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122Security of tenureUrban tenureinsecurity, by region(percentage)Source: Flood, 2001Urban spatial growth… have resulted in… displacement offarmers, illegal landseizures and growingtenure insecuritylevel, the pattern is the same, with between 40 and 70 percent of the population of Brazil’s main cities living in irregularsettlements and some 58 per cent of all households inSouth Africa living without security of tenure. 20The situation in Cambodia deserves some specialattention since everyone who returned to Phnom Penh afterthe collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime was a squatter:In 1979, when people first began to emergefrom the jungle into an empty, dilapidated city,they camped out in empty buildings and lit openfires to cook their rice. When all the houses andflats had been occupied, newcomers builtshelters wherever they could find space, alongriver banks and railway tracks, on streets, in theareas between buildings and on rooftops. 21To formalize this situation and provide the residents withsecurity of tenure, a new Land Law was adopted in 1992 andBox 5.6 When is tenure secure? The eviction of theGroup 78 community in Phnom Penh, CambodiaResidents of the Group 78 community in Phnom Penh had been living in the same locationsince the mid 1980s and had proof of their continuous ‘peaceful and uncontested possession’ ofthe land, as specified in Article 30 of the 1991 Land Law. Many of the residents had documentsissued by the local authorities recognizing their legal occupation of the land. They thus clearlymet the requirements of the Land Law.Yet, when they applied for formal title to the land in2004, their applications were refused. They thus lodged their case to the National CadastralCommission and the National Authority on Land Dispute Resolution. The verdict was negative.Their application was refused as their land was needed to ‘contribute to city beautification anddevelopment’. The Group 78 residents were informed by the local authorities in June 2006 thatthey would have to move to a resettlement area on the outskirts of the city.While the Land Law does provide for expropriation of land for the public interest,‘it isdoubtful whether the purported reason of “beautification” could fulfil this requirement. Ifacceptable, such vague wording would render the public interest test meaningless.’ A morelikely explanation may have been that the evictions were related to the increasing value of theirland. With land prices soaring, increasing sevenfold since the year 2000, the potential forcorruption is considerable. The US ambassador to Cambodia made the following observations:There’s too many land disputes, too many rich people, greedy companies. Property isreally the key to prosperity and freedom and once people are not secure in what theyown, everything else falls apart… Corruption is central to everything, at all levels. Idon’t know of any case of where a corrupt official has really gone to gaol here –certainly not from the ruling party.Source: ABC TV, 2006; Bristol, 2007aSquatters (no rent) Renters Other TotalSouthern Africa 8 16 6 29Rest of Africa 13 30 7 50China 5 2 8 15East Asia and Pacific, excluding Australasia 7 26 9 41South and Southeast Asia 14 31 5 50Middle East 8 28 6 42Western Europe 2 19 4 25North America and Australasia 1 10 4 16Latin America and the Caribbean 11 17 6 34World 7 17 4 28revised in 2001. As a result, any person who had enjoyedpeaceful, uncontested possession of land for no less than fiveyears prior to the promulgation of the law had the right torequest a definitive title of ownership. 22Having the right to request a definitive title andactually getting title are, however, two quite different things.Furthermore, many residents – particularly the poor – mayqualify for title under the law but are unaware both of theirstatus and of the procedures for requesting title. Whilevarious organizations have been working to increase thatawareness, they do not have the resources to reach all of thecountry’s families facing eviction. Even for those who areaware of their rights to possession and who can make aclaim, there are further obstructions: ‘Corruption has alsomade land titles difficult to obtain; an application for a landtitle can cost from US$200 to $700 in informal payments togovernment officials, a cost that is prohibitive for many.’ 23And then, even where people are aware of their rights, havemade their claim and have received official documents tothis effect, this does not mean that they have any security oftenure. A half-hour television documentary broadcast inAustralia in October 2006 exemplified the insecurity facedby many urban residents in Cambodia (see Box 5.6).In much of the developing world, it is not solely citiesthat are host to households without security of tenure. Inrural areas, agricultural land provides the sole basis ofincome for more than half a billion people. About half ofthese suffer some form of serious tenure insecurity due totheir status of tenant farmers, because they are landless, ordue to incomplete and dysfunctional land administrationsystems not suited to the prevailing circumstances. 24 Inaddition, rapid economic development – leading to urbanspatial growth – in countries such as China (see Box 5.7) andIndia have resulted in massive losses of farmland and thesubsequent displacement of farmers, illegal land seizuresand growing tenure insecurity. With particular regard toChina, from the mid 1980s onward, large swathes of ruralland near cities and towns have effectively entered the urbanland market, threatening security of tenure to land andhousing. 25 Between 1986 and 1996, 31 cities in Chinaexpanded their land area by some 50 per cent, most of thisformer farmland.Security of tenure problems are by no means isolatedto the developing world, and while they may manifest infundamentally different ways, declines in security of tenureare visible in many of the wealthier countries (see Box 5.8).In the UK, for instance, fewer and fewer people are able toaccess the property market due to rising costs and continuingdeclines in buyer affordability. 26 In the US, millions oftenants do not have adequate levels of secure tenureprotecting them from possible eviction. Moreover, peoplefacing eviction in the US do not have a right to counsel; as aresult, the scale of evictions in the US is far higher than itwould be if tenants were provided legal representation ineviction proceedings. 27 According to official figures, some25,000 evictions are carried out annually in New York Cityalone. 28 The Economist publishes annual figures outlininghousing price developments in a range of countries, indicatingthe upward trend over the past 15 years which, although