Challenges and Innovations of Real Estate for Achieving Spatial Balance in Post-Disaster Countries

Abstract

While real estate is a significant pillar of stability among communities, it can also be the most vulnerable to disasters triggered by natural or man-made hazards, which cause the spatial dimension of metropolitan areas to be disturbed due to critical variables, such as land loss, societal collapse, and changes in population distribution resulting from refugee movements, which, in turn, affect properties, causing a fluctuation in terms of equality. In this regard, the precise monitoring of spatial imbalance is an eminent instrument for achieving socio-spatial sustainability via recovery strategies. This paper provides a systematic review of 96 studies in order to analyze the spatial challenges and innovations of real estate in the aftermath of disasters with realistic projections on five case studies—from Haiti, Nigeria, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and the United States of America—varying according to the type, size, and impact of the disaster, and real estate administrative arrangements. Through the review, the challenges embodied by the legal deficit and the multiplicity of real estate tenure systems in addition to the discrimination of access rights to real estate and the insecurity of property and, subsequently, forced migration movements are highlighted. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the spatial balance of real estate have been examined. Finally, real estate innovations are reviewed to investigate the extent to which real estate can promote the spatial balance of disaster-prone nations.