Affordable Condominium Housing

Both the general public and policy makers see home ownership as a major life goal. Owning a home is a form of capital that creates a social safety net (Elsinga, 2005; Moser, 2009). Home ownership can also help boost self-esteem and contribute to housing satisfaction (Elsinga & Hoekstra, 2005; Ma...
Ausführliche Beschreibung

Both the general public and policy makers see home ownership as a major life goal. Owning a home is a form of capital that creates a social safety net (Elsinga, 2005; Moser, 2009). Home ownership can also help boost self-esteem and contribute to housing satisfaction (Elsinga & Hoekstra, 2005; Marcuse, 1972). In South America, owning your own home is a way to ensure basic economic security and is a dream shared by everyone. For this reason, large-scale investments are needed in owner-occupied homes for low-income buyers. A different light is shed on this dream however when it becomes clear that the quality of subsidized property for low-income groups is subpar due to poor maintenance and buildings quickly deteriorate. This occurs in Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador (Paquette-Vasalli & Sanchez, 2009; Rodriguez & Sugranyes, 2005; Rojas, 2010). Most studies into housing quality and poor maintenance have been conducted among single-family homes owned by individuals. In South America, especially in cities, low-income homes are usually apartments. This means ownership is shared with other building residents. Most maintenance-related issues occur in joint ownership properties and there is little literature available on this topic. The aim of this study is to gain more insight into how homeowner’s associations work in low-income owner-occupied apartments. When parts of the residential buildings such as the ground on which they are built and the infrastructure are joint property, then a homeowner´s association is necessary to keep maintenance of the common property parts. The lack of maintenance of these communal areas is a problem of increasing proportions, which has prompted this research. Which factors play a decisive role in how homeowner’s associations function and how building maintenance is organized, how important is the horizontal property law and how does this affect low-income housing policy in Colombia and Ecuador? This PhD dissertation consists of three components: Part 1 presents the research question, the theoretical framework and the research methods. Part 2 discusses the formal institutions (the rules of the game) involved: housing policy and the property law. Part 3 discusses the informal rules which include the cooperation between professionals and the interaction with residents (the play of the game). The summary includes conclusions and implications for follow-up research and policy. Theory and research methods Comparative housing research can serve multiple purposes; for example to evaluate policy and perhaps implement policy that has been successful in other countries. This dissertation is based on a comparative study of two countries and uses the “middle range approach” as discussed in Haffner et al. (2010). With this approach, the assumption is that institutional differences between countries are of crucial importance, but that a comparison is worthwhile and may prove beneficial. This dissertation has a comparative structure that takes institutional differences that are important to home ownership of low-income families into account (Elsinga, 1998; Oxley, 2001; Ruonavaara, 1993; Stephens, 2011). The central hypothesis is that the design of the horizontal property law is of great importance to the effectiveness of homeowner’s associations and maintenance levels of buildings and homes. A comparison of Colombia and Ecuador, neighboring countries with similar housing systems and cultures but different horizontal property law, is a good way to test this hypothesis.  The horizontal property law or law for condominium form of ownership is a formal institution. Formal institutions, together with the informal institutions such as values, determine the rules of the game for actors. (North, 1994:360). This institutional approach is beneficial to studying the functioning of homeowner’s associations. In the further elaboration of the research framework, Ostrom´s (1990, 2005) institutional analysis and development framework (IAD) was used as a starting point.  The Institutional Analysis & Development (IAD) framework makes it possible to analyze the actions in a complex situation and to map the multiple positions of actors. The IAD framework distinguishes three groups of important factors: characteristics of the community, the rules used and the physical characteristics of the common property (Ostrom, 1990, 2005). An important assumption is that actors are not necessarily selfish and rational. Another assumption is that people are not by definition helpless and unable to work together. The Ostrom approach provides researchers with a framework for mapping out the potential contributions of a community. This framework provides good leads for the analysis of the central problem in this dissertation: poor maintenance in collective homeownership. The first part of the analysis focuses on the formal institutions: the housing policy and horizontal property law (Rules of the game). Policy documents and available statistics were studied in the analysis of housing policy. Subsequently, the property law in Colombia and Ecuador were subjected to a thorough analysis of the law. The focus was on the regulations in the law that support self-government or instead stipulate the role of a professional to be in charge of management and maintenance A network analysis was then applied to study cooperation among the professionals involved in the provision of low-income housing in condominium. This analysis involved professionals from the municipality, developers, property managers, banks and social workers in Quito and then Bogota. These analyses were conducted using focus groups. The main focus during the discussion was the recognition of the problem of poor maintenance, an analysis of the possible causes and an exploration of possible solutions. The network approach appears to be useful because it shows that there is complexity and a large degree of interdependence among actors.  The analysis of the role of the residents was identified with a survey among 414 residents of 8 different housing complexes with low-income condominium housing. It involved 4 blocks from different construction years in Quito and 4 blocks from different construction years in Bogota. The questionnaire distributed among residents was inspired by Ostrom’s IAD framework. The “mixed method” approach was necessary to map the interaction between formal and informal institutions. This approach is the result of the choice for a “middle range” approach that distills the similarities and differences between two cities/countries with different institutions. The aim is to learn lessons that can lead to improvements in the maintenance in homeowner’s associations for low-income households. “Rules of the game” In both Bogota and Quito, the majority of households live in owner-occupied dwellings, mostly apartments in condominium. The government housing policy in both countries mainly consists of subsidizing owner-occupied homes for low-income households. The description of the housing policy shows that building homes is a complex affair that requires a great deal of cooperation between parties including local governments, developers, the land registry, funding bodies and the national government as the subsidy provider. Finally it appears that the registration of the policy outcome gives incomplete information for policy evaluation. In practice, homes that are built are registered as single units when they are actually part of housing complex in condominium.  The horizontal property law plays a key role in how homeowner’s associations function. The law defines which actors are responsible for the management and maintenance of the shared property. Research has revealed that there are key differences between the laws in the two countries. In Colombia the law stipulates that the first assembly meeting of the homeowner’s association must be called by the builder. In Ostrom’s words: Colombia has embedded a collective choice-rule in a constitutional one. This concerns a clear and unambiguous anchoring of the body most important to how a homeowner’s association functions. In Ecuador, the law does not provide a definitive answer on when a homeowner’s association should be established. In practice, it turns out that it’s usually up to the project developer to make this decision. Another important difference between the two laws is the responsibility for the management of the homeowner’s association. In Colombia, the law stipulates that this must be organized by a professional and paid manager of the homeowner’s association, whereas the law in Ecuador is more flexible and it allows for the position to be filled by a volunteer or paid position if the association can afford it. “Play of the game”  In both Bogota and in Quito, professionals have indicated that in the realization of owner-occupied apartments for low-income families, they depend on the local gover... Ausführliche Beschreibung

Autor*in:	Rosa Elena Donoso Gomez [verfasserIn]

Format:	E-Artikel
Sprache:	Englisch ; Niederländisch

Erschienen:	2018

Schlagwörter:	Ecuador housing condominium

Übergeordnetes Werk:	In: A+BE: Architecture and the Built Environment - Delft University of Technology, 2012, 8(2018), 23
Übergeordnetes Werk:	volume:8 ; year:2018 ; number:23

Links:	Link aufrufen Link aufrufen Link aufrufen Journal toc Journal toc

DOI / URN:	10.7480/abe.2018.23.2605

Katalog-ID:	DOAJ048716081