Impact of Insecure Land Tenure on Sustainable Housing Development: A Case Study of Urban Housing Lands in the Republic of Benin, West Africa

Serge G. N. Ekpodessi () and Hitoshi Nakamura
Additional contact information
Serge G. N. Ekpodessi: Department of Planning, Architecture and Environmental Systems, College of Systems Engineering and Science, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo 135-8548, Japan
Hitoshi Nakamura: Department of Planning, Architecture and Environmental Systems, College of Systems Engineering and Science, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo 135-8548, Japan

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 21, 1-29

Abstract: This study focuses on land tenure in an urban environment. Specifically, it intends to elucidate the influence of land tenure security on access to housing in urban communities. The conurbation of Grand Nokoué, which is an agglomeration of five cities in the Republic of Benin, West Africa, captures attention due to its particular features as a developing city. Based on the literature, this study outlined three major factors of insecure land tenure, namely, lack of recognition by authorities, lack of protection from eviction or expulsion, and informal community-based rights. In addition, we examined four characteristics of relevant housing issues, namely, the development of shantytowns, the multiplicity of precarious housing, the loss of housing for the development of public projects, and exposure to house demolition under judicial decision, to formulate our hypotheses. The results of field observation and semi-structured interviews supported the hypotheses and demonstrated that legal access to land, the protection of the population from anarchic eviction, and informal community-based rights may positively influence the development of sustainable urban housing.

Keywords: insecure tenure; land tenure; urban housing; conurbation; Republic of Benin (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/21/15497/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/21/15497/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:21:p:15497-:d:1271821

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().