Minimum Standards for Residential Accommodation (MSRA) and the Housing Welfare Policy – Focusing on the ’Housing Comprehensive Plan’

Abstract

This paper examines the usefulness of the Minimum Standard for Residentail Accommodation (MSRA) which has been enforced for the last decade. Analyzing the micro data of Population and Housing Census 2010, it reveals several problems of the standard for applying the housing welfare policy. First, there are no standards related with structure, performance, and environment. Second, standards for facilities have little value since the standards are already achieved in most areas. Third, standards for the number of rooms and housing size have risks of miscalculation since they are based on imperfect concepts such as ‘standard housing composition’ and ‘Dining and Kitchen’. Above all, the current system does not include any guidelines to integrate the individual standard, although it is highly possible that each standard can generate conflicting result.