An analysis of quality assurance in low-cost housing construction

Abstract

The motivation of the public sector is more social and political. The housing crisis is a major political issue for every ruling party. In many countries there are political commitments to housing, but sadly we witness this commitment being misdirected. Every government wants to see that its citizens are housed adequately. Very often it is seen that in its endeavour, government try to follow the private sector process, establishing huge parastatals to carry out the whole process, for example design, construction and financing (Lankatilleke, 1994).

Lankatilleke, L. (1994) further mentions that mass produced public sector housing schemes are aesthetic disasters. They are either rows of match-boxes or high-rise blocks with no identity or individuality. There are numerous examples of such housing schemes that have deteriorated into ghettos.

This research consequently presents findings which implies that government is being pressurized by the housing backlog within the Western and Eastern Cape, which brings about time constraints and tight budgets. These pressures are transferred to the design teams which need to speedily produce designs for low-cost housing homes within the best possible budget. This results to the implementation of common model designs.

It is also founded that contractors ultimately suffer, due to these pressures which do not allow them to produce good quality homes. It is therefore recommended that better community involvement for sustainable methods in the design and construction process should be practiced.

This therefore concludes that government should take more responsibility for the delivery processes of low-cost housing as well as the procurement and quality systems to be followed.