1. REGIONAL POVERTY ANALYSIS TECHNICAL WORKSHOP
Estimating imputed rent
Kim Robertson
(ADB/SPC Regional Poverty Programme Team Leader)
REF: Working Paper 2.1

2. SNA ‘Notional’ value of rent
Owner-occupied housing only
Large rental market & ‘western’ style (similar quality) housing: use average rents actually paid to derive values (fine tune using housing type to derive different averages)
Traditional / non permanent housing?
Small rental market – average prices not reliable

3. Valuation methods
Respondent reported values – if you rented this house what would you expect to pay for it?
Respondent reported values adjusted by housing characteristics using regression (type, year of construction, size, number of rooms etc)
Imputed rent as a percentage (nominal) of the capital value of the house (World Bank, Viet Nam)

4. Recommended method
Respondent reported values: use these if they are within acceptable limits for all housing types
Determine values using regression factors based on respondent reported values and housing type, construction materials, location (rural/urban, island) (if there are differences in quality of housing within traditional housing
Check values using an upper limit (20%) of total household expenditure as the maximum value