Neoliberalism and Housing Affordability Crisis in Dhaka Where Market-Enabling Efforts Failed

TheCrisis riseDhaka of neoliberalism was instigated by the failures of welfare states in the western world in the 1970s. Policies were formulated to ‘extend market discipline, competition, and commodification throughout all sectors of society’ because of the diminishing profitability by the mass production concept of Fordism and increasing public budget deficits. As a result, the social good housing was commodified too and considered as an investment asset globally. Such transformation has intensely influenced the right to adequate housing endorsed by the constitutions across the world. The neoliberal policies have shaped the housing provision system worldwide, where the private market has been considered as the absolute provider of housing for all income groups according to demand but not need. From the literature, the most prominent characteristics of the neoliberal housing marketHousing market have been identified as: 1. Homeownership focused housing provision to uphold asset base welfare system; 2. ‘Unlocking landLand values and new geographies of the cities’and 3. Affordability crisisCrisis. Thatcherism and Reaganism aggressively implemented neoliberal reforms in the 1980s which gradually influenced most of the countries in the world. Neoliberalism was introduced in developing and underdeveloped countries through Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) and measures to reduce budget deficits. BangladeshBangladesh accepted the SAP reform packages as the aid conditionality of IMF in the early 1980s and initiated denationalization of industries. The study has analysed the impacts of neoliberal policies on housing provision in DhakaDhaka according to identified three prominent neoliberal housing marketHousing market characteristics and the malfunction market enabling roles of the state that ultimately resulted in acute housing affordability crisisCrisis for limited-income householdsHousehold. The findings are based on secondary and grey materials, which have been analysed and validated by key personnel interviews. The findings will have some policy implications to tackle the housing affordability crisisCrisis of DhakaDhaka.