Increasing available housing options

Most urban housing markets are unbalanced in the sense that few families have much choice over the kind of housing they occupy. Those who are too poor to pay rent are forced to share with kin or adopt extra-legal forms of obtaining accommodation, such as squatting. Even among the middle class there may be little real choice over location or tenure. In the absence of satisfactory rental accommodation, new households may be forced into sharing homes with parents. A well-adjusted housing market offers the chance to rent or to won, to live near the central city or in the suburbs. Relatively few third-world housing markets offer an adequate range of choice.