Cities 122 (2022) 103540

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Cities
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cities

Property rights in informal settlements

Marco Aurélio Zazyki a, Wesley Vieira da Silva b, Gilnei Luiz de Moura a, Fabíola Kaczam c,
Claudimar Pereira da Veiga d, *
a
Postgraduate Programme in Administration, Building 74C, 2nd floor, Room 4209, Federal University of Santa Maria, 97105-900 Santa Maria, Brazil
b
Bolsista de Produtividade em Pesquisa do CNPq - Nível 1D, Postgraduate Programme in Production Engineering, Building 7, 3rd floor, Room: 300, Federal University of
Santa Maria, 97105-900 Santa Maria, Brazil
c
Postgraduate Programme in Production Engineering, Building 7, 3rd floor, Room: 300, Federal University of Santa Maria, 97105-900 Santa Maria, Brazil
d
Av. Prefeito Lothário Meissner, 632, 2nd floor, Federal University of Paraná, 80210-170 Curitiba, Brazil

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This article presents a systematic review of the literature and directions for future research on property rights in
Systematic literature review informal settlements. This research meets the academy's strategic perspectives in the current debates on the
Property law informal settlements theme, with emphasis on Goal 11 of the 2030 Agenda for the sustainable development of the United Nations:
Perceived tenure
“making cities and human settlements safe, resilient and sustainable.” A quantitative approach to various
research results was applied by combining several techniques validated by recent literature. A total of 119 ar­
ticles published in the last 58 years, available on the Scopus and Web of Science databases, were analyzed. The
results included (i) studies on property law concentrated on formal tenure structures (ii) tenure systems, which
are not the result of a formal lawmaking process but rather from customs, habits, and beliefs of residents of
informal settlements. Future research possibilities were identified by applying the “New Institutional Economics”
literature and a concept underlying the right to property, namely the perception of security of tenure. Finally,
this study may provide insights, with a set of strategies extracted from the textual corpus, especially for
developing countries' governments, aiming to strengthen informal settlements' secure property rights, distribu­
tive justice, and inclusive urban (re)development.

1. Introduction and reduce poverty, in other words, to encourage development (De Soto,
2000). Informality is a widely used and contested notion used to char­
A growing body of evidence suggests that stronger land tenure se­ acterize many developing countries' housing sectors (Gilbert, 2002; Roy
curity impacts essential outcomes, including those related to economic & Ong, 2011). The intensive study of informal settlements produced
development, such as family investment, women's empowerment, agri­ various explanations, definitions, and conceptualizations (Mangin,
cultural productivity, rent, and credit markets. 1967; Harris & Todaro, 1970; Bhalla, 1990; De Soto, 2000; Davis, 2006;
In addition to the impacts already mentioned, there is a growing Mullan et al., 2011).
interest and recognition that the problems involving the security of Given the above, it is undoubtedly clear that the housing challenge is
tenure and economic development are due to institutions' role (North, immense. Nations must stop stigmatizing and criminalizing residents of
1990, 2005). Especially the dependence on how they are defined and informal settlements and, instead, expand their capacities and the
distributed property rights in these urban spaces. The most important of communities to which they belong, claiming and realizing their rights,
these institutional structures is the presence of secure and well-defined including property rights. The literature on property law has a multi­
property rights, something that economists have long claimed must dimensional character, underpinned by several approaches and research
exist for markets to function effectively (Smith, 1776; von Mises, 1920; perspectives. A survey of scientific studies on property rights in informal
Hayek, 1945, 1960). settlements shows that the theme has been fundamental to forming
Actions where the formal legalization of property through the issu­ public policies aimed at the well-being of individuals (De Soto, 2000;
ance of property deeds acts as a catalyst or trigger to promote private Payne, 2001; Durand-Lasserve & Royston, 2002; Gilbert, 2002; Lanjouw
investment in housing, facilitate access to official credit and markets, & Levy, 2002; Field, 2005; Wu & Zhang, 2007; Wang et al., 2009;

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: claudimar.veiga@gmail.com (C.P. da Veiga).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2021.103540
Received 4 August 2020; Received in revised form 13 August 2021; Accepted 6 December 2021
Available online 28 December 2021
0264-2751/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M.A. Zazyki et al. Cities 122 (2022) 103540

Galiani & Schargrodsky, 2010; Zhang et al., 2016; Cai et al., 2018; Zheng fifth section discusses the findings of the study and proposes future
et al., 2019). research.
Although the initial evidence is encouraging, significant knowledge
gaps remain (Parsa et al., 2011; Bouwmeester & Hartmann, 2021). 2. Theoretical framework
Similar African programs have mixed compared to the positive eco­
nomic and food security gains observed in formalized land tenure pro­ The rapid urbanization in developing countries, result of disjointed
grams in Asia and Latin America. There is also little evidence on the modernization (Sjöstedt, 2011), has interfered with the spatial distri­
impact of alternative approaches to strengthening tenure, such as sup­ bution of population, resources, and land use. These changes can spur
porting customary institutions of land governance or community land social and economic development. However, many countries lack sup­
certification instead of more common efforts focused on formalizing portive policies and structures that can help leverage the process for
individuals' property rights, for example, land titling (Kretz, 2021; optimal development gains (Baffoe et al., 2020). To investigate how the
Mwangi, 2007). In this context, it is clear that the existing housing discussion between the relationship between property rights and
structure in informal settlements is complex and demands a more so­ development in subnormal agglomerates is presented in contemporary
phisticated institutional framework in these places, where the predom­ literature, we started, at first, as a way to acclimate the reader to the
inance of flawed property rights, contractual structure, and intricate proposed theme. For this, the ideas of the main authors who approach
trust, the need for an improved institutional system prevails. The mere the subject and who stood out in their studies were presented (for
guarantee of contracts and property rights is not the only factor that example, De Soto, 2000; Durand-Lasserve & Royston, 2002; Galiani &
enables the transformation of communities or that enables the processes Schargrodsky, 2010) and in-depth studies (four of them were awarded
of de-urbanization or urban inclusion (Prindex - Global Property Rights the Nobel Prize in Economics), seeking to map the scientific articles that
Index, 2020). have the greatest relevance in the theme, published in top-tier journals.
Given the relevance of the theme for public policy formulation on The most relevant investigations involving property rights and
housing, the central objective of this article is to present a systematic development are based, in the economic literature, specifically in the
literature review (SLR) based on the most recent research on property current New Institutional Economic - NEI (Williamson, 2000). Repeat­
law in “informal settlements.” To achieve the objective, we followed a edly, come from the importance of the transfer of property rights - the
research protocol based on the work of Tranfield et al. (2003), Kitch­ transaction - postulated by Commons (2001) in such a way that conflicts
enham (2004), Biolchini et al. (2007), and (Veiga et al., 2018). The of interest between agents make mechanisms - institutions - necessary
study was designed to address the following research question: What is that guarantee the framework of rules for effecting exchanges. There­
the state of the art of research on property rights in informal settle­ fore, institutions are instruments relevant to agents' economic perfor­
ments? Given the relevance of the housing theme, a secondary question mance because of minimizing the costs involved in carrying out
arose: What other theoretical gaps can be highlighted from the central transactions.
question for future studies? In the early 1960s, works on Ronald Coase's (1937, 1960) Theory of
This research is relevant because it meets the needs of the United Transaction Costs and property rights, Armen Alchian's (1965) eco­
Nations (UN) Agenda 2030, which proposes 17 Sustainable Develop­ nomic theory on property rights, brought valuable considerations
ment Objectives - SDGs and 169 corresponding goals due to the importance of the role of property rights to Economic Development. In
consensus reached by delegates of the UN member states. The period of turn, Demsetz (1967), in his seminal article, followed the path traced by
implementation for the agenda began in 2016 and is expected to end in Coase (1960), where a transaction is the exchange of two sets of property
2030. Therefore, efforts should be urgently directed towards making it rights and the exchange value is a consequence of the value of the rights
possible to meet the goals, in particular, the goal corresponding to SDG transacted. Thus, the function of property rights is to guide economic
11: Making cities and inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable human incentives to achieve greater ownership of productive activities, aiming
settlements (Dobrescu, 2017). From this perspective, we assume that to allocate resources more efficiently.
land consolidation activities can provide positive results towards the In the 1970s and 1980s, mostly based on Williamson's (1975, 1980,
achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs) (Asiama et al., 1996) work, transaction costs gain more strength within the economic
2021), as long as they favor the monitoring of resource needs, thus as the literature. This author's contributions greatly value the Transaction
control, aiming the guarantee of distributive justice (Qian, 2010). Costs Theory's consolidation in the formal academic debate. Many of his
For this purpose, literature was analyzed in two phases: (i) a detailed ideas gained interdisciplinary contours, especially concerning the issue
synthesis of general characteristics of the corpus (ii) an in-depth content of contracts. These were understood as mechanisms necessary to over­
analysis based on the interpretation of clusters, which emerged from the come the price system's high costs to complete a transaction.
themes studied and contributed to the emergence of knowledge filling The importance of a better definition of property rights and in­
previous literature gaps. stitutions' role in economic development were themes explored in the
Concerning contributions, the discussions presented show that the studies by Douglass North (1984). The hypothesis defended by authors
mere guarantee of contracts and property rights is not the only factor of an institutionalist nature such as Coase (1960), Demsetz (1967), and
that makes urban deprivation or inclusion processes feasible. An urban North (1994) is that the private governance of property rights is
design project must accompany it with a strong emphasis on the quality generally minimizing transaction costs. That is, it is more effective than
of public and collective spaces. However, if this action is not enough, it is the alternative of regulation by collective use.
undoubtedly one of the most necessary. Without a consistent and legally The notion of incompleteness, failures, and imperfection of Sen's
secure regularization process, no action will have the length or depth (1981, 1997) rights, Ostrom's (1990) theory of collective rights, the
desired. This research provides insights and a set of strategies extracted Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto's (2000) considerations about the
from the textual corpus, especially for developing country governments. importance and effects of property rights brought new perspectives on
For example, directing efforts to strengthen secure property rights in the origins, causes, and consequences on the absence or precariousness
informal settlements ensures that the interventions carried out result in involving property rights.
minimal vulnerabilities, making populations more resilient and One method of obtaining secure property rights is through property
lowering an adequate urban development. titling. For example, De Soto (2000) emphasizes the importance of
This article comprises five further sections. The second section pre­ writing, formal, legal, property rights, and incorporating the informal or
sents the theoretical framework of property rights. The third section extralegal sector within the established legal sector. He argues that to
presents the methodology used to carry out this study. The fourth section facilitate economic growth better, an integrated system of standard legal
presents the findings of the SLR and analysis of the results. Finally, the bonds is needed. In short, the author mentioned above that the

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governmental codification of informal, non-articulated property rights is elections. Failure to respect local decisions regarding property limits
necessary to obtain the positive benefits associated with safe and well- results in punishment, discrimination, and ostracism.
defined property rights that promote economic development. The title From the studies mentioned above, there is no consensus on the ef­
deed is considered one of the most effective government intervention fects of land titling. We cannot support Soto's due to the lack of clear
forms (Binswanger et al., 1995; Baharoglu, 2002). evidence indicating that government land titling establishes secure
Specifically, like other scholars, De Soto (2000) argues that a formal property rights. A formal land titling system does not necessarily lead to
land titling system can generate the positive results associated with the benefits of securing property rights, such as increased access to
property rights formally described in Besley (1995). Proponents of credit and foreclosure. This raises an important question of political
titling programs (Navarro & Turnbull, 2014; Wang et al., 2014; Mun­ economy where, in theory, land titling should guarantee property rights,
shifwa & Mooya, 2016; Lai et al., 2017) emphasize the owners' ability to but this does not happen in practice.
use their titled property as a guarantee-to-guarantee investment The property title offers greater security of tenure. However, it often
financing as an essential advantage. Also, for a land titling program to does not increase access to credit. Titration also does not necessarily
achieve these positive effects, the complementary enforcement mecha­ improve infrastructure and services, with a better provision without ti­
nism must exist to guarantee rights; therefore, a government legal land tles in this regard (Payne et al., 2009). In other words, land titling can be
title must be applied through public institutions, such as a judicial sys­ an essential tool for poverty reduction, although not through the
tem. Suppose a secure property is achieved through land titling pro­ shortcut to access credit, but through the slow channel of increasing
grams. In that case, land titling must provide access to credit markets not investment in physical and human capital, which should help to reduce
previously reachable and access to the application of these rights, as poverty in future generations (Galiani & Schargrodsky, 2010).
defined by the property titles. For De Soto (2000), the process of The success of initiatives to improve property ownership security
transforming “dead capital” into capital accumulation is only possible if depends on the quality of governance and investment in public goods
the government reduces the costs of formal titling. such as roads, schools, lending institutions, administration, local gov­
Several articles examined developing land titling programs (Pugh, ernments' capacity, and forums to resolve disputes that overwhelm
2000; Almansi, 2009; Murtazashvili & Murtazashvili, 2016). However, communities living in subnormal agglomerations (Murtazashvili &
there is consensus on the effectiveness of these programs. Several studies Murtazashvili, 2016). Because of what was previously reported, Mon­
conclude that land titles positively influence investment levels (Feder kkonen (2016) finds that more educated families value the title actions
et al., 1988; Banerjee et al., 2002; Do & Iyer, 2003). In contrast, more, and having a deed is more valuable for larger houses in neigh­
Pinckney and Kimuyu (1994), Place and Migot-Adholla (1998), and borhoods and higher quality of infrastructure. Based on her research, she
Firmin-Sellers and Sellers (1999) conclude that the ownership of the suggests that funds to subsidize the titling be redirected to places where
property does not significantly increase the level of investment and the securities are worth more. More generally, it indicates that policy­
capital formation. This statement is also supported by Atwood (1990), makers reconsider framing property titling programs as poverty allevi­
Brasselle et al. (2002). These authors conclude that local and informal ation. Low-income families would benefit more from subsidies for
order mechanisms provide essential incentives for small-scale in­ improvements in housing and residential infrastructure.
vestments. Also, these local rights can be less expensive and more In this way, each author provides an analytical framework that al­
expensive than formal land titling. Therefore, there is no need for State lows us to have a particular view of the impact of laws on resource
intervention. In addition to the studies discussed above, several recent allocation. We understand that this fact is precisely necessary to un­
articles examine the impact of land titling in Peru. derstand the origins, dynamics, relationships, and effects of subnormal
Field (2005) detects increases in housing investment due to land agglomerates, which are characterized, among other characteristics, by
titling in urban areas around Lima, but most of that investment is degrees of legality.
financed without credit. This finding may indicate that the titling of In short, informality is a widely used and contested notion to char­
government bonds does not necessarily increase access to credit. Field acterize much of the housing sector in developing countries (Gilbert,
and Torero (2006) conclude that land titling in Lima is related to in­ 2002; Roy & Ong, 2011). The intensive study of informal settlements in
creases in the approval rates of loans from the public sector bank for the second half of the 20th century produced various explanations,
housing construction materials. However, they found no increase in loan definitions, and conceptualizations (Bhalla, 1990; Davis, 2006; De Soto,
approval rates from private financial institutions, suggesting that 2000; Harris & Todaro, 1970; Mangin, 1967; Mullan et al., 2011). Much
property bonds do not provide sufficient collateral to increase a private of the discussion revolves around land tenure, poverty, self-
institution's loan approval rate and therefore do not provide adequate organization, government interventions, migration, income disparity,
credit access. informal economy, infrastructure, and governance issues.
Kerekes and Williamson (2010) investigate the impact of land titling
in rural Peru and find no support for the argument that government land 3. Methodological procedures
titling can be used as collateral to secure a loan. For example, in the
communities neighboring Cusco, national banks require a government Based on the proposed SLR, this study collates evidence from the
land title, but private banks do not. literature to answer the central research question: What is the state of
In addition to the effects of investment and credit, the mechanisms the art of research on property rights in informal settlements? We
for executing securities are equally important. Field (2005) finds no defined four contextual areas to survey the databases: (i) economics, (ii)
evidence that public execution costs (i.e., police spending) increase with urban studies, (iii) development and (iv) management. The SLR process
additional legal titles. This may indicate that, although land titling can comprised three phases: (i) review planning; (ii) conducting the review
legally define the land, it does not provide a system of property impo­ and (iii) dissemination of knowledge (Tranfield et al., 2003; Kitchen­
sition. This suggests that individuals find it more beneficial to rely on ham, 2004; Biolchini et al., 2007; Veiga et al., 2018).
private and informal execution methods than local governments'
disposition. 3.1. First phase: review planning
Kerekes and Williamson (2010) find support when property rights
are not applied through public institutions. On the contrary, private Fig. 1 shows a general overview of the entire SLR planning. In this
mechanisms appear for the application of property rights. Private phase, we define all the steps for developing the research.
enforcement mechanisms include reliance on verbal agreements be­ The first phase was guided by the definition of the search word
tween individuals due to social culture and norms, respect, and the strings and the eligibility criteria of the articles that make up the corpus.
arbitration conducted by local authorities generally chosen by local Next, a search was carried out on Scopus and Web of Science (WoS)

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M.A. Zazyki et al. Cities 122 (2022) 103540

Fig. 1. General overview.

databases to evaluate the need to perform this SLR and guarantee its in that continent. However, neither review was an SLR with an approach
originality. Finally, two SLRs on the topic were identified. Shi et al. to the theme as proposed in this research. Therefore, in addition to its
(2018) first is qualitative research, with data collected through in­ originality, this study is the first to address this issue that enables the
terviews and field research in Shenzhen, China. Second, it presents a identification, mapping, and analysis of relevant research on property
literature review examining how collective urban tenure affects resil­ rights in informal settlements.
ience on a community scale, defined as environmental well-being, pro­
ductive livelihoods, and authorized governance. 3.2. Second phase: conducting the review
The second review by Ncube (2018) highlights Africans' perception
of the complexity of instituting policy reforms to “fix” tenure problems The second phase involved a comprehensive and impartial search

Fig. 2. Research protocol systematization.

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M.A. Zazyki et al. Cities 122 (2022) 103540

based on Tranfield et al. (2003), using search operators to identify 4.1. Descriptive analysis of the research corpus
keywords related to the thematic axes in question. Considering the
volume of indexed scientific production, we chose the Scopus and the The textual corpus under analysis covers 24 years (see Fig. 3). In the
Web of Science database (Core Collection) (Chadegani et al., 2013; first decade analyzed, publications on the theme were in the embryonic
Chersan et al., 2020) strings used are shown in Appendix A. Due to this stage, with an average publication of around 1.67%, largely due to the
theme's scope and the number of articles found, we adopted a set of absence of records in the years 1990–1993, 1995, and 1998, reflecting
selection criteria representing the SLR research protocol's unfolding, as even in the lowest indicator (1996) of the period in question, below 1%.
illustrated in Fig. 2. In the subsequent decade, there was a slight growth in publications
As shown in Fig. 2, the textual corpus was defined from the three on the theme, culminating in the highest index for the selected period,
stages' execution, based on the recommendations of (Veiga et al., 2018), emphasizing the year 2009, with 6.7% of the total 8 articles published in
to minimize the selection bias. The selection steps included filtering the interval evaluated. At the beginning of the current decade, the
based on language, the journal's reputation for ensuring the studies' growth trend revealed at the end of the previous decade declines,
quality, and content analysis carried out by three reviewers indepen­ reducing scientific publication in 2011 by 60%, compared to last year.
dently. Finally, a fourth reviewer resolved disagreements. The first However, in the period from 2012 to 2018, there is a growth in studies
phase involved searching the databases, based on the search strings on the relationship between property law and development, in which
(Appendix A), and initial selection criteria were defined: ‘article’ as a 2016 stands out from the rest, justifying the importance of the theme
type of document, limited to the period from 1960 to 2018 and in studied.
Spanish, English, or Portuguese to avoid bias in the selection of the
textual corpus. From this phase, 1023 articles were retrieved from the 4.2. Citation and co-citation analysis
Scopus database and 244 articles from the WoS, totaling 1267 articles.
The first phase involved searching the databases, based on the search Table 1 shows the 10 most cited articles in the textual corpus. Again,
strings (see Appendix A), and initial selection criteria were defined: the discussion of context-sensitive and perceptible results only in the
‘article’ as a type of document, limited to the period from 1960 to 2018 long term of the relationship between property rights, tenure security,
and in Spanish, English, or Portuguese to avoid bias in the selection of and urban development is notable.
the textual corpus. From this phase, 1023 articles were retrieved from Based on Table 1, Galiani and Schargrodsky's (2010) research em­
the Scopus database and 244 articles from the WoS, totaling 1267 phasizes that land titling can be an important tool for poverty reduction.
articles. This is because it encourages increased investment in physical and
The second phase involved removing duplicate articles and evalu­ human capital in the long run. On the other hand, Benjamin (2000)
ating the reputation of journals where articles were published. Only draws attention to specific urbanization projects harmful to the poor.
articles published in journals classified by Scimago Journal & Country From this perspective, Wu et al. (2013) demonstrate that informality
Rank (2018) in the first quartile for citations (Q1) in management, urban develops as a function of the land market, the management system, and
studies, development, and economy were retained, which resulted in the lack of housing and, given this, the demands of poor groups must be
439 articles. The third phase involved verifying the relevance of articles considered from a proactive stance, as they influence the management of
focusing on the research question. This involved reading the abstracts cities and economies, especially local economies.
and identifying keywords in the body of the texts. 119 articles were Werlin (1999) argues that successful slum upgrading requires a
retained (textual corpus), with 83 articles retrieved from Scopus and 36 sustainable and replicable land tenure provision process, while Bromley
from WoS. (2009) questions the positive effect of tenure security, considering that
The search for articles in the databases was carried out on August urbanization policies fail to ensure access to employment. Van Gelder
13th, 2018; the article selection process was carried out from September (2009) explains that the divergent arguments regarding the impact of
13th to October 18th, 2018, by four management specialists. The data tenure security are due to different types of tenure security (perceived,
were downloaded from the databases of the selected articles on October de jure, and de facto tenure security).
24th, 2018. The research corpus was compiled in an electronic spread­ Karanja's (2010) research discusses the importance of mapping the
sheet, highlighting each article's essential elements for analysis. informal settlements as an action that involves residents becoming
aware of their reality and, thus, can formulate consistent and adequate
3.3. Third phase: dissemination of knowledge claims to their existence. Meanwhile, Pugh (2000) understands that
housing improvement must be associated with environmental
The third phase of the review analyzes the results of the SLR. Results improvement to promote sustainable development.
are generated from the grouping that aims to generate knowledge, as We used the co-citation network to demonstrate the relationship
shown by Tranfield et al. (2003). This phase, encompasses the presen­ between authors and co-authors of the corpus (see Fig. 4). Co-citation
tation and discussion of the results and the conclusions of the study. We refers to the frequency with which two authors or documents are cited
used the following software in our analyses: Microsoft Excel®, Hist­ together by another more recent author (Small, 1973). By citing two
cite™, VOSviewer and Rstudio (Campbell, 2020; Garfield, 2009; Van papers, the authors are co-recognizing the cited ones and creating an
Eck & Waltman, 2014). association of meanings. In this way, the analysis of co-citation evi­
dences the scientific community's recognition of the similarity,
4. Presentation and data analysis complementarity, overlapping, or even contraposition of ideas among
the cited authors (Grácio, 2016).
This section highlights the results obtained in the analysis of this Fig. 4 shows that author De Soto holds a central position in the
research's textual corpus (119 articles). (i) We present a descriptive network with 611 relational ties, indicating that several of his researches
analysis to highlight some general characteristics of the textual corpus; are cited in the textual corpus, among them we can mention (De Soto,
(ii) when analyzing citations and networks, we highlight some relevant 1989; De Soto, 2000; De Soto & Cheneval, 2006). In Cluster 1, Gilbert
authors and how they relate to each other; (iii) we present content (2002) makes a critical analysis of the work of De Soto (Cluster 2), who
analysis using words as the object of analysis; (iv) to complete this attributes the failure of capitalism in the Third World to the lack of
section, we present managerial implications and future guidelines. property titles. Gilbert points out that De Soto's argument is dangerously
respected. Property titles do not result in a healthy housing market or a
regular formal credit supply in many contexts. The uncomfortable truth
is that, in practice, the granting of legal titles makes very little

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M.A. Zazyki et al. Cities 122 (2022) 103540

14 11.8%

12 9.2% 10.0%

9.2%
8.4% 8.4%
10 7.6% 8.0%

6.7%
8
5.0% 6.0%

5.0%
6 4.2% 4.2% 3.4%
2.5% 3.4% 3.4% 4.0%

4 1.7% 1.7% 1.7%

1.7% 0.8%
2
2.0%

0 0.0%
1994
1996
1997
1999
2000
2001
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
Number of top-tier articles Percent Linear (Number of top-tier articles)

Fig. 3. Annual distribution.

difference. He concludes by warning that there is a risk that De Soto's (2005), the Sankey diagram illustrates quantitative flows, relationships,
views will persuade lawmakers that they all need to offer property titles. and transformation. For example, Fig. 5 focuses on the relationship
The market will do the rest, i.e., provide services and infrastructure, between authors, keywords and journals.
provide formal credit and manage the booming real estate market. It is opportune to begin this analysis based on evidence derived from
According to Roy (2005), informality is initially seen as a land-use the contribution of Van Gelder, from the University of Twente in the
problem. Therefore, the alternative solution is to restore order to the Netherlands, a recognized precursor to works focused on attempts to
urban landscape or bring it to the formal market. However, what is at deal with the enormous anticipated growth of informality in the
stake in informality is the distribution of wealth and unequal ownership developing world, particularly in the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires.
of property, the type of markets that operate in cities, and how they Well-regarded recent studies related to the theme, especially in China,
shape or limit accessibility. In this sense, in addition to the ordering of due to historical housing problems linked to demographic issues, justify
land use, planners must be aware of the use-value claims that constitute the presence in the analysis of Yani Lai, from Hong Kong Polytechnic
the right to the city. Furthermore, based on the perspective that infor­ University and Lennon Choy, from the University of Hong Kong.
mality is a product of the State, it is essential to rethink urban planning Among the 60 keywords, which are most used by the authors, shown
policies, confront the failures and limitations of models and best prac­ in the diagram, “property rights” has accounts for 14%. Derivations of
tices, and adjust to reality in search of distributive justice. the word “tenure”, such as “land tenure”, account for 13% and “tenure
In Cluster 2, when considering the various conflicts in the security” 10%. Such words represent the same set of ideas through
government-market relationship regarding comprehensive land use different nomenclatures. Special attention should be paid to the for­
planning, Lai (2010) discusses planning by contract involving the mation of terms around informality, particularly, “informality”,
public-private partnership and draws attention to ethical practice to “informal settlements” and “informal housing” and to “China” region
preserve the right to property in the public interest. Meanwhile, Field where most of the studies currently emerge.
(2005) addresses the relationship between property rights, investment, The analysis also highlights prominent periodicals. Habitat Interna­
and tenure security, establishing links between Cluster 1 and Cluster 3. tional accounts for 24%; this journal is dedicated to aspects related to
In Cluster 3, Payne (2001) shows that perceptions of tenure security planning, design, production and management of urban and rural set­
areas crucial to households as legal status. Therefore, the author's main tlements. Environment and Urbanization accounts for 20% and has as its
recommendation is to build innovative actions on existing tenure sys­ main focus urbanization and environment in a broad sense in developing
tems rather than introducing radical changes until more experience is countries. Land Use Policy accounts for 12% and is centered on social,
gained in predicting policy outcomes. economic, political, legal, physical and urban and rural land use
Among the various relationships between the clusters, established by planning.
the authors and co-authors (citing ones) of the textual corpus, we Furthermore, when analyzing the set of references cited in the tex­
highlight some quotes that over time have become recurrent together, tual corpus, the contribution of the periodical Cities as a source of
configuring themselves in co-citation: Roy and De Soto are cited by knowledge is evident, is frequently cited in the publications of the pe­
Handzic (2010); De Soto and Field are cited by Galiani and Schargrodsky riodicals Habitat International, Environment and Urbanization, Land
(2010); De Soto, Gilbert and Payne are cited by Van Gelder (2013). Thus, Use Policy, Urban Studies, and Housing Studies. To analyze the rela­
from Cluster 1 to Cluster 3, the evolution of the perception of property tionship between the keywords, we chose to elaborate the co-occurrence
rights per se can be seen for its relationship with the security of tenure, network, which identified the pairs of keywords that occurred most
investment in housing quality, human well-being, and the importance of frequently in the corpus, such as in work developed by Silge and Rob­
innovative actions in urban planning policies to ensure sustainable inson (2017). Fig. 6 shows the three clusters found.
development. Groupings of keywords extracted from articles in the corpus were
analyzed using RStudio software, which allows interpretation based on
4.3. Relationship between keywords the centrality of intermediation statistics as presented in Table 2.
The intermediation centrality statistic measures the importance of
The analysis of the relationship between the keywords in the corpus one node in connection with other nodes in the network; thus a value
was performed based on the Sankey diagram shown in Fig. 5. The co- can be obtained for each node in the co-occurrence network of the
occurrence network is shown in Fig. 6. According to Riehmann et al. corpus keywords (Bloch et al., 2017). From analysis of cluster 1, the

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M.A. Zazyki et al. Cities 122 (2022) 103540

Table 1 the need for a connected system of laws to ensure proper development.
Top 10 of the most cited authors and coauthors. Cluster 2 addresses investment. (Veiga et al., 2018) defend govern­
Rank Author Article title Journal Citation % ment investment focused on improving the quality and quantity of
housing for low-income groups, while Van Gelder (2013) and Van
1 Galiani & “Property Journal of 104 15.88%
Schargrodsky rights for the Public Gelder and Luciano (2015) show that security of tenure contributes to
(2010) poor: Effects of Economics the development of low-income settlements, encouraging investment for
land titling” improving housing, which on a large scale can reflect urbanization in
2 Benjamin “Governance, Environment 95 14.50% cities.
(2000) economic and
settings and Urbanization
In cluster 3, the author's Bishop et al. (2000) highlight the key term
poverty in developing countries and the need to improve the flow of information to
Bangalore” manage effective urban management plans, to promote the appropriate
3 Wu, Zhang & “Informality Urban Studies 83 12.67% allocation and distribution of resources. Concomitantly, Pugh (2000)
Webster and the
and Degert et al. (2016) emphasize the importance of developing social
(2013) development
and demolition projects with a focus on improving the infrastructure of favelas; such
of urban projects need to include, in terms of economics, a conversion process
villages in the focused on urbanization, environmental aspects and improving health
Chinese peri- conditions, for example.
urban area”
4 Bromley “Formalising Land Use 79 12.06%
(2009) property Policy 4.4. Managerial implications
relations in the
developing Content analysis allows us to provide a series of recommendations
world: The
that can facilitate urban (re)development, as shown in Table 3.
wrong
prescription for Regardless of the strategy adopted, the projects mustn't be carried
the wrong out only as part of the city's beautification. In this way, the poor are
malady” forced to leave the cities, often without financial support or job security,
5 Payne et al. “The limits of Environment 71 10.84% having only one relocation site. In addition, reviewing the regulatory
(2009) land titling and and
home urbanization
framework is important to ensure that low-income households have
ownership” access to land, housing and services. Thus, titling programs combined
6 Werlin (1999) “The slum Urban Studies 52 7.94% with investment in basic infrastructure (roads, water, electricity, among
upgrading other factors) can significantly impact urban development (Payne et al.,
myth”
2009).
7 van Gelder “What tenure Land use 46 7.02%
(2010) security? The Policy
case for a 4.5. Analysis and direction for future research
tripartite view”
8 Karanja “An Environment 45 6.87% From analyzing the articles in the corpus on property rights in
(2010) enumeration and
and mapping of Urbanization
informal settlements, it appears that although all societies have land
informal tenure systems, each system has a unique set of rules, and no single
settlements in governance system can be universally applied. Tenure systems define
Kisumu, Kenya, who can retain and use resources, for how long and under what condi­
implemented
tions. These rules can be well defined or ambiguous and open to errors of
by their
inhabitants” interpretation and exploitation. When formal and informal systems exist
9 Lai, Peng, Li & “Industrial land Habitat 41 6.26% in society, tenure rules can overlap, leading to confusion and insecurity.
Lin (2014) development in International Tenure may also vary according to gender, ethnicity, class and political
urban villages affiliation (Torpey-Saboe et al., 2015; Yeang, 2010).
in China: A
property rights
Different land tenure systems have their advantages and disadvan­
perspective” tages. Customary (informal) systems, which are generally based on
10 Pugh (2000) “Squatter Cities 39 5.95% traditional, unwritten, and locally relevant rules on using and allocating
settlements - land and resources, facilitate social cohesion. However, they may not be
Their
able to withstand the growing pressure on land and land resources, both
sustainability,
architectural within the community and outside (compared to statutory [formal]
contributions, systems that provide written legal rules or written jurisprudence on
and socio- these issues) (Antonio & Griffith-Charles, 2019).
economic Individual land ownership may mean that land is used more
roles”
economically efficiently but can exclude disadvantaged populations,
such as the poor, and limit other land management options. On the other
prominent words are “property rights” (22.55) and “urbanization” hand, public land ownership may retain land for conservation or public
(12.72). In cluster 2, the greatest centrality of intermediation belongs to land management purposes and facilitate equal access to privileged lo­
the word “city” (9.69), while, in cluster 3, the highlight is the term cations. Still, it can lead to poor land use and land management results
“developing countries” (6.49). from inactivity and bureaucratic corruption. For inclusive and sustain­
When analyzing the content of the clusters and the relationship be­ able land governance, land systems must be assessed holistically to
tween property rights and development, it is clear that cluster 1 ad­ understand how and why decisions about land and natural resources are
dresses property rights and urbanization as mechanisms that drive made, implemented, and applied in formal and informal contexts (Ellis
economic development (Cai et al., 2018). From this perspective, et al., 2019).
obtaining the title positively influences the investment in maintaining The concept of security of tenure presented in this article is a
the property (Wang et al., 2014). Havel (2014) also draws attention to perception of people that others will recognize their land rights as
legitimate and protected in the event of specific challenges. People

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M.A. Zazyki et al. Cities 122 (2022) 103540

Fig. 4. Co-citation network.

Fig. 5. Sankey diagram - Relationship between authors, keywords and journals.

generally feel safe when they have a complete set of use and transfer provided from a variety of sources: it can result from a community and
rights that are long enough to recover any labor and capital they invest from the groups of users who form it (for example, water users, herders,
in land or property and when they can enforce those rights against third- farmers' groups); or it may result from administrative user groups (for
party claims. Some people refer to a “rights package” relating to land example, districts organized around major assets) or government and
and resources. This package consists of several “branches,” representing legal institutions within the government. Therefore, we should not
the asset's right to use, manage, or transfer. Another important security consider secure possession strictly formal or informal but recognize it as
element is that people should feel confident that they will capture the a wider range of systems.
benefits derived from these rights and related investments. The international scientific community has drawn attention to the
The provision of security of tenure and property rights has become need for more in-depth studies, given the relevance to housing. This
an important vehicle for economic growth, social development, poverty way, besides discussing the state of the art of research on property rights
alleviation, and natural resource management. Security of tenure can be in informal settlements, we bring some suggestions for future research

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M.A. Zazyki et al. Cities 122 (2022) 103540

Fig. 6. Network of keywords' co-occurrence.

Table 2 Table 3
Keywords' betweenness centrality. Set of recommendations and strategies.
Term Cluster Betweenness centrality Recommendations and strategies Authors

property-rights 1 22.55 Urbanization projects must contemplate (i) Werlin (1999)

urbanization 1 12.72 proper site selection; (ii) land acquisition;
city 2 9.69 (iii) establish eligible families; (iv) marking
developing-countries 3 6.49 of qualified structures; (v) protect the rights
china 1 5.93 of those involved; (vi) establish tenure
institutions 2 5.86 agreements; (vii) determine and cost the
impact 1 5.60 services; (viii) provide economic assistance;
tenure 3 5.31 (ix) negotiation of cost recovery and
chengzhongcun 1 4.64 maintenance responsibilities to be assumed
investment 2 4.47 by the beneficiaries.
private 2 3.83 Optimize local governance systems Benjamin (2000)
villages 1 3.11 An efficient and sustainable urban Pugh (2000)
africa 2 2.91 development project must consider
market 1 2.79 economic, social, political, environmental
governance 3 2.52 and cultural aspects.
rights 2 2.07 Urban development policies must guarantee Bromley (2009); Payne et al.
tenure security 1 1.17 labor mobility and access to employment. (2009)
settlements 2 0.70 Land titling programs can contribute, in the Galiani and Schargrodsky (2010);
buenos-aires 2 0.57 long term, to the development of physical Munshifwa and Mooya (2016)
markets 2 0.46 and intellectual capital, reducing poverty.
investment incentives 1 0.37 Building technologies Wekesa et al. (2011)
sub-saharan africa 3 0.19 Endogenous collective actions: support or Boonyabancha et al. (2012)
poor 3 0.06 encouragement to internal initiatives and
claims of favelas.
Set of strategies for urban (re)development: (i) Özdemirli (2014)
around the theme: introduce changes in land use and planning
decisions, (ii) reduce transaction costs, (iii)
create positive externalities, (iv) allow
a) Evaluate the influence of the institutional dimension on the participation, (v) commercialize the project
perception of security of tenure, as well as the social size using the and (vi) increase the infrastructure offer.
structural equation modeling technique, to verify whether the sub­ Inclusive governance. Muchadenyika (2015)
jective perceptions of economic agents (mental models) determine Reform of land administration. Cai et al. (2018)
the options adopted, as North (1992) proclaims. Notably, the po­
tential influence of the institutional dimension on the perception of b) Build, standardize and validate a scale that reliably measures tenure
security of tenure induces the “rules of the game,” leading to stan­ security perception in informal settlements (Durand-Lasserve &
dardization (to meet formal standards) through titling attempts or Selod, 2009). We know that a number of scholars, at an international
differentiation (to meet informal standards) through the flight from level, used this scale to measure perception (Fernandes, 2011; Van
the real estate market and housing shortages, making the agglom­ Gelder, 2007), seeking to evaluate aspects of informal settlements,
erates a challenge for the developers of public housing policies due to such as the types of customs, beliefs, existing habits, that shape re­
their specificity. lationships with property (Deininger and Feder, 2001; Toulmin,

9
M.A. Zazyki et al. Cities 122 (2022) 103540

2009; Williamson et al., 2010). Notably, the peculiarities made rule.

explicit about informal settlements should be understood as an Likewise, a definition emerged from the research underlying the
initiative to identify strategies to ensure property rights and the term “property right.” This concept is called the perception of security of
development of public policies in this sector in the long term. tenure, as important for families as legal status. Studies generally
c) Conduct in-depth studies, based on the scale of perception of security conceptualize the security of tenure perceived by residents in settle­
of tenure, where it seeks evidence of the relationship between ments as the probability of forced eviction. This demonstrates a con­
perception of security of tenure and climatic, ecological, and envi­ tinuum of tenure categories in most communities, which vary in security
ronmental differences in different communities, seeking to unravel levels from invaders to legally constituted landowners. Consequently,
this relationship and at the same time contribute to the development policies involving institutional transformations from one category can
of concrete actions to mitigate poverty in vulnerable areas due to distort the land market and expose vulnerable social groups, such as
climate change. tenants or residents of informal settlements, to eviction.
d) Investigate the extent to which people need land titles and analyze Security of tenure has become an essential part of a major program to
the scope of public-private partnership in land management, to increase inclusive investment in land, agricultural production, sustain­
guarantee ownership under the policies of each country and their able management of natural resources, and the shift to market econo­
legislative structures. mies. For several decades, efforts to ensure secure tenure and property
e) Identify best practices and policies that have been effective in rights have focused specifically on land law, land titling and registration
reducing the formation of favelas as well as guaranteeing land/ and land administration. Increasingly, efforts are focused on multiplying
housing ownership in the development and transition of economies, the effects of secure tenure and property rights from various sources.
which is in line with the idea of Irazabal (2009). The property right, being a multidimensional and complex concept,
f) Investigate property rights in different contexts, quantitatively has ambiguous inferences. Perhaps because of this, signs of influence
assessing the connection between security of tenure and property and non-influence of property rights on economic development have
rights, addressing individual and collective aspects of property rights been identified. However, when looking for the theoretical basis to
perceived within informal settlements, in line with the ideas of explain possession phenomena, the institutionalist school is used. For
Nakamura (2016). this reason, there is a bright horizon of studies related to this school of
g) Investigate the effectiveness of government policies and in­ thought.
terventions to support homeownership through longitudinal sam­ Although this work presents a systematic and exhaustive review of
ples, as evidenced by Rumbach and Shirgaokar (2017). the literature in its field, for which we have applied a widely accepted
h) Investigate the behavior of administrations and land policies over methodology for SLR, defended in the academic community by Tranfield
time, aiming to make institutions endogenous to the path of urban­ et al. (2003), Kitchenham (2004), Biolchini et al. (2007) and (Veiga
ization as suggested by Cai et al. (2018). et al., 2018), following the guidelines for the rigorous documentation
evidenced in these works, there are still some limitations to our findings:
These suggestions for future research into property rights aim to (i) the defined search strings limited the results to publications in
improve understanding and application in different cultures and legal Spanish, English and Portuguese; (ii) journals placed in the first and
regimes, promote harmonization and comparability so that schemes are second quartile of citation according to the Scimago Journal & Country
applicable, and support analysis of determinants of the perception of Rank (2018) were included, so relevant publications may have been
security of tenure in informal settlements. published in other formats, such as books and conference articles,
among others (iii) the translation of local terms – from the most diverse
5. Final considerations places where the phenomenon manifests itself – related to property
rights into other languages runs the risk of losing meaning or misinter­
The purpose of this research was to present a systematic review of the preting terminology; meanings may vary from one community to
literature on the state of the art and prospects for research on property another.
rights in informal settlements. From the descriptive analysis of 119 ar­ In addition to efforts made to comply with the UN Agenda 2030, this
ticles in the corpus, first publications on the theme emerged in 1994, article sought to provide a faithful and current picture of the state of the
emphasizing the year 2016 as the most productive, with 14 publications, art and prospects for research on property rights in informal settlements
representing 11.8% of the sample, with 44 citations. Regarding at an international level. This will enable comparison of results between
geographical distribution, the institutional links of the 189 authors and nations with similar levels of economic development. The results of this
co-authors were distributed in 35 countries covering all continents, study are expected to provide insights, especially for governments of
which reveals the global interest in the theme. In the context presented, developing countries, to identify strategies that strengthen secure
De Soto (2000), author of the best-seller “The Mystery of Capital,” is the property rights in informal settlements.
main author referenced in the works, mentioned 27 times in the corpus. Aware of the gaps in the works studied as indicated by the authors,
This fact explains its presence at the top of the co-citation networks. On this article is analytically useful for several reasons. It opens the way for
the other hand, Van Gelder, from the University of Twente in the future study and the focus of attention needed to analyze the deter­
Netherlands and Yani Lai, from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, was mining factors of the perception of security of tenure in informal
identified as the most productive authors in the corpus, representing settlements.
3.36% of the sample.
The keyword co-occurrence network comprises three clusters. In CRediT authorship contribution statement
cluster 1 the focus was on property rights as a tool for economic
development; in cluster 2, the authors dealt with investment issues, Conceptualization: Marco Aurélio Zazyki; Gilnei Luiz de Moura
encouraging and facilitating the acquisition of property title; in cluster Data curation: Marco Aurélio Zazyki; Fabíola Kaczam
3, options were addressed to improve the management and coverage Formal analysis: Wesley Vieira da Silva; Gilnei Luiz de Moura
titling programs. Investigation: Marco Aurélio Zazyki
It has been repeatedly evidenced that in territorial environments, Methodology: Marco Aurélio Zazyki; Gilnei Luiz de Moura; Fabíola
where the presence of the state is insufficient or even non-existent and Kaczam
there are significant institutional factors (culture, beliefs, habits, among Project administration: Wesley Vieira da Silva; Gilnei Luiz de Moura
others), the legal tenure system does not obtain the best results. Thus, Supervision: Wesley Vieira da Silva; Gilnei Luiz de Moura; Claudimar
collective ownership structures appear as an alternative to traditional Pereira da Veiga

10
M.A. Zazyki et al. Cities 122 (2022) 103540

Validation: Fabíola Kaczam; Claudimar Pereira da Veiga with this publication. This survey had no financial support. We confirm
Visualization: Claudimar Pereira da Veiga that the manuscript has been read and approved for submission by all
Roles/Writing - original draft: Marco Aurélio Zazyki; Claudimar the authors.
Pereira da Veiga
Writing - review & editing: Wesley Vieira da Silva; Fabíola Kaczam; Acknowledgements
Claudimar Pereira da Veiga.
We are grateful to the Editor-in-Chief, P. Zhao, and the anonymous
Declaration of competing interest reviewers who went to great lengths for the excellent suggestions.

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest associated

Appendix A. Search string applied to Web of Science and Scopus databases

Search Strings Databases Number of

articles

TS = ((“institution*” OR “property right*” OR “urban property right*” OR “formal property right*” OR “informal property right*” OR Web of 244
“inadequate property right*” OR “property title*” OR “property titling” OR “urban informality” OR “formal housing” OR “informal housing” Science
OR “urban squatting” OR “tenure security” OR “tenure insecurity” OR “land tenure” OR “secure land tenure” OR “land regularization” OR
“land titling” OR “land registration” OR “titling”) AND (“development”))
Refined by: LANGUAGES: (ENGLISH OR SPANISH OR PORTUGUESE) AND DOCUMENT TYPES: (ARTICLE) AND TOPIC: (“favela*” OR
“slum*” OR “urban slum” OR “informal settlement*” OR “shantytown” OR “shanty town” OR “subnormal agglomeration*” OR “subnormal
agglomerate*” OR “illegal occupation*” OR “informal housing” OR “informal occupation*”)
Timespan: 1960–2017. Indexes: SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI, A&HCI, CPCI-S, CPCI-SSH, ESCI.
TITLE-ABS-KEY ((“institution*” OR “property right*” OR “urban property right*” OR “formal property right*” OR “informal property right*” OR Scopus 1023
“inadequate property right*” OR “property title*” OR “property titling” OR “urban informality” OR “formal housing” OR “informal housing”
OR “urban squatting” OR “tenure security” OR “tenure insecurity” OR “land tenure” OR “secure land tenure” OR “land regularization” OR
“land titling” OR “land registration” OR “titling”) AND (“development”)) AND PUBYEAR >1959 AND PUBYEAR <2018 AND (“favela*” OR
“slum*” OR “urban slum” OR “informal settlement*” OR “shantytown” OR “shanty town” OR “subnormal agglomeration*” OR “subnormal
agglomerate*” OR “illegal occupation*” OR “informal housing” OR “informal occupation*”) AND (LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, “ar”)) AND (LIMIT-
TO (LANGUAGE, “English”) OR LIMIT-TO (LANGUAGE, “Spanish”) OR LIMIT-TO (LANGUAGE, “Portuguese”))

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