Assessing the effects of rural housing loan on the quality of new constructions, the case of Shaft Region

As one of the basic human needs, housing directly affects the quality of peoples’ life and is considered to be one of the main concerns of most families. Therefore, provision of suitable housing for citizens is one of the main objectives of economic development plans in many countries. It is important to note that the majority of housing policies have focused mainly on urban housing and despite the fact that an important part of the rural population, especially in developing countries, lives in inadequate housing in terms of physical conditions, little attention is paid on them by governments and other official institutions. The main purpose of this article is to examine the role of Iran’s new housing policy on the quality of housing constructions in rural areas. Given the fact that following the provision of low-interest rural housing loan since 2006, a considerable number of housing has been constructed in rural areas, assessing the effects of this policy can be important. In this study, villages in the Shaft District of Guilan province in the north of Iran have been selected as a case study. The data utilized in this study comes from a questionnaire survey through which 332 loan receiving families were studied. Statistical methods including T-test were used to analyze the collected data. The main findings of the study indicate a significant improvement in the physical structure, main building material and building facade of the newly built houses in rural areas. The newly constructed houses also reflect the changes in rural lifestyle in their physical patterns such as smaller size, fewer rooms and low rate of household per housing unit in comparison with the old houses. However, for the facilities, except the telephone rate, no significant difference is observed between the old and new housing units.