Characteristics of House Ownership and Tenancy Status in Informal Settlements in the City of Kitwe in Zambia

Abstract

The evolution and development of informal settlements is hypothesized to be associated with the denial of the urban poor and the low income individuals access to urban residential land for housing development. Though this assertion is strongly defended by most urban planners and local government decision makers, the emerging hypothesis, which seems to have some validity, is the significant role played by small scale landlords in the supply of housing in the informal housing market to generate rentals from the low income. It is purported in the literature that, the rapid growth of informal settlements within some major cities in the developing world is as a result of small scale landlords who build houses in informal settlements to be rented out to the needy. This is an intriguing assertion that requires some empirical investigation. The paper is an attempt to validate the assertion with respect to the mushrooming and growth of informal settlements in the City of Kitwe in Zambia which is encircled with approximately thirty informal settlements. The evidence from the research proved that, a large segment of the urban residents lives in rental accommodation in squatter settlements. The supply of informal rental housing built without following planning procedures or local authority by-laws is growing much faster than formal housing. Furthermore, house-building in informal settlements by entrepreneurial landlords or informal residents takes place without regard to planning rules or construction standards.

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