A research study submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science

Research Studies Project Report (M. Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1985

Housing affordability, especially in the less developed countries of the Third World , is a problem face d by about one quarter to one half of the population of their principal cities. These people live in haphazard and un healthy conditions in the slums, shanties and squatter settlements that have caused many governments headaches for just being where they are and what they are. As governments cannot afford to provide adequate and legal housing for the very many low- income house holds in the large cities, there is need to rely on the self - help efforts of the people to house them selves. For this , they have to be provided with adequate , legal and affordable building plots on which to build their houses. Many of these building plots could be provide d by private sector land sub dividers. In Bangkok , there is a well established and substantial land subdivision industry that is producing building plots for middle-income house hold s . This industry could provide building plots for lower- income house hold s but is blocked from doing so by the high minimum standards required under the land subdivision control regulations. There is nee d to review and revise these regulations to set lower minimum standards, particularly in the matter of plot sizes , that will enable the private land sub dividers to produce building plots that lower-in come house holds can afford to purchase, but which at the same time are of adequate and accept able standard . The present study was undertaken to identified recommend an adequate, accept able, legal and afford able size of building plots to be adopted for private and subdivision projects in Bangkok. This was don e by way of case studies of four recent sites and services and resettlement projects of the National Housing Authority in which building plots as small as 30, 40 , and 60 square metres were made available for self- build housing development by low- in come households.