This paper explores issues associated with perceptions of low-cost housing in Luanda, which
despite being considered one of the fastest developing and more prospective growing cities in
Africa, is struggling to cope with a growing population putting extra pressure on an already
saturated urban infrastructure. A renewed Luanda is taking shape, whilst the periphery is being
gradually populated with thousands of new houses destined to the low-income population,
absorbing some of the people displaced from informal settlements (musseques) but also open to
those who would not otherwise be able to afford living closer to Luanda’s centre. Amongst
promises of fulfilment of a “dream” of ownership and adequate living conditions, this research
investigates the low-cost housing sector of Luanda as experienced and perceived by the
inhabitants/occupants themselves. Using a Participatory Post-Occupancy (PPOA) framework, it
combines the technical arrangement of a building appraisal tool with a participatory approach
intending to provide an accurate insight into the occupants’ satisfaction and the performance of
low-cost housing in an informal settlement as well as in a newly built low-cost mass housing
development located in the outskirts of Luanda.
