Assessing the effects of informal settlements on land market in Kampala.

Abstract

Formal accessibility to land and housing has remained the biggest challenge in urban areas by the urban poor and even the rich. Consequently, informal mechanisms of accessing land and housing have emerged. This caused the emergence of informal housing thus informal settlements in many urban areas. Although urban population in Kampala has continued to increase, and there has been fail to put up mechanisms in place to contain the effect of such population increase on housing developments and settlement expansions. Thus more informal settlements have continued to emerge in suburbs and peri-urban areas of Kampala, like katwe parish Makindye division. This implies that virtually all land transactions take place in such a set up and therefore this research addresses and identifies informal settlements and their characteristics in katwe parish the land tenure types prone to informal settlements, the performance of the land markets in such settlements and challenges caused settlements on land markets. The study found out that informal settlements are the major reason for the continued dominance of informal land markets in katwe Makindye division, Kampala. Therefore there is need to rejuvenate the performance of the formal land market in such settlements by improving the conditions in such settlements and other planning regulations through massive sensitizations on the significance of urban planning, regular building inspections and development controls, opening roads, Improving on plan approval processes, Unifying land tenure systems, Establishing an urban land fund for the urban poor.