A/67/286 providing access to adequate housing through housing markets. Unlike in the case of housing markets for higher-income families, in which suppliers have to be sensitive to demand requirements and therefore to the trilogy of product-price-location as they operate in a competitive context, operators that supply social housing have a captive demand, particularly when it is fully subsidized. In a context of housing deficit, beneficiaries of housing subsidies will simply “buy” what is available at the moment. Suppliers of social housing can therefore be not very sensitive to, or simply ignore, demand preferences, as there is no competition. 64 42. Subsidized housing developments have been built primarily in the urban periphery where land costs are lowest. In Chile, the majority of housing built through the subsidy scheme between 1978 and 2000 has been concentrated in peripheral locations, lacking enough or adequate infrastructure, schools, health facilities and employment opportunities. Poor public transport and road quality further impairs residents’ ability to access services and employment. 65 Subsidy programmes in South Africa, Mexico and Brazil have also been criticized for replacing widespread informal housing with low-standard and stigmatized housing typologies concentrating low-income families. 66 The result is greater urban and social segregation, an increase in the disparity in access to urban services, a worsening of local living conditions, increased environmental damage and urban security problems. 43. The housing habitability aspect has also been neglected in these programmes. The homes that have been produced have often been not only poorly located, but also very small or of very poor quality and with restricted chances of upgrading. 67 Some countries have attempted to regulate the quality standards, but this has often resulted in a substantive increase in administrative costs owing to the institutional capacity required for monitoring, and an increased backlog in housing delivery. 68 44. Habitability, location and accessibility problems have led South Africa to alter its subsidy programme and increase Government intervention. Under the Breaking New Ground subsidy implemented beginning in 2004, supply-side components were included in an attempt to mitigate the adverse impact on subsidy housing habitability and location that unfolded during the first stage; in 2005 the Government announced that land would be funded outside the housing subsidy amount, and then in 2007 that services would also be additional, funded directly by municipalities. 69 __________________ 64 65 66 67 68 69 14 Pablo Trivelly and Company, Ltd., "Urban Structure, Land Markets and Social Housing in Santiago, Chile", January 2010. Ibid. See also Alfredo Rodríguez and Ana Sugranyes, eds., Los Con Techo: Un Desafio para la Política de Vivienda Social (Santiago, Ediciones SUR, 2005). Mariana de Azevedo Barreto Fix, “Financeirização e transformações recentes do circuito imobiluário no Brasil”, doctoral thesis presented at the Instituto de Economia da UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil, 2011; UN-Habitat, Housing Finance Mechanisms in Mexico (Nairobi, 2011); Fernando Jiménez-Cavieres, “Chilean Housing Policy: A Case of Social and Spatial Exclusion?”, doctoral dissertation, Technical University of Berlin, 2006. For example, the basic State house in Santiago in 1990 was only 33-34 m2 in size. While the average size rose during the 1990s, in 1998 each family had only 9.3 m2 per occupant. In South Africa, the average floor space was initially only 25 m2 and the houses had no partitions. Gilbert, p. 29. Reply by the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa to the questionnaire. In addition, a savings component was added to the subsidy and the qualifying borrower was required to make a contribution or deposit. 12-45918