ASSESSMENT OF CRITICAL FACTORS INFLUENCING LOW-COST HOUSING PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION: IN CASE OF WOLAITA SODO

Abstract

The housing problem gets worse year after year due to population growth, high construction costs, and scarcity of construction materials, poor implementation strategies, and lack of knowledge of construction techniques. However, there are problems related with implementation regarding low-cost housing such as; questioning the integrity due to poor investigation of the real problems on the ground, and weak institutional evaluation and monitoring system. This study aims to assess the critical factors influencing low cost-housing project implementation. Both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques are used in the study. The researcher used the total population purposive sampling technique (concuss approach) to choose the target population. The data was analyzed and organized by using descriptive statistics, SPSS 20 version, and the relative importance index (RII) method. The study was carried out through a structured questionnaire survey of 96 respondents working on low-cost housing projects in Wolaita Sodo. The analyses identified top five ranked critical factors highly influencing implementation of low-cost housing projects such as: - Inadequate monitoring of rework incidents 0.8757, 1 st , fear of social responsibility to improvement of low cost housing implementation 0.8649, 2 nd , Inadequate government participation 0.8648, 3 rd , Lack of Established coordinating & supportive authority 0.8595, 4 th, Market competition holds back low-cost housing adoption 0.8432, 5 th . Measurements suggested are Proper planning, appropriate design, use of materials with effective cost and good quality, skilled labor, community participation, government support, and innovative financing system. Furthermore, the results of this study will help to improve low-cost housing programs in the Ethiopian construction industry by assessing the critical factors influencing low cost-housing project implementation