Socially inclusive urban governance in George Town world heritage site: housing affordability concept revisiting

What is it about?

Urbanization is an unpreventable global trend, with historic cities as no exception. The scale and speed of changes brought in by urbanization create escalating pressure on urban governance and administration in fulfilling the demands of urbanites in various areas, including affordable housing. George Town World Heritage Site (GTWHS) in Penang state of Malaysia is also facing such pressure. Gentrification, housing speculation, and strict constraints obstruct homebuilding attracted public attention to housing affordability issues in GTWHS. This study aims to ascertain the inclusiveness of urban governance in administering (affordable) housing issues; and to revisit the applicability of the one-third housing cost burden threshold in GTWHS from the local perspective. The main data was collected through a systematic-random-sampling survey which involved 318 respondents. It is also complemented by in-depth interviews with key informants. Findings suggest that housing in GTWHS generally is unaffordable, and GTWHS neither is inclusive in its housing governance and administration nor in terms of its urban livability and sustainability. A re-examination of the applicability of 30-percent-of-income housing cost burden standard shows that about 60% of the respondents perceived that a “reasonable rent” in GTWHS should only have consumed less than one-third of their monthly earning.

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