Housing Indicators for Sustainable Cities in Middle-Income Countries through the Residential Urban Environment Recognized using Single-Family Housing Rating Systems

This study presents a comparative analysis of the housing indicators used by the singlefamilyhousing rating systems (SHRSs), in which the residential urban environment (RUE)influences buildings’ certification scores, emphasizing the relationships of six systems developedby middle‐income countries (MICs)—BEST, CASA, GBI, BERDE, Green Homes, and LOTUS—andthe two most‐recognized rating systems, BREEAM and LEED. The aim is to provide new housingindicators that are capable of bringing the concept of sustainability into the cities of MICs. Theresults reveal that the percentage of influence that single‐family housing (SFH) can achieve in themetric established by each system is relatively low. However, considering all of the identifiedindicators, this influence could increase to 53.16% of the total score in multi‐criteria evaluations.Furthermore, a significant lack of indicators for mandatory criteria evaluations was found, withCASA being the only system that considers their inclusion. This paper identifies 37 indicators formulti‐criteria assessments and two for mandatory‐criteria assessments, providing new perspectiveson several topics. Furthermore, the methodology established to obtain the indicators could be usefulfor other researchers in the identification of new sustainable indicators.