Urban land delivery

Abstract

There has been rapid growth in urban populations in Namibia (Pendleton et al, 2014). This growth is amongst predominantly amongst less educated, poorer migrants from rural areas in search of opportunities in urban areas. From the data available the estimated shortfall of either titled land or houses appears to be above 150 000 and increasing at about 11 000 per year (Weber, 2017). This trend of urbanisation is occurring not only in Namibia but across the world, particularly now in developing countries. Continued urban migration should be encouraged, as even though new urban migrants are poor, by and large their lives are better in urban areas. However, the delivery of titled land in urban areas in Namibia has been hamstrung by several legislative and regulatory procedures with a number of negative consequences (De Vries, 2009).