The value of a rental housing unit can also be measured by how easy it is for the tenants to get access to utilities such as electricity, water and sanitation. Self-contained apartments, rooms and houses tend to have the easiest access, whereas
rooms with shared access to services don’t always do so well. The value of rental housing diminishes considerably as access to utilities is farther away from the room or is not permanently available. Rental units in slums, squatter settlements and illegally subdivided tenement structures tend to have the greatest problems of access to basic
services