enactment and enforcement of building codes and planning legislation that encourages self-help building. Outdated building codes, often inherited from the colonial era, hinder technological innovations and crucial new housing construction. In many countries, only the top 10 percent of households can afford houses that meet local building codes.

Where most houses are built from earth, there is a need to prepare an illustrated Earth Building Code (following the example of India, Australia, Mexico and many States in the USA) to improve the quality of earth-based building materials and to guide artisans, contractors and self-help builders in the construction process. Similar handbooks have been prepared for the use and manufacture of other locally available building materials, such as bamboo, stone and timber. This, in addition to simplifying cumbersome bureaucratic procedures for obtaining building permits, could stimulate housing construction undertaken by the small-scale contractors and self-help builders.

As security of tenure has proven to be the best impetus for self-help housing construction, governments should increase the supply of serviced land. To this effect, governments can crate land banks, streamline acquisition procedures, ease leasing conditions, and update land cadastres and taxation systems. To reduce the price, instead of providing "fully serviced" plots, municipalities could offer land that is only serviced with minimum utilities. There is a need to develop innovative solutions and appropriate designs for small plots, thus reducing the development costs for land and overall development costs.

Training is one of the key factors for the success of self-help building. Lack of "know-how" and building skills is often a major obstacle confronting self-help builders. Therefore, there is a need to reinforce and build up local capacity in self-help building. training of local builders should combine theory, experimentation and practice through the actual implementation of small-scale housing and community projects.

Self-building also creates employment because it depends on high labour input. In Dandora, Nairobi low-income residents employed an average of 8-9 construction workers, 76 percent of whom were paid. Almost 75 percent of the total Kenyan population living and working in rural areas have dwellings built by themselves individually or collectively on farms and settlement schemes using locally available materials and resources.