In Zambia, the provision of residential land which is serviced has been on the National Housing Authority (NHA). However, in the recent past, there has been an increase in private residential land developer providing residential housing. Despite their focus on meeting the housing demand in the country, private residential land developers have been facing a number of challenges as a result of the complex and inefficient land development environment in the country. Revealing the challenges facing private residential land developers will go a long way to improving the industry and developing an enabling environment for land development.
The study focuses on the setback that Private Residential Land Developers in urban Zambia and Lusaka particularly face when developing the land. The study intends to understand the setbacks they face and establish appropriate recommendations to improve the private residential land development in Lusaka and Zambia. The study will follow a quantitative approach whereby a survey questionnaire will be administered to employees of Horizon Properties, a Private Residential Land Developer based in Zambia. The study will utilise a census approach in choosing the participants with the research administering the questionnaire to all employees at Horizon Properties. Descriptive statistics will be used in data analysis with the data collected utilised to inform the research and meet the research aim of the study.
Background of the study
Like many Southern African countries, Zambia is facing numerous challenges in the provision of affordable housing especially in the major urban centres such as the capital Lusaka. As at present, the national housing deficit is approximately two million units (Munshifwa, 2018). According to Crankshaw and Borel-Saladin (2018), there has been an increase migration from the rural areas as individuals seek employment and education opportunities which have resulted to an increased demand for housing in the urban areas. According to Phiri (2016), the existing housing stock in the country is about 2.5 million units with 64% being traditional housing while 36% is urban housing. Further, Phiri (2016) report that of the urban housing, 40% is quality housing while 60% of the housing is low standards. In the city of Lusaka, about 70% of all the housing is informal and low standards holding the majority of the city's popularity on approximately 20% of the residential land. Zambia’s population estimate is about 17.6 million people (the figure adjusted from the 2012 estimates which reported the total country’s population of 14.3 million and a population growth rate of 3.2% per annum). Zambia is also one of the most densely populated countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, with 44% of its population living in the few urban centres.
The high rate of population growth in the country is a major challenge facing the housing sector whereby the existing housing units cannot be able to house the increasingly growing population (Phiri, 2016). In addition, the country is faced with the challenge of the existing laws and policies (Kanyense, 2012). In particular, the 1996 National Housing Policy which was awarded the scroll of honour by the UN-HABITAT (Makasa, 2016), have done little in ensuring adequate accessibility to land, finance, labour, material for building, and other critical infrastructures which form an enabling environment for the industry (Kanyense, 2012). Private residential land development is a new sector in the industry with the National Housing Authority having the primary mandate of meeting the housing needs in the country. Munshfwa (2018) states that the National Housing Authority has not been able to adequately meet the housing needs in Zambia and the private land developers are playing a major role in meeting the housing objective. Despite the challenges being faced, Private Residential Land Developers in Zambia continue playing their part of developing land and providing housing. Sitko et al., (2015) indicate that provision of housing is a leading objective fro may countries all over the world with the private developers working alongside or in partnership with the government in ensuring that there is the availability of affordable housing. According to Knight (2010), the role played by private land developers is significant as in the majority of the cases, governments are not able to adequately meet the housing demands. Private land developers fill the gap and ensure that there is the availability of housing and other forms of land development available in the market.
In carrying out their activities and operations of land development, Private Residential Land Developers in Zambia are faced with various challenges which exist as a result of inefficiencies in the market. According to Honig and Mulenga (2015), land developers in Zambia operate in a complex system which is highly inefficiency which affects their success. Inadequate water and sanitation systems are one of the major challenge facing the housing sector in Zambia with various studies reporting that the water and sanitation system in the country is ineffective (Sitko et al., 2015; Munshifwa, 2018). Further, the provision of services in government institutions is another challenge facing the housing sector whereby there are delays in the processing approval documents for the housing projects. Berrisford (2011) argues that the delays impact the success of the building projects whereby they face setbacks in meeting schedules of their projects as well as incurring high costs as a result of the delays. Further, the land policies and legislation in the country are not optimal with the existing legal and regulatory framework ineffective in meeting their mandate. As indicated by Knight (2010), having an effective and efficient legal and regulatory framework is important for any industry as it ensures that the activities are coordinated and appropriate. Land developers are as such faced with the above drawbacks in carrying out their project and this causes significant impacts such as high costs and delays in completing housing projects. It is important to understand the challenges being faced in the housing sector and how they impact Private Residential Land Developers in order to develop corrective measures to eliminate these setbacks and improve the productivity and success of land developers.
Problem Statement
Private residential land developers play a major role in ensuring there is the provision of housing. Phiri (2016) indicate that the high growth rate of the population in the country calls for adequate housing units in order to meet the demands. Munshifwa et al., (2017) indicate that adequate housing can be achieved but three is needed for urban policy guidelines to provide direction for the housing development as well as the urban development in cities such as Lusaka. A major problem facing the housing sector in Lusaka is the uncoordinated development which has arisen as a result of the gap existing in the current laws and land policies (Berrisford, 2011). For example, there are some private residential land developers who establish development in customary land without having title deeds and seek them later after development has already occurred. Ngombe and Keivani (2013) state that such approaches and practices result in uncoordinated development as the authorities responsible for planning and checking development unaware of such development until they are already completed. Corruption within the government institutions, delays in getting the necessary permits with some land developers not following the appropriate procedures and inefficiencies in land management are some of the issues resulting in uncoordinated land development in Zambia.
Inappropriate land policies result in significant constraints on the economic as well as social development in various respects that are critical in developing countries. According to Honig and Mulenga (2015) land tenure, land laws which are outdated, as well as dysfunctional land institutions, restrict and affects negatively private investment and development, undermine governance as well as reduce the local authorities ability to raise taxes. Wily (2016) further indicates that skewed distributions in regards to land ownership as well as patterns in the access of land which are discriminative reduce the effectiveness of decentralized market mechanisms in putting land into its best utilization, reduce economic opportunities as well as limit the access of land developers. While it is critical for access of land for shelter as well as housing as well as other land uses such as agricultural production, research goes past this and acknowledges further that it is a success factor for economic growth in poor and developing countries.
According to Chibuye (2011), non-transparent, inefficient and corrupt systems in land administration results in high costs in the efforts of developers to transform their ideas into viable enterprises. This is because such systems affect the investment climate in a negative way. Ngombe and Keivani (2013) acknowledge this and state that poor access to land is reported to be a major obstacle in business environments. Munshifwa (2018) indicates that land institution and markets which are functioning optimally provide opportunities as a result of the easily transferable title deeds which can be utilized as collateral by land developers which can reduce the costs of acquisition of credit which affects the land development enterprises such as land developers positively. Knight (2010) agrees with this conclusion and illustrate that land developers are able to access credit markets in an environment where land institutions are efficiency and use of title as collateral is simple and transparent. According to Munshifwa et al., (2017), land institutions which are efficiency allow for greater demand for land as a public investment in infrastructures boost land value and access. For instance, development of road systems allows developers to develop areas which could not have been accessible without government support. Munshifwa (2018) state that in the majority of the cases, the inadequate mechanisms in the taxation of land means that the local government’s benefits are minimal and rather gains are utilized as bribes.
The research study will be carried out as a result of the various challenges faced by private land developers in the process of acquisition, planning and packaging residential lots to supply to the market. Private residential land developers in Zambia have risen to the challenge to fill the massive housing gap which is existing. Horizon Properties is a land and property development company operating in Lusaka. Like other developers, Horizon Properties faces many hurdles in the delivery process ranging from impediments in the planning policies, delays in document processing procedures and the challenge of providing costly sanitation services to the sites. The current research intends to investigate the challenges facing Horizon Properties and developing recommendations on how to manage these challenges and improve the performance of the company. Further, the study results will inform research and help in understanding the issues facing land developers in Zambia.
Literature Review
The section focuses on literature review whereby there is a review of existing literature on the challenges facing private residential land developers in Lusaka, Zambia. The review focuses on the major challenges which include land planning and development policy and legislation, delays in land development approval and permits, and delivery of water and sanitary services. The review critiques existing knowledge on the above issues and establishes the gap existing in research.
Land Planning and Development Policy and Legislation
Land policy and legislation is a complex issue in Zambia with the country having two tenure approach which involves a statutory framework and the customary framework. Statutory involves that which is recognized at law while customary involves land under the custody of the traditional leaders (Chibuye, 2011). The regulations of land through policy and legislation under the customary land policy and legislation is complicated and is dynamic in nature. This is because it is still in development while market and societal forces leading to complexities and challenges. In addition, the urban planning and development policy are reported to be lacking and inadequate. This negatively impacts on the land development in Lusaka and Zambia. The following are various issues facing the land planning and development policy and legislation.
Customary Land Policy/Legislations Challenges
According to the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ, 2017), Zambia IS 752 sq.km with a large percentage of this land categorized as customary land at almost 90%. However, there is conflicting research indicating that customary land is approximately 60% (Hong and Mulenga, 2015) while Sitko et al., (2015) report that customary land takes 54% of the land. Property rights on the land in the customary land category is mainly unwritten with the local norms and culture governing it. Honig and Mulenga (2015) further report that while the President is the custodian of the land, traditional leaders are commonly seen as custodians on the customary land. As a result of the nature of the customary land governance, there are numerous administrative challenges documented (Sitko et al., 2015). According to Chibuye (2011), the Land Act of 1995 was passed after years of inactivity in land legislation in the country. However, the study further reports that over the years, the Legislation has proven inadequate in dealing with the land governance issues in the county. Zambia Land Alliance (ZLA, 2014) argues that patronage, as well as high levels of corruption within the Zambian government, the local authorities as well as the customs authorities, are the major problems facing the delivery of land. Other challenges listed includes breakdowns in land administration, procedures as well as the inadequate participation by local communities in regards to the management and governance of land.
Wily (2016) reports that in addition to the problems which are experienced by the state land, customary land further has its own unique problems. As stated by Sitko et al., (2015), the land rights in customary lands are highly reliant on traditional culture and norms to the country parts and are not written down. GRZ (2017) agrees on a state that the fact that they are unwritten, they are liable to misinterpretation and misrepresentation which causes many issues. Despite the existence of the Land Act of 1995, many stakeholders are not satisfied with the management of land in Zambia with many arguing that the legislation was passed quickly and without resolving major issues (Honig and Mulenga, 2015). After the Land Act of 1995 was enacted, new consultations commenced with a national land policy released in 2000. Further consultations were made and a second draft of the land policy was developed in 2002 and is considered as the first Zambian National Land Policy. There was a period of inactivity and a second draft was released in 2006. Wily (2016) reports that there was the anticipation of passing a new constitution which included reforms in land administration and as a result, the development of the national land policy was suspended. 2015 saw another release of a national land policy with the most recent draft released in December 2017 (Munshifwa, 2018).
According to the GRZ (2017), the current December 2017 version of the National Land Policy draft involves 35 objectives with guidelines on both states as well as customary land management. However, Objective 5 specifically focuses on making customary land administration more strong with the focus of developing a guarantee on the security of tenure. The objective has a number of measures among them the development of deadlines on how to issue a certificate and enforce obligations and rights, guidelines on regulation of all interests in land, recognition of land certificate issued by traditional authorities, and allow transferable. Sakala (2013) however notes that Zambia has been having land reforms since the early 1990s which is a period of over 25 years and the effectiveness of the national land policy will be most optimal after the final document from the process of formulating the land policy. Sitko et al., (2015) illustrate that while the strides to develop legislation and land policy in the country cannot be ignored, the effectiveness of the policies and guidelines are negated by the high levels of corruption and ineffectiveness governing the land sector.
Ngombe and Keivani (2013) conducted a review of the legislation in Zambia and reports that the passing of the 1995 land Act was as a result of pressure from the World Bank and resulted to having an inconclusive land policy and rejection of drafts by local leaders. Berrisford (2011) agree and further indicate that it is still unclear the way in which the customary reforms will take as the policy formation process is still underway. For instance, despite the legal acknowledgement of former reserve and trust lands as customary land in the 1995 legislation, the balance of administration, as well as power, is still unresolved. On one hand is that the customary land should be under the custody of the Preside while on the other hand, traditional leaders perceive themselves as custodians of the land through inheritance from their ancestors. Willy (2016) illustrates that there are conflicts and challenges on who should rightfully have custody over customary land.
Zulu and Oyama (2016) illustrate that in addition, there is pressure for commercialization through multinational and donor agencies who calls for market-based land reforms. They have a view that the customary systems are a hindrance to economic development. Willy (2016) indicates that in the recent years foreign and local investors have acquired customary land with accusations made that traditional leaders had not been included and consulted in such transactions. Kanyense (2014) agree with this and indicate that this has resulted in conflict with the land institutions in place enable to make resolutions appropriately. Phiri (2016) indicates that while there are improvements in the management of land through regulations and legislation, there are many issues which are yet to be resolved. Munshifwa (2018) reports that the most recent draft of 2017 was facing challenges with traditional leaders walking out of a workshop on February 2018 which resulted in the rejection of the draft. The rejection of the National Land Policy draft increases the confusion on the governance of land in the country.
With the lack of appropriate and adequate guidelines and legislation governing land in the country, corruption is reported to be the order of the day. According to ZLA (2014) indicate that there are varying levels of transparency as well as accountability which is left to the discretion of the traditional leaders which leaves space for corruption with the traditional leader having the option of distributing land without making any consultations which are necessary. Munshifwa (2018) further indicates that there has been an accusation of traditional leaders being corrupt and giving land to foreign investors. According to Ngombe and Keivani (2013), private residential land development sometimes occurs in customary land with titles processed later. This further complicates the land development in Zambia. Munshifwa (2018) agrees and illustrate that the lack of optimal and efficient land reforms in the country has resulted to such inefficiencies with traditional leaders who are custodians of the customary land at the time working with land developers allowing for unfair land distribution. This has resulted in some calling for the President to be given custody of the customary land to eliminate corruption and collusions between traditional alders who gave land to foreigners and land developer unfairly. As indicated by Chibuye (2011), coordinated development is the solution to the problems facing the housing sector.
Urban Planning and Development Policy and Legislation
The planning and development of urban land have been directed by the Town and Country Planning Act which in 2015 was replaced by the Urban and Regional Planning Act No. 3 (Munshifwa, 2018). The surging population, however, forced a continuous increase and upgrading of settlement areas, therefore, relegating available legislation to an exception rather than the rule, the situation is the same with land development as the existing legislation has failed to create orderly developments (Berrisford, 2011). The failure by the government to put a policy in place to identify and provide for land identification for cross-sector land use coordination in advance is another problem (Mulolwa, 2016). The post-independence era saw a surge in migration as the rural population’s expectation of wage employment, medical and education benefits pushed them to migrate to Towns and Cities thus creating demand for land. Meanwhile, the land policies were still the same. According to Sakala (2013), the urban population in the country was estimated at about 41% of the total population which totals about 6.1 million people (GRZ, 2017). Projections from the United Nations, the urban population will rise to about 51% by 2030 and 58.3% by 2050 which illustrates a fivefold. The Urban and Regional Planning (URP) Act No. 5 of 2015 is considered the principal legislation for urban land use direction and planning. Masaka (2014) reports that it introduces five-year development plans in preparing all municipalities, incorporation of informal unplanned areas as special treatment areas for the regeneration of the urban areas whereby stakeholders work together in planning for all customary land as well as pre-urban areas.
The urban land use which involves the Layout and Master Plans are documents which are available in the majority of the local authorities as it is a statutory requirement for all the councils to prepare the plans on how land should be utilized. Mulolwa (2016) reports that the procedures for the preparation and implementation of urban land use are clear and well documented in illustrating the guidelines land developers should utilize. Sitko et al., (2015) illustrate however that local authorities rarely follow the well laid down procedures and processes during the implementation of the statutory plans. Knight (2010) agrees and illustrates that any developer who acquires land either through lease or title required to develop a land and change the use or divide the land into smaller division need to first acquire planning permission from the local planning authority as a stipulation in the Urban and Regional Planning Act Part VI Sec 49-60. Munshifwa (2018) illustrates that the systems, however, have inefficiencies which result in delays for the developers. The urban land use plans are not available at the majority of the local authorities (Mulolwa, 2016). Availability of urban land use plans for land developers is a statutory requirement for all the authorities to prepare and provide these plans. Munshifwa (2018) illustrate that local authorities and other agencies in urban planning do not adhere to the laid down procedures in regards to the implementation of these plans resulting in uncoordinated development. Mulolwa (2016) reports that only about 50% of the new development has planning document from the local authorities with the rest developing land in a disorderly manner which results to not only illegal development but uncoordinated development as a result of the planning regulations and guidelines being overlooked.
Honig and Mulenga (2015) further indicate that only about 30-50% of the new development, urban land which has changed its use or is subdivided acquire appropriate permissions. The rest of the land developments acquire planning permissions in retrospect which leads to disorder and illegal development as regulations and standards are too late to be incorporated. Coordinated land development is essential for the development of the country and therefore should not be taken for granted as it is in Zambia currently (Scott et al., 2013). Land use planning seeks to secure rational, orderly developments in an environmentally sound manner to ensure the creation of sustainable human settlements (Thomas, 2001). It, therefore, calls for private residential land developers in Zambia to keenly focus on sustainable development in addition to following laid down rules and regulations. Sitko et al., (2015) indicate that developers who do not follow this requirement need to be fined, the structures developed demolished without any compensation or they are instructed to restore the land to how it originally was as indicated in the Local Area Plan.
Malgorzata et al., (2014) holds that policies on land planning are critical as they provide direction for the development of frameworks in land development which allows and provides an enabling environment for land developers. Mulolwa (2016) indicates that as a result of the corruptions and ineffectiveness occurring with the systems, only a few suffer sanctions and penalties. Honig and Mulenga (2015) agree with this and further state that in many cases, the laid down rules and guidelines are not respect as a result of lack of appropriate mechanisms to ensure compliance. The current laws and policies on land development do not meet their objectives of supporting and providing direction for land development and instead act as hindrances to coordinated land development. Honig and Mulenga (2015) areas and state that the deficiencies of the existing land legislation and policy act as a hindrance to the objectives of providing accessible and affordable housing and rather impedes the development of residential plots.
Other legislation which governed the use of land includes the Land and Deeds Registry, the Public Health Act, the Mines and Mineral Act, the National Heritage Conservation Act, the Local Government Act of 1991, the Rating and Rental Act, and the Environment Management Act of 2011. As indicated in the analysis above, despite the sound and adequate legislation and guidelines existing in urban land use and general land use, the majority of the laws and regulatory approaches are not organized and they contradict each other significantly with disputes and conflict occurring as the implementation phase occurs (Wily, 2016). For example, the Local Government Act gives permission to direct the council to provide services with a lot of deals occurring before actual services such as water and roads are provided. As such, despite the laws and guidelines, there is poor urban land use planning (Honig and Mulenga, 2015).
Majority of the legislations in Zambia are not up to data and there is need for major reforms. Berrisford (2011) argues that most were formed in the colonial era and as such cannot be a fit for the current land development needs of the country. In addition to being outdated, there exist legislative contradictions which further creates complexities in the land development in Zambia (Knight, 2010). According to Mulolwa (2016), the challenges facing the land development in Zambia is not only due to the legislative contradictions but also lack of appropriate implementation of the existing laws and policies. For instance, while it is a statutory requirement for local authorities and planning agencies to provide planning documents for developers, these documents are often inaccessible resulting in uncoordinated development of land. For instance, a land developer goes to the local authorities to acquire planning documents and they are not available. Inaccessibility of such critical documents is a challenge in the land developer’s efforts to follow the set regulations and align with the government’s effort of coordinated development. It can thus be proposed that there is need for holistically undertaking the gaps existing in the legal and regulatory framework on land development as they form the likely root causes for challenges in the industry. It is very important for the authorities to revise and re-look at the laws and policies governing land development to create a conducive environment for private land developers.
Delays in Land Development Approvals and Permits
In undertaking residential land development, there are a number of permits which a land developer is required to have. According to Munshifwa (2018), permits ensures that an individual has the right to develop land in particular areas or location which allows for appropriate land development and protection where necessary. For instance, a land developer cannot develop a residential apartment in a protected area. In order for the system to work seamlessly, it critical for the building permits to be accessible and affordable. Aigbavboa et al., (2014) reports that in Zambia, while the requirements in acquiring a building permit are appropriate and justifiable, they are not affordable and the majority of the builders do not follow the guidelines. Munshifwa (2018) illustrates that planning law indicates that a building permit for any major land development or changing the use of land shall be granted within a period of 90 days within the receipt of the application for the same or within 28 years after receipt of an application for development for other forms of developments. Chibuye (2011) report however that the period often exceeds either 90 days or 28 days depending on the project as a result of inefficiencies in the system. Sitko et al., (2015) further reports that there is a gap in the existing law whereby illegal developments can be regularised or legalised if there is no enforcement or there is no stop notice issued within four years which is similar to legalising that which was considered illegal. Munsifwa (2018) however indicate that under the new URP Act of 2015, this provision was removed and any illegal development remains illegal until they acquire full regularisation by the authorities.
The process of scrutinising planning proposals and permits is bureaucratic and lengthy posing further challenges to developers who work with project time frames. In the Land Governance assessment, a world bank report by Mulolwa (2016) identifies that there are land registers that are not synchronised, irregularly updated length periods in courts over disputes over land and inadequate mechanisms to manage institutional overlaps in matters related to lands are the root causes of delays in the process of getting the necessary documentation for land development.
