Players in urban informal land markets; who wins? who loses? A case study of Cebu City

Abstract

This paper describes how informal land developments for housing, more typically associated with the urban poor, are increasingly attracting middle-income households, and how low income households lose out in comparison to middle and upper income households in the purchase and sale of land for housing. Drawing on research in five informal settlements in Cebu, it suggests that low income households often sell land cheaper because of crisis-sales (as money is needed quickly) or because of a greater fear of reprisal because they are selling land they do not own. Low income households also seem to sell land plots cheaper because they perceive their value to be lower than when middle or upper income households sell comparable plots. This contributes over time to the residential segregation of income groups between informal settlements in cities such as Cebu, with the low income groups concentrated on the poorest quality, least desirable sites as they are no longer able to enter the wider informal land market for housing.