Regularizing housing land development during the transition to market-led supply in Tanzania

Abstract

This paper discusses housing land supply problems associated with the transition from administrative land allocation to market-led supply system that was proclaimed in the 1995 national land policy in Tanzania. It underscores the serious resource constraints facing both the central and local government authorities and questions the applicability of the Western-tailored housing land management concepts in resource starved situations such as Tanzania. Using empirical observation from two informal settlements in Dar es Salaam, the paper unveils latent housing land regularization potentials which can be deployed to regulate informal housing land; and engender semi-regularization of `guided’ land development and ultimately mitigate future problems associated with retrofitting informal land development. This paper suggests that the long overdue public intervention strategy in the flourishing informal housing land transaction and development lies in adapting the hitherto neglected opportunities identified in the informal sector.