Homebuyers' strategies for progressive residential infrastructure improvement in Bandung, Indonesia

Middle-income households in Bandung, Indonesia – usually not realising that service infrastructure was inadequate when they purchased newly developer-built houses – have made on-plot improvements individually and neighbourhood improvements collectively. Implemented in increments, these improvements resulted from a series of decisions made at various points in the process of obtaining and occupying a house. They were planned and executed without being driven by agents outside the community. This study found value in broadening the traditional focus of household housing strategies to include infrastructure. The case shows the capability of households to solve infrastructure problems embedded in the new houses they acquire. It provides rare insights into the behaviour of middle-income households regarding residential infrastructure strategies: the separation into individual and collective actions; the range of services covered; decision-making; expectations of local government and land developers; community participation; the importance of group leadership; and the use of neighbourhood quasi-administrative institutions. Consistencies and inconsistencies with concepts drawn from observations of lowincome households are revealed, including concepts of the housing package commonly found in policies, of progressive infrastructure improvement as formulated by Choguill, of Turner’s freedom to build, of the need for external agency, of household housing strategies and decision making, and of the roles of local government