Modeling the Impact of Barriers on Sustainable Housing in Developing Countries
Publication: Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 147, Issue 1
Abstract
Sustainable housing has been an overarching goal globally, and Ghana is no exception vis-à-vis the country’s energy and housing affordability challenges particularly in cities. Yet, its implementation has been plagued by barriers. This study assesses the influence of barriers on sustainable housing in Ghana. Forty-seven valid responses were obtained from a questionnaire survey. Confirmatory factor analysis validated three main groupings of barriers: “cost-related,” “incentive-related,” and “retrofit-related.” Partial least square structural equation modeling of the responses showed that incentive-related barriers have medium effect size (0.192) on sustainable housing while retrofit-related barriers have high effect size (0.430) on sustainable housing. Furthermore, incentive-related barriers have a significant impact on retrofit-related barriers. Cost-related barriers only had a significant impact on incentive-related barriers. Accordingly, cost-related barriers are secondary barriers to sustainable housing. The findings apprise policymakers of barriers that require efficient resource allocation for sustainable housing for sustainable built environment.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This paper forms part of a research project entitled “Affordable Housing Supply: A Comparative Study between Developed and Developing Economies,” from which other deliverables have been produced with different objectives but sharing common background and methodology. The authors wish to gratefully acknowledge the Research Grants Council (RGC) and the Department of Building and Real Estate, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, for their financial support in conducting this study.
References
Adabre, M. A., and A. P. C. Chan. 2019a. “Critical success factors (CSFs) for sustainable affordable housing.” Build. Environ. 156: 203–214. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.04.030.
Adabre, M. A., and A. P. C. Chan. 2019b. “The ends required to justify the means for sustainable affordable housing: A review on critical success criteria.” Sustainable Dev. 27 (4): 781–794. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.1919.
Adabre, M. A., and A. P. C. Chan. 2020. “Towards a sustainability assessment model for affordable housing projects: The perspective of professionals in Ghana.” Eng. Constr. Archit. Manage. 27 (9): 2523–2551. https://doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-08-2019-0432.
Adabre, M. A., A. P. C. Chan, A. Darko, R. Osei-Kyei, R. Abidoye, and T. Adjei-Kumi. 2020. “Critical barriers to sustainability attainment in affordable housing: International construction professionals’ perspective.” J. Cleaner Prod. 253: 119995. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.119995.
Adinyira, E., E. Botchway, and T. E. Kwofie. 2012. “Determining critical project success criteria for public housing building projects (PHBPS) in Ghana.” Eng. Manage. Res. 1 (2): 122–132. https://doi.org/10.5539/emr.v1n2p122.
Agyemang, F. S., and N. Morrison. 2018. “Recognising the barriers to securing affordable housing through the land use planning system in Sub-Saharan Africa: A perspective from Ghana.” Urban Stud. 55 (12): 2640–2659. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098017724092.
Ahadzie, D. K., D. G. Proverbs, and P. O. Olomolaiye. 2008. “Critical success criteria for mass house building projects in developing countries.” Int. J. Project Manage. 26 (6): 675–687. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.09.006.
Aibinu, A. A., and A. M. Al-Lawati. 2010. “Using PLS-SEM technique to model construction organizations’ willingness to participate in e-bidding.” Autom. Constr. 19 (6): 714–724. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2010.02.016.
Akter, S., J. D’Ambra, and P. Ray. 2011. “An evaluation of PLS based complex models: the roles of power analysis, predictive relevance and GoF index.” In Proc., 17th Americas Conf. on Information Systems, 1–7. Detroit: Association for Information Systems.
Alam, M., P. X. Zou, R. A. Stewart, E. Bertone, O. Sahin, C. Buntine, and C. Marshall. 2019. “Government championed strategies to overcome the barriers to public building energy efficiency retrofit projects.” Sustainable Cities Soc. 44: 56–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2018.09.022.
Ametepey, O., C. Aigbavboa, and K. Ansah. 2015. “Barriers to successful implementation of sustainable construction in the Ghanaian construction industry.” Procedia Manuf. 3: 1682–1689. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2015.07.988.
Ansah, M. K., X. Chen, H. Yang, L. Lu, and P. T. I. Lam. 2020. “An integrated life cycle assessment of different façade systems for a typical residential building in Ghana.” Sustainable Cities Soc. 53: 101974. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2019.101974.
Arku, G. 2009. “Housing policy changes in Ghana in the 1990s: Policy review.” Hous. Stud. 24 (2): 261–272. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673030902719763.
Arku, G., I. Luginaah, and P. Mkandawire. 2012. ““You either pay more advance rent or you move out”: Landlords/ladies’ and tenants’ dilemmas in the low-income housing market in Accra, Ghana.” Urban Stud. 49 (14): 3177–3193. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098012437748.
Awadh, O. 2017. “Sustainability and green building rating systems: LEED, BREEAM, GSAS and Estidama critical analysis.” J. Build. Eng. 11: 25–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2017.03.010.
Birkeland, J. 2012. Positive development: From vicious circles to virtuous cycles through built environment design. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Chan, A. P., and M. A. Adabre. 2019. “Bridging the gap between sustainable housing and affordable housing: The required critical success criteria (CSC).” Build. Environ. 151: 112–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.01.029.
Chan, A. P., A. Darko, E. E. Ameyaw, and D. G. Owusu-Manu. 2017. “Barriers affecting the adoption of green building technologies.” J. Manage. Eng. 33 (3): 04016057. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000507.
Chan, A. P. C., A. Darko, A. O. Olanipekun, and E. E. Ameyaw. 2018. “Critical barriers to green building technologies adoption in developing countries: The case of Ghana.” J. Cleaner Prod. 172: 1067–1079. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.10.235.
Chin, W. W. 1998. “The partial least squares approach to structural equation modeling.” In Modern methods for business research, edited by G. A. Marcoulides, 295–336. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Cohen, J. 2013. Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Costolanski, P., R. Elahi, A. Iimi, and R. Kitchlu. 2013. Impact evaluation of free-of-charge CFL bulb distribution in Ethiopia. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Croese, S., L. R. Cirolia, and N. Graham. 2016. “Towards habitat III: Confronting the disjuncture between global policy and local practice on Africa's ‘challenge of slums’.” Habitat Int. 53: 237–242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2015.11.037.
Crook, R. C. 2004. “Access to justice and land disputes in Ghana’s state courts: The litigants’ perspective.” J. Leg. Plur. Unoff. Law 36 (50): 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/07329113.2004.10756576.
Darko, A., A. P. C. Chan, Y. Yang, M. Shan, B. J. He, and Z. Gou. 2018. “Influences of barriers, drivers, and promotion strategies on green building technologies adoption in developing countries: The Ghanaian case.” J. Cleaner Prod. 200: 687–703. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.318.
Desogus, G., L. Di Pilla, S. Mura, G. L. Pisano, and R. Ricciu. 2013. “Economic efficiency of social housing thermal upgrade in Mediterranean climate.” Energy Build. 57: 354–360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2012.11.016.
Diamantopoulos, A., and H. M. Winklhofer. 2001. “Index construction with formative indicators: An alternative to scale development.” J. Mark. Res. 38 (2): 269–277. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.38.2.269.18845.
Diawuo, F. A., M. Sakah, A. Pina, P. C. Baptista, and C. A. Silva. 2019. “Disaggregation and characterization of residential electricity use: Analysis for Ghana.” Sustainable Cities Soc. 48: 101586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2019.101586.
Djokoto, S. D., J. Dadzie, and E. Ohemeng-Ababio. 2014. “Barriers to sustainable construction in the Ghanaian construction industry: Consultants’ perspectives.” J. Sustainable Dev. 7 (1): 134. https://doi.org/10.5539/jsd.v7n1p134.
Dowson, M., A. Poole, D. Harrison, and G. Susman. 2012. “Domestic UK retrofit challenge: Barriers, incentives and current performance leading into the Green Deal.” Energy Policy 50: 294–305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.07.019.
Durdyev, S., S. Ismail, A. Ihtiyar, N. F. S. A. Bakar, and A. Darko. 2018. “A partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) of barriers to sustainable construction in Malaysia.” J. Cleaner Prod. 204: 564–572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.08.304.
Fornell, C., and D. F. Larcker. 1981. “Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error.” J. Mark. Res. 18 (1): 39–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378101800104.
Friedman, C., N. Becker, and E. Erell. 2014. “Energy retrofit of residential building envelopes in Israel: A cost-benefit analysis.” Energy 77: 183–193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2014.06.019.
Gefen, D., D. Straub, and M. C. Boudreau. 2000. “Structural equation modeling and regression: Guidelines for research practice.” Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst. 4 (1): 7. https://doi.org/10.17705/1CAIS.00407.
Gianfrate, V., C. Piccardo, D. Longo, and A. Giachetta. 2017. “Rethinking social housing: Behavioural patterns and technological innovations.” Sustainable Cities Soc. 33: 102–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2017.05.015.
Gold, A. H., A. Malhotra, and A. H. Segars. 2001. “Knowledge management: An organizational capabilities perspective.” J. Manage. Inf. Syst. 18 (1): 185–214. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421222.2001.11045669.
Gough, K. V., and P. W. K. Yankson. 2000. “Land markets in African cities: The case of peri-urban Accra, Ghana.” Urban Stud. 37 (13): 2485–2500. https://doi.org/10.1080/00420980020080651.
Gouldson, A., N. Kerr, J. Millward-Hopkins, M. C. Freeman, C. Topi, and R. Sullivan. 2015. “Innovative financing models for low carbon transitions: Exploring the case for revolving funds for domestic energy efficiency programmes.” Energy Policy 86: 739–748. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2015.08.012.
Gyamfi, S., F. A. Diawuo, E. N. Kumi, F. Sika, and M. Modjinou. 2018. “The energy efficiency situation in Ghana.” Renewable Sustainable Energy Rev. 82: 1415–1423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.05.007.
Hair, J. F., Jr., G. T. M. Hult, C. Ringle, and M. Sarstedt. 2016. A primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Hair, J. F., Jr., M. Sarstedt, L. Hopkins, and V. G. Kuppelwieser. 2014. “Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). An emerging tool in business research.” Eur. Bus. Rev. 26 (2): 106–121. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR-10-2013-0128.
Hamid, Z. A., A. F. Roslan, M. C. Ali, F. C. Hung, M. S. M. Noor, and N. M. Kilau. 2014. “Towards a national green building rating system for Malaysia.” Malaysian Constr. Res. J. 14: 1–16.
Henseler, J., C. M. Ringle, and M. Sarstedt. 2015. “A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling.” J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 43 (1): 115–135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8.
Henseler, J., C. M. Ringle, and R. R. Sinkovics. 2009. “The use of partial least squares path modeling in international marketing.” Adv. Int. Market. 20: 277–320.
Hoelter, J. W. 1983. “The effects of role evaluation and commitment on identity salience.” Social Psychol. Q. 46: 140–147. https://doi.org/10.2307/3033850.
Hu, F. Z., and J. Qian. 2017. “Land-based finance, fiscal autonomy and land supply for affordable housing in urban China: A prefecture-level analysis.” Land Use Policy 69: 454–460. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.09.050.
Hulland, J. 1999. “Use of partial least squares (PLS) in strategic management research: A review of four recent studies.” Strateg. Manag. J. 20 (2): 195–204. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-0266(199902)20:2%3C195::AID-SMJ13%26gt;3.0.CO;2-7.
Jabareen, Y. 2009. “Building a conceptual framework: Philosophy, definitions, and procedure.” Int. J. Qual. Methods 8 (4): 49–62. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690900800406.
Kaygusuz, K. 2012. “Energy for sustainable development: A case of developing countries.” Renewable Sustainable Energy Rev. 16 (2): 1116–1126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2011.11.013.
Lee, L., S. Petter, D. Fayard, and S. Robinson. 2011. “On the use of partial least squares path modeling in accounting research.” Int. J. Acc. Inf. Syst. 12 (4): 305–328. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accinf.2011.05.002.
Luginaah, I., G. Arku, and P. Baiden. 2010. “Housing and health in Ghana: The psychosocial impacts of renting a home.” Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 7 (2): 528–545. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph7020528.
Murari, K. 2015. Impact of leadership styles on employee empowerment. New Delhi, India: Partridge Publishing.
National Summit on Housing Affordable. 2006. Achieving a national affordable housing agreement: Background paper 2: Key terminology and indicators. New Dlehi, India: National Summit on Housing Affordability.
Nunnally, J. C. 1978. Psychometric theory. 2nd ed. Hillsdale, NJ: McGraw-Hill.
Obeng-Odoom, F. 2010. “An urban twist to politics in Ghana.” Habitat Int. 34 (4): 392–399. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2009.11.003.
Ott, R. L., and M. T. Longnecker. 2015. An introduction to statistical methods and data analysis. Toronto: Nelson Education.
Owusu, E. K., A. P. Chan, and E. Ameyaw. 2019. “Toward a cleaner project procurement: Evaluation of construction projects’ vulnerability to corruption in developing countries.” J. Cleaner Prod. 216: 394–407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.01.124.
Owusu-Ansah, A., K. W. Soyeh, and P. K. Asabere. 2019. “Developer constraints on housing supply in urban Ghana.” Int. J. Hous. Mark. Anal. 12 (1): 59–73. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHMA-07-2018-0052.
Peng, D. X., and F. Lai. 2012. “Using partial least squares in operations management research: A practical guideline and summary of past research.” J. Oper. Manage. 30 (6): 467–480. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2012.06.002.
Reardon, S. F., and K. Bischoff. 2011. “Income inequality and income segregation.” Am. J. Sociol. 116 (4): 1092–1153. https://doi.org/10.1086/657114.
Sakah, M., S. D. L. R. du Can, F. A. Diawuo, M. D. Sedzro, and C. Kuhn. 2019. “A study of appliance ownership and electricity consumption determinants in urban Ghanaian households.” Sustainable Cities Soc. 44: 559–581. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2018.10.019.
Shi, Q., J. Zuo, R. Huang, J. Huang, and S. Pullen. 2013. “Identifying the critical factors for green construction–An empirical study in China.” Habitat Int. 40: 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2013.01.003.
Smets, P., and P. van Lindert. 2016. “Sustainable housing and the urban poor.” Int. J. Urban Sustainable Dev. 8 (1): 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/19463138.2016.1168825.
Sourani, A., and M. Sohail. 2011. “Barriers to addressing sustainable construction in public procurement strategies.” Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng.: Eng. Sustainability 164 (4): 229–237. https://doi.org/10.1680/ensu.2011.164.4.229.
Stilwell, F. 2011. Political economy: The contest of economic ideas. Oxford, UK: OUP Catalogue.
Sulemana, I., E. Nketiah-Amponsah, E. A. Codjoe, and J. A. N. Andoh. 2019. “Urbanization and income inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Sustainable Cities Soc. 48: 101544. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2019.101544.
Tan, Y., G. Liu, Y. Zhang, C. Shuai, and G. Q. Shen. 2018. “Green retrofit of aged residential buildings in Hong Kong: A preliminary study.” Build. Environ. 143: 89–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.06.058.
Teo, T. S., S. C. Srivastava, and L. Jiang. 2008. “Trust and electronic government success: An empirical study.” J. Manage. Inf. Syst. 25 (3): 99–132. https://doi.org/10.2753/MIS0742-1222250303.
Twumasi-Ampofo, K., E. Osei-Tutu, I. Decardi-Nelson, and P. A. Ofori. 2014. “A model for reactivating abandoned public housing projects in Ghana.” Civ. Environ. Res. 6 (3): 6–16.
UN Habitat. 2011. Ghana housing profile. Nairobi, Kenya: United Nations Human Settlements Programme.
UN Habitat. 2012. Sustainable housing for sustainable cities: A policy framework for developing countries. Nairobi, Kenya: UNON.
UN (United Nations). n.d. “Sustainable development goal 11.” Accessed November 22, 2019. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg11.
Węziak-Białowolska, D. 2016. “Quality of life in cities–Empirical evidence in comparative European perspective.” Cities 58: 87–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2016.05.016.
Yang, J., and Z. Yang. 2015. “Critical factors affecting the implementation of sustainable housing in Australia.” J. Hous. Built Environ. 30 (2): 275–292. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-014-9406-5.
Yuan, J., W. Li, X. Zheng, and M. J. Skibniewski. 2018. “Improving operation performance of public rental housing delivery by PPPs in China.” J. Manage. Eng. 34 (4): 04018015. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000615.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 147 • Issue 1 • March 2021
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 15, 2020
Accepted: Aug 4, 2020
Published online: Nov 7, 2020
Published in print: Mar 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Apr 7, 2021
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.