Author(s)

Myint Naing

Department of Urban and Housing Development, Ministry of Construction, Yangon, Myanmar.

Rental housing is an essential and the significant proportion of urban housing; it has been neglected by many governments due to various reasons. While 40% - 50% of urban population or 1.2 billion people reside in rented accommodation, a few governments around the world merely took rental housing as a policy matter during the last a few decades such as Colombia, South Africa and Indonesia. Rental housing especially informal rental housing is often labeled for bad reputation; a sizable proportion of the urban poor in Asia living in informal rental. Nowadays, Myanmar is one of the low-urbanized countries in South East Asia; the hint of rapid urbanization can be found in major cities especially in Yangon. Under the pressure of rapid urban growth, informal rental is the alternative residential solution for internal migrants and urban poor in Yangon. The main objective of this paper is exploring the influencing factors for the growth of informal rental housing in Yangon. A mixed research method, both qualitative and quantitive approaches, is applied to analyze data from both primary and secondary resources. Various forms of informal rental can be found in Yangon context, Multi-storeys Single-Roomed Rental (SRR) and Cell-Room Rental (CRR) are more prevalent. The influencing factors are the proximity of workplace, urban amenities, and relatives and friends; the affordability of cheap rental fee, low living cost and unaffordability of buying a house. Fear of being evicted in squatter living and rejection by squatter community also influences the growth of informal rental in Yangon. If government does not tackle the operative actions seriously, unprecedented urbanization rate of Yangon can surge in both the expansion of squatter pockets and the growth of informal rental housing.

Cell-Room Rental (CRR), Informal Rental Housing, Internal Migrants, Multi-Storeys Single-Roomed Rental (SRR), Urban Rent Control Act

Naing, M. (2021) Influencing Factors for the Growth of Informal Rental Housing in Yangon, Myanmar. Current Urban Studies, 9, 40-65. doi: 10.4236/cus.2021.91004.