Is there a difference between urban and rural housing?
Definitely yes. What are some of the differences?
The obvious difference is in the definition of the words 'urban' and 'rural'.
Urban refers to the town or city while rural refers to the country side.
Every bation state varies in the method if designating wether an area
is urban or rural - for example, based on distance from the town or city
centre, or population sratistic, or a combination of both, and so forth.
Similar methods can be applied to housing developments.
According to the Ministry of Housing in Sarawak, housing developments
in the State are generally categorised according to the divisions and
districts, especially with regards to the govenrment-subsidised low cost
housing projects.
The rule of thumb is that urban housing encompasses houses built in the
divisional levels, i.e., Kuching, Samarahan, Sri Aman, Sarikei, Sibu,
Kapit, Bintulu, Miri and Limbang. And rural housing encompasses houses
built in the district levels, e.g., Engkilili, Song, Kanowit, Lawas and
so on.
The pricing of houses is inviariably determined by its location - urban
or rural.
This brings is to another differene between urban abd rural housing. Houses
built in the urban areas are more expensive than rural housing.
This is due to several factors - higher land value, material and labor
costs, and convenience of amenities in the town or city as compared to
the countryside.
To illustrate, a low cost single story terrace house in Semariang, Kuching,
will range between the price of RM42,000 to RM47,000 on the hand, a similar
house in Engkilili will cast RM32,000.
Further diferences can be observed from the land value factor.
The cost of land for housing develpment will determine the size
of land available.
This in turn will set the stage for the types of houses to be built. Housing
developers want ti maximise the number of houses built on a piece of land
so as to cater to a wider circle of house buyers.
Thus, the logical steps to take when there is limited land size is to
build up-flats or apartments-than build across-terrace semi-detached or
detached houses.
It is therefore not surprising to note that flats or apartments are more
common in urban than rural areas.
Aside from these differences, houseing loan applications, procedures,
processing time, and housing developers compliance with the Sarawak Housing
Developers Ordinance are the same both urban and rural housing.
This is assured by the Sarawak Housing & Development Commission and
Ministry of Housing. Ultimately, house buyers only have to decide on the
house buyers only bave to decide on the house location and type after
taking into cosideration individual or family budget, needs and wants.
