Analysis of the Factors Affecting the Widening of the Housing Gap in the Kurdistan Region for the Period 2005-2017

Abstract

The study of the factors affecting the widening of the housing gap is one of the crucial topics at the national level in terms of reducing the housing deficit and reducing the burden on the national economy. Recently the housing construction costs are increasing in one hand while on the other hand the individuals are suffering from limited income. The research aims to identify the most critical factors that contributed to the widening of the housing gap and to determine the extent of the gap in the size of the gap between the three governorates in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. One of the most important hypotheses of the research is; the growth of the number of families in the Kurdistan region is faster than the annual increase in the number of housing units stricken to the housing stock. As a result, the research found that there is a very high rate of housing deficit in the three cities of the region, also found slow process of housing production cumulatively, which did not correspond to an increase in the number of households and the most significant amount of the deficit was in 2017 (203500) unites.

The most influential variable in the housing deficit is the frequency of the increase in the number of households, which increased in varying proportions, and the highest rate of increase in the number of households in the region was in 2014 which increased at an annual growth rate (5.38%). Further found a significant disparity in the amount and size of the housing deficit between the provinces of the region during the study period, and the highest deficit rate was recorded in Sulaymaniyah province compared to Erbil and Dohuk provinces.