Abstract
The Smart City Scheme, as part of the Smart Mauritius initiative, adopted by the Government of Mauritius in 2014, heavily incentivised the emergence of new smart cities in greenfields. The resulting migration of business and residents from existing cities to new cities affected the liveability standard of existing cities and encouraged property speculation. This shift reduced home pricing affordability further from the grasp of young professionals. With the Mauritian Landlord and Tenant Act of 1999 discouraging investment in Mauritian city centres, property developers were additionally encouraged to invest in housing projects in these emerging Smart Cities. As part of the Smart Urban Regeneration strategy of Port Louis that sought to reduce competition between new and existing cities, the provision of housing was seen as paramount to enabling the Smart Cities concept as promoted by the Government. The findings of this paper, which explores the urban footprint of Port Louis through field survey, provides insights, as to the components of the city, that can assist policy-makers and developers to better shape projects that are more responsive to the Smart Urban Regeneration plan.
Highlights
Urban regeneration internationally is theorized as a process aiming to regenerate predating urban areas to improve the quality of life of their host community [1]
This research investigation builds upon the previous research of Allam and Newman [6] whom proposed a framework for economically incentivising positive urban regeneration in Port Louis
The findings of the survey revealed that the Port Louis Central Business District (CBD) hosted more private owners than tenants, and that tenants affected by the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1999 represent only 8% of the CBD
Summary
Urban regeneration internationally is theorized as a process aiming to regenerate predating urban areas to improve the quality of life of their host community [1]. Mauritian cities like the Municipal City Council of Port Louis are losing capital investment and suffering business erosion that is further impacting negatively upon municipal rates and revenue [10]. This situation is furthered hampered because 95% of revenue and rates gathered by the Municipal City Council are oriented towards paying administrative and internal budgetary operations [11]. Adopted in the Mauritian National Budget of 2018–2019 [14], this Scheme encourages investment in the public realm and was devised to catalyse the injection of funds in property assets with the aims to revitalise urban fabric and to increase liveability levels through the application of Smart Technologies.
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