A critical review of affordable and Low-Carbon housing Strategies: Challenges and policy Responses for resilient development in densifying cities

Abstract

Affordable housing and low-carbon transitions are increasingly framed as complementary objectives in densifying cities. However, existing scholarship largely treats affordability, decarbonization, and resilience as parallel policy domains, with limited attention to how governance fragmentation systematically shapes their integration and distributive outcomes. As a result, the institutional mechanisms through which these objectives interact remain insufficiently theorized.

This review employs a structured integrative critical approach, analyzing 97 peer-reviewed studies published between 2000 and 2025. Using PRISMA-guided screening and qualitative thematic coding, the analysis identifies recurring governance patterns, including fiscal structures, regulatory arrangements, and capital dynamics that condition policy alignment under densification pressures.

The findings reveal a persistent governance gap: while technological and design solutions are extensively examined, the institutional configurations mediating affordability–decarbonization trade-offs remain underexplored. Fragmented mandates, short-term financial horizons, unstable fiscal regimes, and weak cross-sector coordination systematically produce cost pass-through, land-value escalation, and socio-spatial exclusion. This study develops a Structural Governance Integration Framework that reframes affordable low-carbon housing as a governance-mediated outcome rather than a technical trade-off. By specifying the institutional conditions under which alignment becomes feasible, the framework provides a transferable analytical lens for diagnosing how policy intentions translate into uneven socio-spatial outcomes across contexts.