Factors Affecting Household Demand for Urban Housing in Kisumu City, Western Kenya

Abstract

Globally, housing is considered a fundamental human need. Over the years, as noted in OECD (2011), developing countries have been observed to experience constant increase in housing demand. Kisumu County, just as many other urban areas in Kenya, continues to witness high urbanization and proliferation of urban population due to various factors. This situation has resulted to many challenges with inadequate housing and high housing demand being the most pronounced effects. Particularly, provision of decent housing, especially for low-income households is considered one of the greatest challenges facing Kisumu City. Multiple studies, such as, Musyoka (2012) and Huchzermeyer (2008), have provided invaluable insights into the determining factors of housing demand in urban settings. Musyoka investigated the impacts of income while Huchzermeyer investigated effects of household preferences. Vigdor (2013) on the other hand analyzed factors influencing housing demand in the US citing price expectations, demographic changes and expected future income as determinants of demand. While numerous studies have extensively explored the impacts of various factors on housing demand, there still remains a gap. The existing literature primarily focuses on individual factors in isolation, overlooking the intricate interactions between multiple factors necessitating a comprehensive study to assess all these factors simultaneously. Therefore, this study sought to assess the effects of economic, demographic, social and physical factors on housing demand in Kisumu. The study was founded on hedonic price theory and permanent income housing theory. It also adopted a descriptive research design that utilized quantitative methods of data collection and analysis. By use of a sample size of 196 households in Kisumu City, and use of Multiple Linear regression, Pearson’s correlation and Analysis of variance (ANOVA), the study established a significant relationship between household housing demand and economic, demographic, social and physical factors. The study findings were thus found to corroborate with the broad theories and literature in regards to housing demand