Incremental housing and compliance with development control in urban Ghana

Abstract

ABSTRACT The challenges in meeting housing demand in African cities have manifested in increased attention to encouraging and adopting incremental housing approach to address the persistent housing deficits with recourse to development control measures. Relatedly, there have been calls to recognize and understand how attitudes of incremental builders or homeowners conform to development control measures from an African perspective. Using Kumasi as a case study, this paper inquires: in what ways can the attitudes of homeowners be used to address housing challenges via incrementalism and how can perceptions inform development control toward sustainability of cities? The findings show that despite the existence of various development control measures to promote orderly human settlement development, incremental housing development does not conform to such regulations due to low knowledge of builders on existing measures, avoidance of incurring additional costs, unnecessary formality and bureaucratic nature of permit acquisition process, and failure of city authorities to strictly enforce regulations. The study concludes that perception and awareness on development control regulations influence attitudes toward compliance. Hence, the need to sensitize and integrate attitudes and knowledge of homeowners into urban planning efforts to safeguard the urban landscape.