Although contractors may benefit, the low-cost housing market does not. The construction process in low-income housing settlements has frequently been regarded as entirely different from the formal construction industry. Frequently, the urban poor lack access to public or private housing schemes, and instead seek ways to build gradually, according to their resources. However, lacking time or expertise, many poor people resort to small-scale private contractors to carry out part or all of the process. The study also considered what constraints on capitalisation the builders experience, and how the removal of these constraints affects their participation in low-cost housing.
Customers are often only capable of erratic payments.
Small-scale builders have the flexibility to work under these conditions due to multiple skills, simple and general purpose equipment, low overhead costs and lack of profits. Capitalist modes of production require specialised equipment, labour with specific skills, access to credit and managerial capacity. Lack of access to some or all of these is a constraint on small-scale builders expansion. Individual builders tend to occupy a strategic position in the continuum of production which cannot change quickly. A shift to a more capitalist mode of production requires a change in the characteristics of the business and entails a loss of capacity to produce low-cost housing.