The two major types of housing tenures that exist in Ethiopia are owner-occupied andrnrental occupations. Within the rental occupation, Kebele rented housing units havernbeen created since the coming of the Derg to power and the issuance of proclamationrnNo. 47/1975 which brought about government ownership of urban land and extrarnhouses. Since then, all government owned houses in the country, which have lessrnthan 100 Birr rent per month, are administered by Kebeles. However, due to old agernand lack of maintenance, these Kebele rented dwelling units are deteriorating fromrntime-to-time. Hence, the main objectives of this study are, to compare and contrastrnthe existing conditions of owner-occupied and Kebele administered dwelling units inrnBahir Dar, the capital city of the Amhara National Regional state and to recommendrnsome possible measures that would help in the formulation of the national housingrnpolicies and strategies.rnIn order to obtain the primary data necessary for the study, stratified and systematicrnrandom sampling techniques were used to carry out the questionnaire survey in therntown. A total of 689 heads of the households were selected for the sample survey.rnThe methods used to process and interpret the data obtained were percentages, crossrntabulations, and mean values.rnThe major findings of the study show that, the housing situation of the town isrngenerally characterized by acute shortage which is manifested by a wide gap betweenrnhousing supply and need; lower effective demand; sub-standard housing conditions;rnold age and lack of maintenance, especially most Kebele rented dwelling units; andrnlower rent price of Kebele rented housing units.rnThe distribution of the population of Bahir Dar is such that maximum populationrnconcentration is found in the central part of the town, that is, in Kebele 06 containingrn732 persons per hectare and the lowest population density is found in the intermediaternand peripheral Kebeles, such as Kebeles, 03, 11, 13 and 16. In addition to population,rnthe spatial distribution of dwelling units by type of housing tenure shows that, mostrnKebele rented dwelling units (71 percent) are found in the central part, whereas,nearly 80 percent of owner occupied housing units are found in the peripheral parts ofrnthe town.rnEven though most dwelling units in both owner occupied and Kebele administeredrnrental accommodations are found in sub-standard conditions, the study has indicatedrnthat owner-occupied dwelling units are much better in terms of the major housingrnquality indicators, as compared to Kebele rented housing units in the town. In otherrnwords, Kebele administered dwelling units are more deteriorated than owner occupiedrnhousing units.rnFinally, the study has identified that, the major factors which influence the currentrnhousing conditions of owner occupied and Kebele rented dwelling units are: old agernand lack of proper maintenance, particularly those of Kebele rented housing units;rnlower occupational and income status of most of the Kebele tenants; the impact ofrngovernment housing policies; local physical, and political conditions of the town asrnwell as migration. Therefore, to solve the existing housing problems, the governmentrnshould formulate a comprehensive housing policy that would give due attention tornrental units particularly to the Kebele administered rental dwelling units, which do notrnhave any responsible body who look after them