Effects of Increase in the Cost of Building Materials on the Delivery of Affordable Housing in South Africa

Bimpe Alabi and Julius Fapohunda
Additional contact information
Bimpe Alabi: Department of Construction Management, Bellville Campus, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Bellville 7535, South Africa
Julius Fapohunda: Department of Construction Management, Bellville Campus, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Bellville 7535, South Africa

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-12

Abstract: Adequate provision of affordable human settlements is a huge challenge in South Africa since its independence. This paper investigates the effects of the cost increase of building materials on affordable housing delivery in South Africa. With potential solutions for cost minimisation of building materials, with the aim of achieving affordable housing delivery in South Africa are provided. This study uses a sequential mixed methods approach, wherein surveys were conducted among the construction professionals (project managers, site managers architects, site engineers, quantity surveyors, contractors, building materials suppliers, and government workers) in the construction industry within Cape Town, South Africa, who were considered as the research participants. The qualitative data obtained from the survey exercise were analysed using content analysis, while the quantitative data were analysed using a descriptive statistical technique on SPSS. The findings attained show fluctuation in construction cost and a rise in maintenance cost (caused by poor workmanship) as significant effects in the cost increase of building materials for affordable housing delivery. Adequate application of the recommendations given in this study will minimise the effects of high cost of building materials and enhance affordable housing delivery. Appropriate handling of the findings given in this study will reduce the effects of the high cost of building materials and augment timely delivery of affordable housing and stakeholders’ satisfaction.

Keywords: building materials; cost of materials; affordable housing; housing delivery (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/1772/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/1772/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:1772-:d:494898

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().