The affordability problem with regard to housing market is one of the most
controversial issues within most developed and developing countries (Nguyen, 2005).
Several attempts have been made to understand how and why affordability problems
are created. What is meant by affordable housing and who might be served by it is
interpreted differently by different people. The practice of providing assistance for
housing to improve housing affordability for lower income households, most of whom
are recipients of social security payments and are on incomes well below median, is
well established through the provision of rent assistance to those in the private rental
market and through the provision of income geared subsidies to those in public
housing (Turner et al. 2009). Increasingly, however, concerns have been expressed
about affordability outcomes for working households who are finding it difficult to rent
or purchase private sector housing that is accessible to their place of work and who,
as a result, bear the burden either of significant housing costs or of significant
transport costs. Many of these households may not be covered by housing assistance
programs in most countries. This middle income group were left on their own to face
the challenge in entering home ownership, a dream aspires by all. The spiralling of
house prices, especially in major cities has aggravate the caused to inaccessibility to
housing for this group. These households are concerned because affordability affects
not only their ability to become a homeowner, but also the size and type of the home
they are able to purchase. Affordability problems can be viewed as operating at
different levels, ranging from narrower direct experience of severe problems of poverty
and homelessness, through an intermediate level of risk, to a broader problem of
access to the market. Many authors (Yates and Gabriel,2006; Disney, 2006; Cairney
and Boyle, 2004) argue that housing affordability is influenced by the levels and
distributions of home prices, household incomes and the structure of financing costs.