Land and housing markets in consolidated irregular settlements - Findings from the LAHN project

A project was undertaken in Guadalajara (LAHN, Guadalajara), between 2007 and 2011, to look into the current situation of low-income settlements that were formed more than twenty years ago. As most of the residents of these apparently consolidated settlements have services and legal titles, they are thought to have no pressing problems. Little attention has been given, in the literature and by policy makers, to the opportunities that these settlements offer to low-income groups. The study reveals that the residents do have problems. One is that the housing market in these consolidated settlements is almost frozen. This is a growing problem, because when the owners die, the children who inherit the property cannot sell it to divide the inheritance. The study also shows how a great variety of land and housing options, that these originally informal settlements offer to low-income people, has changed as they consolidate. It highlights the fact that these settlements are quite significant, as they cover almost as much land as that occupied by the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara’s expansion in a decade. This supply of housing is significant as the public sector and formal private sector have little to offer to the 69 per cent of the population earning less than 3 minimum salaries in Guadalajara. Currently, even when the supply of land in these settlements is nearly exhausted and the housing market is practically “frozen”, there is still a wide variety of housing available. Thus, changes overtime to households, have prompted changes to the plots and houses, and also to the tenure. The new arrangements and needs in these settlements, require public interventions with appropriate policies and programmes that can alleviate the problems of the low-income groups who are now in a new phase of housing problems that has remained almost invisible.