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Sustainable housing has been an overarching goal globally, and Ghana is no exception vis-à-vis the country's energy and housing affordability challenges particularly in cities. Yet, its implementation has been plagued by barriers. This study assesses the influence of barriers on sustainable housing in Ghana. Forty-seven valid responses were obtained from a questionnaire survey. Confirmatory factor analysis validated three main groupings of barriers: "cost-related," "incentive-related," and "retrofit-related." Partial least square structural equation modeling of the responses showed that incentive-related barriers have medium effect size (0.192) on sustainable housing while retrofit-related barriers have high effect size (0.430) on sustainable housing. Furthermore, incentive-related barriers have a significant impact on retrofit-related barriers. Cost-related barriers only had a significant impact on incentive-related barriers. Accordingly, cost-related barriers are secondary barriers to sustainable housing. The findings apprise policymakers of barriers that require efficient resource allocation for sustainable housing for sustainable built environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper presents a sustainability assessment model to holistically guide sustainable construction and green retrofitting of affordable housing from the Ghanaian perspective. Design/methodology/approach: A comprehensive review was carried out, which yielded 16 sustainability indicators. Then, a questionnaire survey was conducted among respondents in the Ghanaian housing sector. Forty-seven valid responses were received and analysed using fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) technique. Findings: A four-index model was developed that includes: Housing and Transportation (H + T) index, household-satisfaction index, efficient stakeholder-management index and quality-related index. These indices account for 25.3%, 26.3%, 23.6% and 24.9% of sustainability attainment in affordable housing, respectively. Accordingly, household-satisfaction has the greatest contribution to sustainability attainment in affordable housing. Research limitations/implications: Due to challenges in obtaining responses to the questionnaire, the study was conducted with relatively small number of responses. Originality/value: The model serves as a tool that could be used to objectively and comprehensively assess sustainability performance in affordable housing. Besides, it could be used as a baseline to calibrate future projects and for benchmarking success levels of comparable housing projects. Finally, the estimated indices are applicable in decision making for optimum resource allocation for sustainable low-cost housing in the Ghanaian perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]