Housing Aspirations of the Elderly in Malaysia: A Comparison of Urban and Rural Areas

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Recent population censuses in many advanced industrial countries have highlighted the growing number of elderly in the rural areas. Additionally, industralisation in the urban areas of developing countries has, to a certain degree caused significant changes of traditional family structure and has resulted in nuclear conjugal families. Likewise, the ageing phenomenon in Malaysia is inevitable due to the exponential increase in the elderly population. Furthermore, rapid urbanisation and out-migration of rural young generation, has had a significant impact on the population of Malaysia. This is reflected by the high proportion of elderly and high dependency in the rural areas. The issues and demographic pattern of the elderly are divergent and varies from the urban to the rural setting. This article looks at the housing implications of the ageing population in Malaysia in general, and in the rural and urban setting specifically. The study examines the housing aspirations of the elderly living in the urban and rural areas in Malaysia. Future housing plans and the kind of living arrangement the Malaysian elderly seek are explored based on the urban-rural locational aspect. In the effort to provide better quality housing for urban and rural elderly, a face-to-face survey interview was conducted on Malaysian aged 50 years and older living in the Kuala Lumpur (urban) and Kelantan (rural) areas. The findings indicate that most elderly in the urban and the rural areas prefer to age-in-place and stay in a familiar environment. The rural elderly has a stronger preference to ageing in place. A majority of the elderly also indicated a preference to live close to their children, which suggests strong family values amongst Malaysians. The study further revealed that the elderly are more likely to either renovate or improve, especially, the bedroom and bathroom areas to avoid accidents. The elderly in the rural area preferred landed housing in the form of either a single or double storey bungalow, whilst, the elderly in the urban area are more open and willing to move to other housing options, for example, strata housing, and other forms of landed housing, for example, terrace house and bungalow. It is recommended that a policy be introduced to promote ageing-in-place and takes into account the aspirations, preferences, behaviour and opinions of the elderly in Malaysia.