Land management options
for the urban poor
and vulnerable
Aman Mehta
Urbanization is an
inevitable part of
development
Urbanization and
economic growth
affect cities
Urban space is under
constant pressure by
rich and poor, public
and private sector for
redevelopment
Urbanization in Asia
Asian
region
Urban %
(2025)
Annual growth (2000-25)
East
51.8
Urban
1.44
Rural
-0.86
South
44.7
2.52
-0.11
S-East
53.2
1.97
-0.25
• United Nations projections show that 2.4 billion
people (or 51.4 per cent of the total population
of the region) will live in urban areas by 2025.
• There are 19
mega-cities with
population of
over 10 million
• Only 8 percent
of the world’s
population live in
these mega
cities, while over
half live in cities
under 500,000
people.
• Growing number
of secondary
cities and towns
characterized by:
– increasing influx of
migrants,
– deteriorating
housing
conditions,
– inadequate
resources and
capacity of local
government
Settlement
size
Population Percentage
(millions)
10 million+
241
12.4
1-10 million
647
33.3
-1 million
1,055
54.3
Total
1,943
100.0
• Many governments
condemn rural-urban
migration and rapid
urbanization as obstacles to
development that give rise
to poverty, unemployment,
crime and social disorder,
slums and squatters in the
urban areas governments
• Policies aimed to reduce
urbanization or redirect
rural-urban migration to
secondary town and rural
areas have been ineffective
Policies on
rural-urban
migration
• The various policies
implemented by
governments include
migration controls, deurbanization and industrial
dispersal policies.
• In 1970s and the 1980s
the governments began to
realize that their policy of
preventing rural-urban
migration were ineffective
• Few urban areas have been
able to meet the increasing
need for planned and
affordable land, housing and
services either through
direction provision or incentives
to private sector.
• The urban poor and the poor
migrants encroach on the
public or private land, illegal or
semi-legal subdivisions and
urbanized villages
• Millions of people have found
their solutions in various types
of slums and unauthorized
Urbanization of
poverty
• Between 40 to 80 percent of
the urban dwellers in the
world live in poverty, with little
access to shelter, basic urban
services and social amenities
(UN, 2000).
• Increased vulnerability to
environmental health
problems, environmental
shocks and natural disasters;
• Lack of participation of
communities in decisionmaking processes and
implementing activities;
vulnerable sectors among
women, children and youth.
Housing state of the poor
• Housing of the poor is
often non-engineered
and self constructed
• No legal claims to the
land and/or permission
from the authorities to
build, making houses
– Substandard
– Insecurity of tenure
– Authorities refuse to
provide access to
services
• Close to income earning
opportunities
• Land close to income earning
opportunities
• Low-income households are
forced to occupy land not in
demand, inappropriate or
dangerous, such as:
– land liable to flooding or
landslides
– along the railway lines and
canal banks.
– With no legal right to land
– Far from work place
– Overcrowded
Where do the
urban poor reside?
Policy constraint
to housing
• Public housing production is most often
supply-driven influenced by the
administrator and politicians plans.
• Private housing production often targets the
middle or higher income groups
• Informal housing arrangements offer a
housing option that meets their
affordability, needs and priorities, and
yet is close to the work place.
• Legal access to land is a
strategic prerequisite for the
provision of adequate shelter
for all
• Ineffective and equitable land
policies have resulted in:
– increased living costs
– the occupation of hazard-prone
land
– environmental degradation
– increased vulnerability of urban
and rural habitats
• Especially affecting
disadvantaged and vulnerable
groups, people living in
poverty and low-income
people
Importance of
land for housing
• Land rights in a unit of land can be
equated to a bundle of sticks.
• Each individual stick defines a way in
which the land may be: a) used b)
profit maybe derived, and c) disposed
to other people
• Each right in the parcel there is an
‘Owner”
• One owner may hold the registered
rights – “title deed”
• There can be a number of parties with
rights of different types in the same
piece of land.
– Legal right
– informal
Land and
property rights
Property rights
• Occupy, enjoy and use
• Restrict others from entry
• Sell, buy or inherit
• Develop or improve
• Cultivate or use for production
• Rent, sublet, or sublet and fix the rent (e.g. free of
rent control)
• Realise a pecuniary benefit from increased
property values or rental income
• Access services
• Access formal credit.
Security of
tenure
• Security is partly a matter of perception.
• Under international human rights law, secure tenure is
one of the seven components of the right to adequate
housing, which again is linked to the right to land.
– availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure
– affordability
– habitability
– accessibility
– location
– cultural adequacy
• An estimated 924 million people
are presently living without
secure tenure in informal
settlements in the urban areas of
developing countries
• Excluding a significant proportion
of urban populations from legal
shelter reduces
– the prospects of external investment
– improvement of house
– other services such as improved
water and sanitation and
– using house for economic purpose
– Decreased local and central
governments revenue from property
taxes
Importance
of tenure
policy
Is land titling an effective
means for improving tenure
security?
• Examples from other
countries on land titling
– It is extremely expensive
– Do not necessarily achieve
their objectives
– Not necessarily increased
access to credit
– Not prevented the growth of
new informal settlements
– Not reduce the vulnerability
to hazards.
• Provide basic short-term security
• Survey all extra-legal settlements
• Priority for relocation to sites that
offer close access to existing
livelihood opportunities
• Extra-legal settlements as
entitled to medium term forms of
tenure, not full titles
• Customary or communal tenure
options,
• Innovative land readjustment
techniques
Pro-poor
land
management
options
• Supply of planned, safe,
legal and affordable land on
a scale equal to present and
future demand.
– Revising planning regulations,
standards and administrative
procedures
– Introducing and collecting
property taxes on all urban
land,
– Permitting incremental
development of land
construction and services
provision
– Permitting households to
obtain basic services, such as
water, sanitation and electricity
Encouraging intermediate tenure options
• De facto tenure
• Anti-eviction laws
• Adverse possession
• Customary lands
• Group or commune tenure
• Leases (rentals, leaseholds and leases)
• Provisional, conditional and/or qualified titles or
deeds