Through history land has been recognized as a primary source of wealth, social status and power. Land constitutes one of the factors of production and access to it and use decisions of this key resource remains critical.
The rising urban population and correspondingly increase in demand for land needs caution in the context of land information, efficient utilization of urban land and transparent land governance,access and land use decisions.
Access to land is a major key to development and thus providing the population with access to land and empowering them to make effective use of it is central to social-economic transformation.
Suffice to note is that limited access to land and barriers involved are a hindrance to development. For example, the issue of security involves “titling system, registration process, collateral rules, and transfer of property rights”, while Use embraces location permits, construction/building permits, and environmental impact assessment and utility connections.
This calls for enabling laws and policies to ease access to land because urban land involves not only access to working space or the physical availability of land or business premises but it further relates to various interrelated factors that deserve attention.
These may include attractive affordability and availability of land, living environment, and availability of social services, proximity to markets and communication links.
Also this requires good land governance by which decisions regarding access to, and use of, land are made, the manner in which those decisions are implemented, and the way conflicting interests in land are resolved or reconciled.
Access to land for development in urban areas housing development remains a big challenge especially to the poor majority of whom are forced to live in slums and squatter settlements. Lack of access to land is responsible for increasing cost of living, proliferation of slums and informal settlements and environmental degradation.
The slums are characterized by unplanned neighbourhoods, with poor road network, poor drainage, sanitation and waste disposal characterized by solid waste dumping in the neighbourhood and liquid waste disposal into the water sources leading to contamination of water sources and increase in disease especially during the rainy season. All these pose serious dangers to the urban population.
There are several factors limiting access to land and this lack of financial power because land is sold to the highest bidder and, therefore the low income earners who lack economic power to gain access to urban land for housing construction in suitable locations suffer severe accessibility challenges.
Whereas most urban areas have the young enterprising middle income youth, most of these may not find a chance to own homes because of the increasing demand for urban land whose prices appreciates now and again.
But Mr Herbert Tushabe the executive director Amity Realtor in Mbarara City said its high time urban planners and authorities worked with other key players in the housing sector to avoid limited access to land to avoid the challenges this can come with.
“There should be interventions to see land access and use in urban areas is given a priority. There are several innovations that stakeholders come up with to solve for example through public –private partnerships. Government can partner with real estate players to build affordable houses,” Mr Tushabe explained.
He noted without such interventions urban areas will be full of informal settlements like slums, environmental degradation, increased vulnerability of the urban poor and crime.
Mr Tushabe added that a recent research they carried out in Mbarara City indicated that majority people who are renting wanted to own their homes but added without interventions to make access to land manageable this will not be possible.
Land access and use in urban areas differs from that in rural areas because of regulations and restrictions like zoning and physical planning regulations. At times this brings the misconception that land in urban areas belongs to towns but this is not. But for more information about land access and use in urban areas reach us at Kyosiga House, Markhan Singh Street in Mbarara City.