Rental housing affordability and spatial variation in rapidly growing urban areas of Ethiopia: evidence from Debre Markos city

Purpose Literature indicates that characteristics of private rental housing in Ethiopia include unreasonable rent increases, hostile owner and renter relations, unfair evictions, unaffordable rent, discrimination against certain renters and a lack of basic services. This study aims to investigate the determinants of private rental housing affordability in rapidly growing urban areas of Ethiopia, exemplified by Debre Markos. Design/methodology/approach This research is a cross-sectional study, based on data collected during the study period. Data from 385 private rental housing households were collected through a structured questionnaire and analyzed using binary logistic regression as well as global and local spatial analysis. Findings Household family size, house area, housing typology and the type of adjacent road are significant determinants of private rental housing affordability. The spatial autocorrelation analysis revealed that there is a cluster (i.e. a grouping of locations with similarly high or low attribute values) of house rent, housing typology, number of families, road type and house area. Research limitations/implications These findings have significant implications for policymaking, to address the unaffordability and socio-spatial problems of private rental houses. Originality/value The findings of this research contribute to the existing knowledge of housing affordability using econometric and spatial analysis. The determinants of private rental housing were investigated and analyzed, which is an understudied area in the medium cities.