Abstract:
The objectives of this study are to explore the residential types and to investigate housing finance of households in Vientiane, Lao People's Democratic Republic between 2003 and 2004. There were 397 samples from the population of 52,722 households in four municipalities of Vientiane. The research instruments were survey questionnaires, interviews, and field visits for data recording, photographing and observations. From the study, the residential types of households in Vientiane can be categorized into wooden houses/half-brickwork-half-wooden houses, brickwork houses, brickwork townhouses, and wooden townhouses/half-brickwork-half-wooden townhouses. Such residential types are determined by three factors: construction materials, roofing materials, and usage areas. These factor also affect costs of housing and thus the ability to finance housing. It has been found that brickwork houses are the most costly, while half-brickwork-half-wooden houses and wooden houses are the second and the third most costly, respectively. The most costly roofing is CPAC Monier tiles, roman tiles, and galvanized iron tiles, respectively. Wooden houses with galvanized iron tiles are the least costly at 952 baht/square meter, whereas two-story brickwork houses with CPAC Monier roofing are the most costly at 9}856 baht/square meter. Sources of household income are family members' main jobs, family members' sidelines, and money sent home from relatives living abroad. Of such income, 69.6% is spent on daily living expenses, whereas 8.8% is spent on housing. Sources of housing finance include household savings in the form of movable and immovable properties, and money given by or loans from relatives living abroad. Some recommendations have been made in this study. As savings after spending on daily expenses are used to finance housing, they should be invested in housing cooperatives, from which yields can be further used for other kinds of investment. Besides, an agent to mobilize resources for housing development and providing long-term mortgage loans should be established. Moreover, the government should cooperate with experienced foreign financial institutions to strengthen the country's housing finance system