The limits of land titling and home ownership
Open Access
- 29 September 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Environment and Urbanization
- Vol. 21 (2), 443-462
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247809344364
Abstract
This paper reviews whether land titling programmes have achieved the benefits claimed by their proponents. It finds that they have generally failed to do so. Investment in land and housing, access to formal credit, and municipal revenues have not increased noticeably more than under other tenure regimes, including those that allow many unauthorized settlements, and there is no significant evidence of poverty levels being reduced. Titling does provide increased tenure security — but many alternative forms of tenure, including those in many informal settlements, also provide high levels of security. In addition, in many nations, land titles do not necessarily protect people from eviction and expropriation of their land. Land titling often fails to increase access to credit, and low-income households who obtain titles are often as reluctant to take loans as banks are to lend to them. Titling also does not necessarily improve infrastructure and services provision, while many settlements have obtained improved provision without titles.Keywords
This publication has 11 references indexed in Scilit:
- Community involvement in land regularization for informal settlements in Tanzania: A strategy for enhancing security of tenure in residential neighborhoodsHabitat International, 2006
- Whose land? The political economy of land titling in transitional economiesLand Use Policy, 2006
- The regulatory framework, unplanned development and urban poverty: Findings from Dar es Salaam, TanzaniaLand Use Policy, 2005
- Property Rights and Investment in Urban SlumsJournal of the European Economic Association, 2005
- The formalisation of property in Peru 2001-2002: the case of LimaHabitat International, 2004
- On the mystery of capital and the myths of Hernando de Soto: What difference does legal title make?International Development Planning Review, 2002
- What is secure tenure in urban Egypt?Published by Practical Action Publishing ,2002
- The process of urban land tenure formalisation in PeruPublished by Practical Action Publishing ,2002
- Review of de Soto's The Mystery of CapitalJournal of Economic Literature, 2001
- The Determinants and Impact of Property Rights: Land Titles on the Brazilian FrontierJournal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 1996