From the outset, it was clearly understood that the activity generated by the building sector would serve to providing the Island of Mayotte with an economic structure. Being an island, the maximum use of local resources was set up as a governing principle.

The first step towards this aim was a survey of Mayotte housing, undertaken from an ethnological point of view. The survey established that the structure of the islands village-organized housing was extremely homogeneous. But at the same time, the technical diagnosis stated that the islands built housing stock (~ 10,000 dwellings/plots) was very poor:
•    85 % of dwellings had no water, either inside or within the plot
•    95 % had no electricity
•    83 % were roofed with coconut palm leaves and 17 % with corrugated iron
•    90 % had walls built with organic materials (raffia, coconut palm leaves, etc.) or wattle and daub

A general policy for the improvement of living conditions and the structuring of the production means was defined with the underlying intention to promote the islands human and material resources and also to allow the development of outlying areas of Mamoudzou, the largest town.

In order to implement these social housing schemes, the following operational framework was set up:

•    A social housing team within the "Direction de lEquipement" (Department of Public Works) to design the programmes and coordinate their implementation.
•    An association made up of members of the public, elected representatives, and administrators to assist in the design and evaluation of the programmes.
•    A State Mixed Economy Company was created – La Société Immobilière de Mayotte (SIM) – to take charge of the building of administrators housing and to manage the social housing programme.
•    A cooperative named "Musada" (mutual aid), enabling supplies of materials, tools, and site equipment for skilled workers to be grouped, testing new materials, training and equipping skilled workers, and acting as a labour pool.
•    An association for professional, continuous training (APFPC) to give practical training in building skills, masonry, roofing and carpentry, to young islanders with no qualifications or to already established craftsmen but with few qualifications, through the "Compagnons du Devoir" (a French trades’ guild).

A separate budget for construction aid was allocated by the state as a lump sum and managed by a single department. The framework in which the funds were allocated allowed the SIM to create its own particular policy, to organize its own structure and its services in their entirety, and to develop its own strategy for action in the area of social housing.

A personal contribution was compulsory, either with funds or materials and labour. It was a fundamental principle for not indebting households. The basic conditions were as follows:
•    Serviced plots, with nominal viability of extension areas for island villages and a method of allocation which follows the principles of customary right.
•    Help with construction work, in two main forms:
-    Help in kind: by supply of materials and technical assistance for the construction of a two-room dwelling of 40 m² that the beneficiary is expected to finish.
-    Mayotte social housing: a model housing of 50 m² was jointly financed by a grant and an individual contribution with materials and labour. An agreement was made for the repayment of part of the grant in the form of rent-repayments over 6 to 10 years.

The conceptual coherence of the programme, defined in 1978, and the care with which it was implemented led to spectacular results in just about thirteen years of development, as showed in the following table.

Organized production chains of other local materials