The Right to Land: To Whom Belongs after a Reconciliation Law in Egypt

Ahmed Mounir Soliman

doi:10.25034/ijcua.2022.v6n2-1

Abstract

A revolutionary book by De Soto to formalize land tenure by changing “dead capital” to “life capital” has become the trademark in Egypt of issuing a temporary reconciliation law of 2019 and its amendment to approve a legal certificate to the violators against a certain fee. The question is does this law legalize informal housing? Is it enough to introduce a legal certificate to secure land tenure for the violators? How would this law apply on the ground? Depending on the deductive methodology, this paper traces sociotechnical transitions concerning legalizing the status quo of building/land, tenure security, real-estate markets (formal/informal) caused by laws on buildings violations reconciliation. The idea is to take a step back and look at a wide-angle of the problem in the future to arrive at a clear picture of the influences of the introduction of a new law on the land market, before making a decision. The paper assumes that the temporary reconciliation law in Egypt is opening the debate on the alteration of land management to govern the status quo of the chaos of the right to land. It concludes this temporary reconciliation law has created a state of decayed/wealth, social inclusion/exclusion of the bottom of the social pyramid nevertheless to whom the justification is affected.

Highlights

Land is the main component of urban development, and it is the source of individual and communal identity, the basis for shelter, and it is considered as financing transitoriented development (Home, 2020; Suzuki et al, 2015)
The state is moving at all levels, on the one hand, it is working to legalize the conditions of violations to control informal urbanization and increase the value of real estate wealth and facilitate its circulation by buying and selling on the other hand
The BVTRL2019 sets difficult conditions that caused the spread of slums and illegal construction and entrusted the technical inspection body with the task of monitoring and follow-up to all the parties concerned with planning and organizing

Summary

Introduction

Land is the main component of urban development, and it is the source of individual and communal identity, the basis for shelter, and it is considered as financing transitoriented development (Home, 2020; Suzuki et al, 2015). Buildings that are defective in the safety of construction, Encroachment on the perpendicular organization lines and the official approved easement lines, Violations of buildings and facilities with distinctive architectural style, Exceeding the height restrictions established by the Civil Aviation Authority or exceeding the requirements of State Defense Affairs, Building on state-owned land, unless the person concerned has submitted an application to legalize his status in accordance with the law, Building on lands subject to the Antiquities Protection and Nile River Protection Law, and Changing the uses of areas for which detailed plans approved by the administrative authority have been issued The latter is including buildings outside the urban space except for the exceptions mentioned in the UBL2008. Instead of a citizen is selling a plot of agricultural land to buy a suitable location for construction, the citizen decides to build his house on his land out of jealousy from his neighbour or a refusal to take advantage of the price

The role of laws in shaping gentrification

Findings

Conclusions