a framework for reforming urban land policies in ... - UN-HABITAT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................ 5
A. Need for Urban Land Policy Reform.................................................................................. 5
B. Urban Land Policy Problems.............................................................................................. 6
C. Guidelines for Reforming Urban Land Policies ................................................................. 7
The First Step to Reform: The Land Market Assessment....................................................... 7
The Second Step: Decentralize Land Management Authority ............................................... 8
The Third Step: Deregulate..................................................................................................... 8
The Fourth Step: Curtail Public Land Development Agencies .............................................. 8
The Fifth Step: Improve Efficiency of Land Market Operations ........................................... 8
The Sixth Step: Provide the Financial, Institutional and Spatial Structure for Installing
Infrastructure Networks .......................................................................................................... 8
I. RETHINKING URBAN LAND POLICIES: THE CHALLENGE OF THE 1990s................. 12
A. Objective of Paper............................................................................................................. 12
B. Organization of Paper ....................................................................................................... 13
II. WHY URBAN LAND POLICIES NEED REFORM............................................................. 14
A. Coping with Massive Urbanization .................................................................................. 14
The Importance of Flexibility and Accommodation................................................................. 17
B. Economic Importance of Cities ........................................................................................ 20
Land as the platform for economic activity .......................................................................... 20
C. Improving Urban Economic Productivity......................................................................... 21
Land use regulations retard economic dynamism................................................................. 23
Flexibility and industrial restructuring...................................................................................... 24
Making land-use planning “market friendly” ........................................................................... 25
III LAND MARKET PROBLEMS: TOO MUCH GOVERNMENT IN THE WRONG
PLACES, NOT ENOUGH GOVERNMENT IN THE RIGHT PLACES ................................... 27
A. What Urban Land Policies Should Do.............................................................................. 27
B. Too Much Government..................................................................................................... 29
Irrelevant and costly physical plans and regulations ............................................................ 29
Most master plans spawn rigid regulations........................................................................... 29
The price effects of strict land-use controls.......................................................................... 32
Escaping from strict land-use controls: the informal sector ................................................. 32
Inappropriate regulations and standards ............................................................................... 34
Procedural delays and red tape ............................................................................................. 36
Public land development....................................................................................................... 36
Urban land policy is too centralized ..................................................................................... 38
C. Not Enough Government .................................................................................................. 39
Poor titling registration and tenure security.......................................................................... 39
Limited infrastructure capacity............................................................................................. 40
Joint public-private real estate development......................................................................... 41
IV. MAKING THE NECESSARY REFORMS: SOME GUIDELINES ................................... 43
A. The First Step to Reform: The Land Market Assessment................................................. 43
B. The Second Step: Decentralize Land Management Authority ......................................... 45
C. The Third Step: Deregulate............................................................................................... 45
D. The Fourth Step: Curtail Public Land Development Agencies ........................................ 46
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