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A baseline across households, masons, retailers, manufacturers and lenders showed masons decide half of roofing choices and cost is the main barrier
An international housing non-profit was about to run a market-systems programme to improve roofing for low-income households and needed a baseline to measure it against.
We interviewed more than thirteen hundred people across the value chain in three districts, urban and rural: households, masons, building-material retailers, roofing-product manufacturers and lenders.
Masons influenced about half of all roofing decisions and bought the products themselves in about half of cases. Awareness of roofing products varied sharply by product, and the barrier to use was consistent: cost first, knowledge second. Finance was largely informal, and loans for roofing were the least-known home-loan product. The client had every indicator it needed, district by district, and a clear picture of where to intervene.
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- The question
- Before a programme to improve roofing for low-income households, what do households, masons, retailers, manufacturers and lenders know, use and do?
- Approach
- Baseline survey of 1,200 low-income households plus structured interviews with masons, retailers, manufacturers and financial institutions; secondary analysis
- Where
- Three districts of southern India, urban and rural, 2023 to 2024
De-identified. Names, places and distinguishing details are generalised.
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