Access to serviced land for the urban poor: the regularization paradox in Mexico

Abstract

The insufficient supply of serviced land at affordable prices for the urban poor and the need for regularization of the consequent illegal occupations in urban areas are two of the most important issues on the Latin American land policy agenda. Taking a structural/integrated view on the functioning of the urban land market in Latin America, this paper discusses the nexus between the formal and the informal land markets. It thus exposes the perverse feedback effects that curative regularization policies may have on the process by which irregularity is produced in the first place. The paper suggests that a more effective approach to the provision of serviced land for the poor cannot be resolved within the prevailing (curative) regularization programs. These programs should have the capacity to mobilize the resources that do exist into a comprehensive program that links regularization with fiscal policy, including the exploration of value capture mechanisms.

Keywords

• land market
• land policies
• poverty
• urban land regularization