Urban Land Markets And Land Price Changes

First published in 1997, this study is one of the forerunners in the area of urban land market and land price studies on a Third World city, focusing on Lucknow City in Uttar Pradesh, India, and exploring house prices, economic changes and construction. Amitabh responds to the 2nd Habitat Conference of 1996, which realised that housing conditions for lower income group people in most Third World cities have not improved, especially with regards to tenure, affordability and overall housing quality.

First published in 1997, this study is one of the forerunners in the area of urban land market and land price studies on a Third World city, focusing on Lucknow City in Uttar Pradesh, India, and exploring house prices, economic changes and construction. Amitabh responds to the 2nd Habitat Conference of 1996, which realised that housing conditions for lower income group people in most Third World cities have not improved, especially with regards to tenure, affordability and overall housing quality.

This collection of essays discusses the most important urban land issues now facing developing countries.

As urbanization progresses at a remarkable pace, policy makers and analysts come to understand and agree on key features that will make this process more efficient and inclusive, leading to gains in the welfare of citizens. Drawing on insights from economic geography and two centuries of experience in developed countries, the World Bank’s World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography emphasizes key aspects that are fundamental to ensuring an efficient rural-urban transformation. Critical among these are land, as the most important resource, and well-functioning land markets. Regardless of the stage of urbanization, flexible and forward-looking institu- ons that help the efficient functioning of land markets are the bedrock of succe- ful urbanization strategies. In particular, institutional arrangements for allocating land rights and for managing and regulating land use have significant implica- ons for how cities deliver agglomeration economies and improve the welfare of their residents. Property rights, well-functioning land markets, and the management and servicing of land required to accommodate urban expansion and provide trunk infrastructure are all topics that arise as regions progress from incipient urbani- tion to medium and high density.

The aim of this book is to bring methods of land-market and land-price analysis to the foreground. It relates substantive research findings for land and urban development and blends these with a focus on research design and methodology. Its findings have relevance beyond the topics of housing and land: it broaches the whole question of how research design and general approach may lead to fundamentally different findings, different priorities, and different policy prescriptions and preoccupations. It is based on work done in the Third World, but is also relevant to studies of the industrialized world.

Case study of Ahmedabad City.