Subjective or objective ideal housing? Determinants of housing choice of translocal migrants in the Ghanaian urban context

Housing choices are unique to different population groups and ignoring the distinctions in planning and supply can result in a mismatch between the housing delivered and the user's needs. Thus, identifying the determinants of housing choices of translocal migrants is a needed, yet under-studied area in housing scholarship. This paper investigates these factors among translocal households in Nkoranza South Municipality and their translocal migrants in Kumasi, Ghana. Using a combination of multiple qualitative methods and a survey, data was obtained from translocal households, assembly members, chiefs, translocal migrants, and a representative of a migrant association. An exploratory factor analysis revealed that the determinants of housing choices of migrants can be categorised as “economic and social factors”, “attributes of physical and social infrastructure” and “temporal and societal factors”. While this paper echoes the economic and social determinants of housing in literature, it unravells how translocal householding shapes housing decisions. Translocal migrants' residential choices do not only occur from their desires for shelter instead the need to balance housing investment at the origin and the destination. The paper concludes that while translocal householding emerged as a key determinant of housing preferences and choices, this study does not claim that it is universal among all young Ghanaian migrants. • Translocal householding shapes how and where migrants live in their destinations. • Translocal migrants jointly make housing decisions with their households back home. • Some housing decisions are pre-planned but often altered by migration realities. • Meanwhile, the housing decisions of all migrants are treated uniformly by policy makers. • Ignoring the distinctions can result in a mismatch between the user's needs and housing delivered.