Tenure Perception: A Prindex Egypt Deep Dive
This report was researched and written by Ahmed Zaazaa, at the request of Prindex Project – Global Land Alliance. The author would like to thank Dr. Malcolm Childress, Ms. Shahd Moustafa, Ms. Adriana Gaviria Dugand, and Ms. Cynthia Berning, for their insights and great support to provide the author with information and reflections. And moreover, for their genuine concern to produce critical arguments focusing on a major pressing issues about the security of tenure, all over the world, and in Egypt specifically.
The following is an excerpt from the “Tenure Perception: Egypt Prindex Deep Dive” Report published by Prindex and GLA. Read the entire report by selecting the link attached to the button above.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In 2017, GLA launched the global Property Right Index (Prindex), a new tool for measuring people’s perception of their tenure insecurity. This global study included nationally representative surveys of adults in 140 countries including Egypt. After completing the first global survey in 2019 and identifying locations and population groups with high insecurity across the world, GLA began to add country specific and focused studies of the driving forces behind insecurity among citizens and especially vulnerable populations at a subnational level. Country-level deep dive studies build upon the Prindex methodology to gain a deeper understanding of the drivers of tenure insecurity. Land governance differs from one country to another as a result of historical context, cultural norms, development of the land governance sector, and specific land policies in place, making each country an opportunity for a unique case study. Egypt presented a particularly interesting opportunity for a deep dive study and was one of seven such studies carried out between 2020 and 2023. The goal of the Egypt study was to better understand the sources and prevalence of land tenure insecurity in the different housing typologies for the self-built housing[1]. The study explores the differences in perceived tenure insecurity between holders of different categories of land documentation, clarifies the processes associated with each of these categories of documentation, and presents the unique challenges that the citizens face in these circumstances. The deep dive also aims to identify the gaps and disparities between perceived tenure security and the legal rights to property that people hold. Data on perceptions of tenure security in informal settlements can contribute to policies currently being formulated to formalize informal settlements and reform the land system.
The Prindex country study in Egypt consisted of a household survey, representative within subnational regions and across the major forms of tenure (See section 1.2). This final report represents the following:
An identification and assessment of the sources and prevalence of tenure insecurity in urban areas and informal settlements (e.g., evictions, conflicts with developers) across the various tenure arrangements in Egypt.
An explanation of the status and processes of formal and informal documentation regarding property rights, identifying the relationship between informality and tenure insecurity and the measures underway to minimize informality.
An exploration of women’s insecurity according to land arrangement and documentation
Throughout a wide survey that covered nearly 2200 families living in different housing typologies in Giza governorate, quantitative datasets have been produced and analyzed to understand the levels tenure insecurities. The study focused mainly on the self-built housing, since it represents almost 70% of the Egyptian population. And the different housing typologies were chosen to cover the main typologies where the majority of Egyptians is living, country-wide, which are urban, periurban, and rural (Mit Oqba, Bashtil, and El Kome el Ahmar). And to understand the magnitude of the unsecured stock in housing and land, the report starts with an understanding for how tenure is defined and managed in Egypt, and what are the dynamics and processes that governs tenure of land and property. In which a breakdown for the housing tenure typologies is being presented. Such understanding couldn’t be thorough without realizing a housing typology that dominates the Egyptian cities and villages, which is formally known as informal housing, and being labeled as illegal buildings. Such label puts this typology under great threats for not holding a clear legal tenure, thus, putting millions of families in a very vulnerable states of losing their land or properties.
In the following sections in the report, the outcomes and findings from the residents’ responses to a series of questions about their own houses’ tenure, and the insecurities they face due to the absence of legal tenure, or unclear tenure types are being analyzed. Which has shown, in several cases, great vulnerabilities that can reach losing their own properties, or land. The main findings have reflected general insecurities of tenure in the three chosen geographic typologies, however with significant disparities that showed different perceptions for tenure insecurities for each typology. Rural areas showed more confidence and perceived security, than other urban and peri-urban typologies. And that’s due to legal frameworks that is less clear when dealing with rural housing tenure. On the other hand, the massive waves of evictions and demolitions of houses that Greater Cairo Region[2] (GCR) has been witnessing along the past decade, has increased the senses of vulnerability for the residents in urban and periurban areas, due to their proximities to the construction of mega projects, such as infrastructure or real estate investment projects.
The study follows to understand other aspects that creates tenure insecurity perceptions, to cover the different types of legal tenure documents, and presents the different levels of security for each document type. This also includes the critique for the exhausting processes in production of documents, registrations, and taxations. The study has also investigated the different demographic aspects that influence the tenure insecurities, which encompassed genders, age, and income groups. Women has shown greater insecurities, due to the traditional cultural norms that gives more control to men. Likewise, lower income groups and younger age brackets, have shown more insecurities and expressed worries, more than the other groups.
The study resulted gaps that can be filled through synthesizing the research outcomes, to presents sets of recommendations, categorized by the tenure typologies to enhance the tenure statuses in Egypt, through policy reforms and more efficient and just processes. The recommendations aim to start broad discussions between relevant stakeholders that include relevant government agencies, civil society, legal organizations, experts in economy, sociology, and urban planning, and most importantly, the residents.
[1] Self-built housing: A housing typology that is constructed by the dwellers, and does not follow or abide to the formal planning strategies or laws. This typology is widely known by informal housing. However, self-built housing is a broader term that includes housing in urban and rural areas. Since buildings in rural areas are not perceived as informal, by the law.
[2] Greater Cairo Region includes Cairo governorate, Giza governorate, and a part of Qualiubeyya gevernorate.