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Abstract
In many cities in low- and middle-income countries, a sizable proportion of households live in informal housing. This paper proposes a framework for analysing the connections between formal and informal housing markets, both at the city-level in terms of the mechanisms that link the two housing markets, and at the individual-level in terms of the preferences of residents for whom informal housing is a possible housing choice. The framework identifies the mechanisms by which formal and informal housing markets are connected at the city-level, including competition, disamenity or negative spillover, and redevelopment or positive spillover. Informal housing in Mumbai serves as an empirical case to demonstrate the applicability of this framework. Results from field research suggest that the connection between formal and informal housing markets is dynamic – it can work in different causal directions, change over time and vary by scale. The preferences of residents in informal housing are diverse, and have varying implications for urban policy.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The first Indian census to fully enumerate slums was Census 2001, which defined slums based on a largely public health definition from a 1956 Act (GOI, Citation2010).
2 The decline in the enumerated slum population might result from redevelopment, clearance or relocation.
4 The DDP (2015) noted that 25% of developed area in Mumbai is put to residential uses as of 2012 – this includes slum housing, but slum housing can also be included under other land uses such as vacant lands.
5 Afzalpurkar Committee Report. 1995. Programme for the Rehabilitation of Slum and Hutment Dwellers in Brihan Mumbai.
6 Until residents are far enough toward the formal contractual end of the tenure continuum, tenure security can remain precarious and governments can use the law or eminent domain to effect evictions.
7 These two factors are elaborated from the paper by Brueckner and Selod (2009), which stresses one of these mechanisms, that of competition.
8 ‘Suburbs’ refer to the area north of Mahim, accounting for 75% of the city’s population (Census of India, Citation2011). The 2001–2011 population growth rate was +8.3% in the suburbs and -7.6% in the city.
9 Due to lobbying by market actors, deindustrialized textile mills were replaced by high-end development rather than affordable housing.
10 Author calculation: the population living in ‘slums’ was 17% in the city and 83% in the suburbs (taking Mahim as the boundary; Census 2001).
11 Interview 65, resident of informal settlement, June 2009.
12 Interview 68, resident of informal settlement, June 2009.
13 There is an active debate on how regulatory constraints impact informality (e.g. Lall et al. Citation2007; Monkkonen and Ronconi Citation2013).
14 We, the Invisible: A Census of Pavement Dwellers, 1988. SPARC and SPRA.
15 Interview 73, 10/7/2010, state official in housing. Chawls are tenements built originally for industrial labor. Cessed buildings are dilapidated structures that fall under a special tax.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Sukriti Issar
Sukriti Issar is an Assistant Professor in OSC (Observatoire Sociologique du Changement), Sciences Po, Paris. Her research interests focus on urban policy and governance, institutional change, and research methods.