New policies for maintenance and rehabilitation of low-income condos of the Latin American city

• In Event: Sustainable Urban Policy Challenges in Latin America: A 10 Year Time Horizon

Abstract

In the Latin American city, living in a single family house is not as common as during most of the 20th Century. The meaning of homeownership is changing, since condos are now the most common form of housing development for all income levels. Currently, in Bogotá, Colombia more than 65% of the housing stock is under a condominium form of tenure, while in Quito, Ecuador it represents 45% of the housing stock. Even dwellings in informal settlements are regularized using the condominium law in order to recognize the different units that were progressively built over time. Little research has been done about condominium institutions in the region and on how they can support sustainable self-governance arrangements, in particular in order to ensure maintenance or to invest in rehabilitation of the housing stock. Based on a long-term comparative research on affordable condominium housing, this paper recommends the need for policy innovation recognizing the collective institutions of condominiums that exist in many Latin American cities such as Bogotá and Quito.

Author

• Rosa Elena Donoso, Delft University of Technology