Housing policy and supply in Khartoum : the role of the public sector in the supply process

Abstract

The public sector plays a significant role in the housing supply process in Khartoum. This role primarily focuses on the process of land subdivision and providing housing plots through sites-and-services housing plans. The thesis investigates this role within the arena of the international human settlement development policy frames, theories and literature and the presumed enabling role. After the initial introduction, the thesis covers a literature review on the housing policies and their evolution, settlement development policies and housing supply approaches in the developing countries, which form a theoretical base and provide an analytical framework for understanding the housing supply context of Khartoum. The second section collates the housing policy data on Khartoum and analyses it to give a clear understanding of the housing supply context and the basic factors that influenced it and the role played by the public sector. The second section, accordingly, analyses housing within the urban planning context and highlights basic issues in the housing policy in Khartoum. In this context this part analyses the urban structure aspects, viz., land use, housing supply within the master plans, location of low-income housing areas, housing densities, urban infrastructure, land policy, tenure and supply issues and the subdivision process and sustainable development issues. This part also describes and analyses some salient housing policy issues viz., urbanization, poverty and housing demand in Khartoum, the housing classification system, low-income urban housing types, a review of the housing policy in historical perspective and the housing development process. This part also analyses the role of the public sector in housing supply and its basic role in the allocation of the sites-and-services plots. The third part focuses on the government housing plan and the sites-and-servicesa llocation as a major role of the public sector. This part basically uses data collected from the surveys and fieldwork to investigate two aspects of the housing supply; the housing characteristics and standards in terms of what is being allocated and the beneficiary characteristics in terms of to whom housing plots are allocated. The last section of the thesis outlines the results and conclusions of the thesis and puts forward recommendations. This first discusses the major housing supply backdrop issues and their influence on the supply process. Then, in the light of the thesis results, it highlights what the public sector can do to increase housing supply. In this context the thesis argues that, through a grounded research in the context of Khartoum, settlement consolidation could be achieved in four ways viz.; rationalizing the housing land use; plot subdivision; optimising the housing standards, housing extensions and transformations; enhancing incremental development and settlement upgrading, and the housing allocation process are salient approaches that can achieve a considerable increase in the housing supply. Under the constraint of the lack of literature and basic information on housing policy in Khartoum, the results form a contextual frame to help policy makers to enhance the housing supply process for Khartoum.