Rental Housing - UN-Habitat

I.F.1. Rural versus urban versus metropolitan patterns of ownershipTable 4 demonstrates why it is sometimes misleading to consider tenurepatterns at the national level, particularly in poorer countries. In most developingcountries large numbers of rural people own their housing. This is oftenownership of an informal kind, and may be held collectively rather than individually.While some farmers rent land, very few rent a home. By contrast,many people in cities lack a home of their own and share or rent accommodation.In developed countries, where the bulk of the population lives in cities, thedifference in urban and rural patterns of tenure makes little difference to thenational figures. But in countries where a majority live in the rural areas, itdoes. Table 4 underlines the fact that in every country, whether rich or poor,most rural dwellers have some kind of access to ‘ownership’ and in the cities,many more people rent. Even considering as diverse a range of countries asBenin, Egypt, India, Niger, Thailand and the United States of America, revealsthat ownership rates in the urban areas are much lower than in the countrysideand the incidence of renting much higher. In several of those cases the differenceis very marked. Brazil is the only exception to this general pattern, withTable 4. Housing tenure in urban and rural areas for selected countries, per centOwned Rented Other *Country Year Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban RuralAfricaBenin 1994 44 75 56 25 - -Egypt 1996 49 87 51 13 - -Zimbabwe 1997 34 76 53 1 - -AsiaIndia 2001 67 94 29 4 5 2Iran 1996 75 91 24 8 - -Republic of Korea 1995 71 86 30 14 - -Thailand 1996 59 94 41 6 - -Latin AmericaBrazil 2000 75 73 17 2 7 24Chile 2001 73 71 20 5 8 25Developed countriesAustria 1999 48 89 52 11 - -Canada 1998 59 81 38 16 - -Finland 1998 60 75 37 21 - -Ireland 1999 74 89 26 11 - -United States ofAmerica1997 59 82 41 18 - -*: Including ceded or free.Source: Brazil, Chile, India and Mexico – information from national census web pages;other information drawn from UNCHS, 2001a: 277.Chapter I: Introduction 17