Compromising job accessibility for lower housing cost among low-income groups

Abstract

An increasing number of Malaysians are migrating from urban regions, primarily as a result of the rising housing expenses in the city. Another motivating factor for individuals to relocate to suburban locations near major cities is the opportunity to inhabit larger residences at a lower cost. This study aimed to elucidate the dwelling location preferences of low-income groups by examining the history of their homeownership and mapping its spatial distribution. Furthermore, this study aimed to examine the correlation between home location preferences and the costs associated with housing and commuting. This study is a deductive research project that aims to gather primary data by administering a questionnaire to 306 participants from the low-income population residing in the northeast and southwest districts of Penang, Malaysia. The analysis primarily utilized descriptive statistics and cross-tabulation techniques to project data on demographic variables, homeownership, housing cost, and factors impacting housing site choice. In addition, the QGIS software was utilized to delineate the spatial pattern of homeownership among the participants. This study utilized multiple regression analysis to discover the factors that connect employment accessibility with the characteristics of low-income households' choices of housing location. This analysis was undertaken to investigate the correlation between two variables, namely, the capacity of low-income households to afford both housing and commuting costs. According to the data, low-income persons consider housing expenditures to be more important and give them higher priority than transport expenses. Metropolitan areas require improved policies to support the availability of social rental housing, specifically targeting the housing requirements of low-income households.