Formalisation of land rights in the South: An overview

Formalisation of property rights has recently been proposed as a way of reducing poverty. The poor, it is said, do not lack assets, they lack only the formal, protected rights necessary to make these assets engines of entrepreneurship, thriving markets, and information networks. Historical evidence with regard to formalisation programmes is, however, mixed at best, and current universalist proposals contain numerous flaws. A more context-specific and flexible approach is needed, with greater attention to local settings and specific objectives and tools. Property formalisation should not be considered merely a technical tool but must take account of politics and culture.     

Delineation of property rights as institutional foundations for urban land markets in transition

This paper aims to critically reflect on establishing the new frameworks for land markets and urban land development processes in countries in transition. Based on the doctrine of the so-called ‘property rights’ school, land and property ownership has long been identified as a prerequisite for economic development. The common advice to countries in transition creating new frameworks for land markets was to assign and register property rights. The aim of this paper is to discuss the significance of the delineation of property rights, which for urban land development processes and outcomes falls mainly within the remit of land use regulations. In this paper the concept of property rights regime and its characteristics is developed in order to discuss the delineation of property rights and their relationship with urban land development process and its outcome. Process of land development is conceptualized depending on land ownership (private or public), and the role of the owner in the planning process. The outcome is discussed based on the morphological results and the provision of urban infrastructure. On the basis of empirical experience from transition period in Poland it is argued that the emphasis on private property rights in the absence of the institutional foundations of urban land market under capitalism was bound to produce urban problems. First, the new institutional foundation for urban land market was introduced subsequent to dynamic of emerging real estate market, and viable markets existed despite unsolved question of restitution of property rights. Second, the subsequent delineation of property rights is clearly linked to processes of urban land development, which follow the line of development without planning. It can also be related to the morphological results of urban development like the haphazard location of investments and lack of adequate approach to deal with the provision of urban infrastructure.     

Intermediate levels of property rights and the emerging housing market in Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam

Vietnam introduced a Policy of Renovation (‘Doi Moi’ Policy) to restructure the economy in 1986. Under this policy, the Land Use Right Certificate was introduced as a form of tenure for agricultural land and urban land, according to the Land Laws of 1987 and 1993, respectively. However, by 2001, most properties and/or land in Vietnam still did not have a legal title. Although Vietnam's land reforms in the 1990s provided some of the weakest private rights among the transition countries, big cities like Ho Chi Minh City are presently homes to thriving housing markets. Transactions of ‘property without a physical entity and legal title’ in the real estate market show how property ownership can be formed in order to operate within different institutional contexts. This paper highlights that ‘intermediate levels of property rights’ are the driving forces behind the thriving housing market in Ho Chi Minh City.     

房价对城乡财产性收入差距的影响研究

住房问题关乎国计民生,房价成为影响城乡发展差距变动的重要因素。文章聚焦房价上涨对城乡家庭财产性收入差距变动的影响,并基于2005—2018年我国31个省级行政区域面板数据,采用固定效应模型与动态面板系统GMM估计方法,对房价如何影响城乡财产性收入差距变动进行实证研究。研究发现,房价上涨会显著拉大城乡财产性收入差距,并且这种影响存在区域差异性。文章认为应调整预防房价上涨的相关政策,落实中央"房住不炒"定位,以缓解房价上涨导致的城乡家庭财产性收入差距过大现象,助力推进社会高质量发展。     

Redefining property rights over collective land in the urban redevelopment of Shenzhen,China

Urban development in China is based on two types of land ownership, namely, state land owned by states and collective land owned by village collectives. Legally speaking, urban development must be based on state land. In practice, informal development based on collective land has played important roles in the rapid urbanization process over the past decades. Nonetheless, the vague property rights over collective land have led to inferior and suboptimal development outcomes in expansive urban areas. The redevelopment of collective land has become an important means to sustain urban development in an ongoing urbanization process. By adopting theoretical perspectives from New Institutional Economics, this study presents an integrated conceptual framework on the institutional arrangements of land property rights and transaction costs to understand the changes in land policies and their institutional implications for the redevelopment of collective land in Shenzhen, China. The findings reveal that the new policies have redefined the relationship among the government, village collectives, and real estate developers as well as their property rights over collective land. The change of institutional arrangements in land property rights has significantly reduced the transaction costs in the redevelopment process and effectively promoted land redevelopment activities.     

ZEIS maps: Comparing areas to be earmarked exclusively for social housing in São Paulo city

The Special Zones of Social Interest (Zonas Especiais de Interesse Social – ZEIS) are urban areas specifically earmarked under municipal law for social housing purposes. ZEIS maps demarcated under São Paulo city’s Master Plans – 2002 and 2014 – were examined to quantify the changes over the years and to provide starting point data to evaluate of the limits and the possibilities for further socioeconomic and legal analysis. The zoning impacts were assessed by numeric and cartographic comparison using the available socioeconomic maps and reports produced by the municipality. A post-occupation (a posteriori) zoning (ZEIS type 1 representing 9.4% of municipal area) followed the expansion of the informal settlements, thus providing a first step for assessing the land tenure, while a pre-occupation (a priori) zoning (ZEIS types 2, 3, 4 and 5 representing 2.3% of municipal area) is an important measure for designating land for social housing purposes, even if they do maintain the segregated occupation pattern on the periphery. Upgrading programs have been disappointing, considering the amount of informally occupied land; similarly, property regularization in the land registry offices reveals a lack of political priority and rare provision of public goods and amenities. For vacant land, determining the social function of property remains a challenge because less than 10% of land use intended for social housing projects was implemented as planned. Housing deficit and inequality remain as complex problems. Obviously ZEIS as a zoning tool is still unable to make the fairest occupation processes possible, not being an isolated solution, but if it is used correctly with other innovative measures and housing solutions, satisfactory results can be achieved.     

Property rights and western United States water markets*

This paper addresses water scarcity issues in the American West and examines the allocation of water through the appropriative rights system and the extent markets are used to reallocate water from low‐ to high‐valued uses. The unique physical properties of water make it difficult to bound and measure, which makes defining property rights difficult. Markets are also impeded by disputes over third‐party effects due to the interdependencies of water users and complex institutional arrangements that dilute decision‐making authority. Analysis of water trading in the western United States indicates that the rate of permanent transfers is increasing over time and urban users are paying higher prices relative to agricultural users.     

Property rights of urban underground space in China: A public good perspective

With the booming development of urban underground space in China, “fuzzy” property rights of this special form of land use type are not only the cause of ownership disputation and registration chaos, but also may seriously delay the undertaking of related underground land laws or regulations. China's emerging property rights issue of urban underground space, especially the delimitation of the surface and ground or underground, is facing such a challenge. This article aims to identify the property rights of urban underground space by using a practical method that classifies the underground space as economic goods, and to analyze attributes of different property rights of urban underground space within the theoretical framework of public goods. We use civil defense projects and underground parking lots as case studies. Both case studies are the most utilized types and controversial ownership cases of urban underground space in present China. Our case studies indicate that it is a feasible method to avoid the delimitation of the start-stop height of 3D property right vertically, and directly define the attributes of surface and underground property rights in line with the supply mode of goods. Our results show that the method proposed in this study can effectively solve the dispute of property rights against problems rising with unclear contract and lags in the legislation of urban underground space and clearly delimited the interests boundaries among different parties of property rights for urban underground space. Ultimately, this study may offer better insight into the utilization and registration work of urban underground space in China as well as reference for countries with similar property rights issues.     

A social-media-based approach to assessing the effectiveness of equitable housing policy in mitigating education accessibility induced social inequalities in Shanghai,China

Social inequalities induced by education accessibility are widespread and concern land use policy makers globally. Yet much of existing research heavily emphasizes on uncovering the spatial patterns of housing price in relation to education resources. This paper aims to renew our understanding of this classical topic by bringing the importance of temporal and institutional dynamics to the fore. Specifically, this research presents a detailed examination of the relationship between school quality and housing rental dynamics under the intervention of equitable housing policy, with special reference to Shanghai, the most developed megacity in China, also one of the first Chinese cities granting equal rights for renters to access schools within the catchment area. Based on time-series housing rental data collected from social media, the t-test discovers that school quality has a significant impact on housing rental prices after the introduction of this new housing policy. Moreover, housing rental prices within high-quality school districts are significantly higher than those within ordinary school districts. The hedonic model and variance partitioning further confirm that school quality is capitalized into housing rental prices, and its relative contribution varies with temporal periods. More specifically, how the relative contribution of school quality changes over time is consistent with the schedule of primary school enrollment and sensitive to policy intervention. The difference in difference model foregrounds that the equitable housing policy does result in rental prices hike in high-quality school districts, i.e., a 13.5 % rental premium of housings within high-quality school districts compared with those within ordinary ones. We conclude that the equitable housing policy fails to achieve the expected goal and propose alternative suggestions for mitigating social inequalities in education accessibility. This study demonstrates a novel methodological framework for evaluating the social consequence of equitable housing policy based on social media data. It unravels how housing rental changes with school district division and the capitalization effect of school quality in housing rental prices.     

Incomplete privatization of public rental housing in Hong Kong

The delineation of the land occupied by Public Rental Housing (PRH) is a contentious issue in worldwide debates over PRH privatization. Heated arguments hold that governments should retain the occupied land for mitigating inequalities that privatization might provoke. Dual-role policies arise concerning both efficiency and equality. This research seeks to decode actual consequences of such policies based on their implementation in Hong Kong, with a specific focus on the Tenants Purchase Scheme (TPS). Intended to enliven PRH within needy families, the TPS policy instead resulted in dormant resale of privatized PRH with adverse effects on target groups. Hypotheses on how the TPS policy has affected housing resale are developed based on property rights and searching theories and tested against empirical data. This research offers a theoretical basis for exploring solutions to the unanticipated aftermath of Hong Kong’s PRH privatization and provides information for other governments on implications of privatization strategies.     

The role of land planning policies in supporting housing affordability: The case of the Gaza Strip

The Gaza Strip suffers from a limited amount of land compared to the population growth rate. This imposes several challenges on urban planners in managing housing land in a way that protects housing affordability, especially for the low-income category. In general, housing in the Gaza Strip is unaffordable, for several reasons, including a recent abnormal rise in urban land prices. The study investigated this issue based on a survey of local housing specialists in addition to residents. The study found that to support housing affordability in Gaza, planning solutions that ensure efficient use of urban land in the first place need to be implemented. Furthermore, two parallel actions are required: (i) to implement measures that increase housing land supply and improve security of land tenure; and (ii) to establish a robust and effective housing finance system that fits the socio-economic situation in the Gaza Strip.     

House prices,housing development costs,and the supply of new single-family housing in German counties and cities

This paper investigates the determinants of new single-family housing supply in local housing markets in Germany, using construction permits as the dependent variable. The empirical estimations are based on a panel data-set for 413 German counties and cities spanning the time period of 2004–2010. Employing dynamic panel data analysis, the findings suggest that the local ratio of existing home prices to housing construction costs and past local permit rates act as important drivers of new local housing investment. The average long-run price elasticity of new single-family housing supply is considerably less than one, but sizeable differences exist across the urban hierarchy.     

Strategic use of land policy instruments for affordable housing – Coping with social challenges under scarce land conditions in Swiss cities

For decades, many cities have introduced densification policy objectives to stop urban sprawl or to promote efficient use of natural resources. In the urban housing sector, however, densification projects often intensify social challenges. Due to rising rents after modernization of existing housing stocks as a consequence of densification, low-income tenants are forced to leave their apartments. Risks of social exclusion and segregation increase simultaneously.In this article, we analyze how municipal planning authorities cope with affordable housing shortages in a context of urban densification. Specifically, we ask: How do municipal planning authorities promote affordable housing in densifying cities? To answer this research question, we apply a neoinstitutional analysis approach to better understand (1) the basic mechanisms of how land policy instruments impact affordability, and (2) why specific instruments are activated to defend affordable housing objectives. Through qualitative case study analysis of four Swiss urban municipalities, our results show that the mere availability of land policy instruments is not sufficient but that the strategic activation of specific instruments matters.     

Participation in property formation: Insights from land-use planning in an informal urban settlement in Tanzania

This study argues that where land-use planning of any kind is conducted, it plays a supporting role that enables the property formation process to be effective. It uses evidence from Makongo Juu Settlement (in Tanzania) to reveal that the participation of actors with various levels of tenure awareness is necessary for property formation (land parceling). As the study is case-study focused, it uses data collected through a mix of procedures—including in-depth interviews, survey questionnaires, and documentary processes—analyzed qualitatively. Findings confirm that land-use planning introduces or embeds formal rules and regulations that govern the use of land. Furthermore, the study presents the affected persons’ narratives of their involvement in the property formation process. This medium allowed for an understanding of their perspectives of the property formation in the context of land-use planning. Apart from these empirical revelations (among other findings), the study contributes to land administration and land management literature in three ways. First, it outlines a typical outlook of formal and informal land development processes. Second, it deconstructs property formation in the context of land-use planning in an informal settlement. Thirdly, it presents the typical categories of actors (including their roles and viewpoints) in the participatory property formation process in an informal settlement. The study recommends that cadastral surveying (Property formation) and land-use planning should be better integrated for the formalization of property rights. This recommendation is considered necessary because there is evidence that land-use planning assigns rights (including restrictions and obligations or responsibilities) that owners and users of land have to follow in the property formation process.     

Impact of formalisation of property rights in informal settlements: Evidence from Dar es Salaam city

This paper aims to study the responsiveness of the informal property market and management systems towards the introduction of land registration for informal settlements in Tanzania. City governments are increasingly recognising the need to strengthen legal rights for the urban poor as a means to bring them more effectively into the urban economy and ensure better provision of water, sanitation and other primary services. The research focuses on Tanzania and in particular two case studies within Dar es Salaam. The findings of the work suggest that the introduction of residential licenses whilst potentially assisting in creating legal certainty has not resulted in the financial sector accepting them as full security against loans. Accessing credit by the poor however has not yet been fully realised resulting in some further hurdles for the financial sector to overcome. Finally, and of some significance is the registration of property in the informal settlements has provided the opportunity of formal property transactions within these settlements.     

Patterns of revenue distribution in rural residential land consolidation in contemporary China: The perspective of property rights delineation

Rural residential land consolidation (RRLC) in contemporary China refers to activities related to the replanning and reallocation of rural residential land to construct new rural residences, to increase land-use efficiency and to improve rural amenities in the context of rural revitalization. The objective of this study is to elucidate the patterns of revenue distribution in RRLC by addressing the following questions. Given incomplete and ambiguous formal rules in China, how can rural land property rights be delineated to distribute and coordinate interests among stakeholders in RRLC? Furthermore, what are the factors that determine the delineation of rural land property rights to distribute land revenue? A theoretical framework for the delineation of rural land property rights is developed from the perspectives of the institutional environment, governance and resource allocation. A comparative analysis of two typical cases of RRLC in contemporary China is conducted to support the research hypotheses. This study finds that bargaining power is the fundamental determinant of delineating rural land property rights to distribute revenue in RRLC. Furthermore, intergovernmental competition motivates the local government to fully deploy strong bargaining power, while concerns about social stability provide some constraints. A strong capability for collective action reinforces the bargaining power of rural households. This study provides new insights into the delineation of rural land property rights and subsequent revenue distribution based on distinctive institutional settings and RRLC in China, enriching the theoretical and empirical findings in the property rights school. Policy recommendations on revenue sharing of RRLC are proposed accordingly.     

The impact of different land-supplying channels on the supply of housing

As Hong Kong's property prices have been skyrocketing particularly in the last several years, housing has become even less affordable than it was prior to the Asian Financial Crisis, compromising Hong Kong residents’ living standards. The general public mostly blames the supply-side actors (i.e. property developers and/or the government) for such a predicament, and vociferously demands for higher supply of residential flats both in the private and public sectors. The government, in response, proposes the supply of more residential land, among other measures, in addressing the public's demands, with the notion of “higher land supply results in higher housing supply”. Nonetheless, there are other channels, other than land sale, which provide land for housing construction, such as land exchange, which are usually overlooked in public debates. In the light of this, this paper aims to investigate the respective impact of land sale and land exchange on Hong Kong's housing supply. The findings, interestingly, show that land exchange has a much larger long-run impact on housing supply than land sale does; that housing supply responds to short-run fluctuations in property price; and that best lending rate has neither a short- nor long-run relationship with the supply of housing. The reason behind the finding regarding land sale and land exchange is that, the former is initiated by the government which overlooks property developers’ profit incentives and development strategies, while the latter essentially reflects that a particular land site is ripe for development (i.e. profitable) from the developers’ standpoint. Some implications relating to the recently announced government land policy measures are also discussed.     

The Effects of Housing Prices, Wages, and Commuting Time on Joint Residential and Job Location Choices

An empirical model of joint decisions of where to live and where to work demonstrates that individuals make residential and job location choices by trading off wages, housing prices, and commuting costs. Wages are higher in metropolitan markets, but housing prices are also higher in urban areas. Consumers can live in lower priced nonmetropolitan houses and still earn urban wages, but they incur commuting costs that increase with distance from the city. Improvements in transportation that lower commuting time will increase nonmetropolitan populations and will increase the number of nonmetropolitan commuters to metropolitan markets. Equal wage growth across labor markets causes a shift in relative population from rural to urban markets, while an equiproportional increase in housing prices causes a population shift toward rural areas.     

Public housing in Singapore

Since gaining independence, Singapore has undergone a massive urban transformation. This is largely the result of the country's successful economic strategy, which has seen a pronounced shift from post-colonial depression to a self-confident and expanding industrial economy. The achievements in public housing are part of this programme of modernization, but should also be viewed in the light of the country's special circumstances. Singapore's large population and its limited land area are the two major constraints which have encouraged the development of high-rise and high-density housing. Furthermore, the centralization of national and local government functions has afforded considerable autonomy to statutory boards and development agencies, thereby facilitating the promotion and organization of change. This paper focuses on the quantitative achievements of the Housing and Development Board (HDB) in the field of public housing which have, indeed, been impressive.