Pushing back the frontiers of property: Community land trusts and low-income housing in urban Kenya

Midheme, E. and Moulaert , F. (2013) Pushing back the frontiers of property: Community land trusts and low-income housing in urban Kenya. Land Use Policy, 35. pp. 73-84.

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Abstract

Property lies at the heart of the urban development process. While it creates the wealth needed to finance the urban economy, property can also be a source of disenfranchisement, especially among those unable to cope with the rules set by the market and facilitated by government policy. The hegemony of individual property particularly presents a paradox. Whereas individualised tenure theoretically confers the highest possible benefits in the property rights bundle, individualisation can also precipitate a wave of dispossession among poor households unable to neither meet stringent development regulations nor withstand market vicissitudes. This paper explores the possibility of developing alternative forms of property capable of meeting the practical housing needs of the urban poor. Specifically, the paper discusses the community land trust (CLT) as an innovative form of property capable of facilitating low-income housing provision. Based on an analysis of the Tanzania-Bondeni community land trust recently implemented in Voi, we argue that CLTs constitute a powerful innovation for low-income housing provision in urban Kenya. However, CLTs employ an intricate legal framework and institutional design that can be daunting, while their long-term success demands community commitment and effective leadership that may be hard to guarantee.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Property rights, Community land trusts, Common property, The rightto the city, Kenya
Author Affiliation: Department of Architecture, Urbanism and Planning (ASRO), University of Leuven, Belgium
Subjects: Social Sciences > Agricultural Economics
Divisions: General
Depositing User: Mr Arbind Seth
Date Deposited: 26 Aug 2013 06:25
Last Modified: 26 Aug 2013 06:25
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2013.05.005
URI: http://eprints.icrisat.ac.in/id/eprint/11483

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