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In this [1] excellent book, it is said that they do it as form of saving. Basically, they don't have bank accounts, and they know that if they don't buy those 1-2 bricks right away after they get paid, they'll spend the money on something else.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Poor-Economics-Radical-Rethinking-Pove...

This is a large part of the reason. Money that gets earned gets spent pretty quickly on one thing or another, and it would be next to impossible for a family to save up enough to buy all the materials to build a house in one go.

Another reason is that they don't have easy access to credit markets, so they can't just get a mortgage and move into a home and start paying it off.

One more part of the reason is that they usually build the homes themselves, and its rewarding to see the house go up brick by brick - visual progress is being made.

I'm not an expert, but these are my informed observations and learnings.

Maybe because of transportation? They probably need to walk those bricks to the house.

Inflation? Spend X amount now and get 3 bricks or wait a year and only get 2?