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What Getting Legal Land Title Really Means

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Listed:
  • Patricia Clarke Annez
  • Bijal Bhatt
  • Bimal Patel

Abstract

This article documents, for a neighbourhood in Ahmedabad, India, what would be involved for current occupants to regularise tenure and register legal title. We show that the process of clearing title can be expensive, fraught with risks and perhaps impossible to complete for either the current occupants or the owners of record. Staying on the land in their current ambiguous status seems viable for now, but investing in further development is very risky. We discuss these findings in the context of the debate about providing secure tenure to slum dwellers from two perspectives: (a) the practicality of providing legal tenure as part of neighbourhood upgrading programmes; (b) the impacts on the real estate market of a system that leaves many private plots, in slums or elsewhere, in legal limbo and difficult to develop—in essence an anti-commons. Both issues are of critical interest as India faces the challenge of urbanisation. JEL: R310, O170

Suggested Citation

  • Patricia Clarke Annez & Bijal Bhatt & Bimal Patel, 2017. "What Getting Legal Land Title Really Means," Review of Market Integration, India Development Foundation, vol. 9(1-2), pages 1-26, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:revmar:v:9:y:2017:i:1-2:p:1-26
    DOI: 10.1177/0974929217721762
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Alain Durand Lasserve & Harris Selod, 2009. "The Formalization of Urban Land Tenure in Developing Countries," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) hal-00813117, HAL.
    2. Carrie B. Kerekes & Claudia R. Williamson, 2010. "Propertyless in Peru, Even with a Government Land Title," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(3), pages 1011-1033, July.
    3. Erica Field, 2005. "Property Rights and Investment in Urban Slums," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(2-3), pages 279-290, 04/05.
    4. Field, Erica Marie, 2005. "Property Rights and Investment in Urban Slums," Scholarly Articles 3634150, Harvard University Department of Economics.
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