| Abstract: | Access to urban land for business activities relates to access to working space,
or using and/or controlling a unit of land based on open access, land ownership,
land lease, business lease or premise rentals. Diversified and broad-based
access to urban land with due regulatory control against speculation and
holdouts enhances the dynamism and competitiveness of business activities,
while on the contrary, mono-route land use markets such as municipal control
of urban land provision suppresses the supply and transferability of land use
rights thereby creating land use market imperfections. This article discusses the
role of access to urban land and its transferability in enhancing the business
environment, inter alia, as one of the major inputs in the production of goods
and services. Rising urban population and correspondingly increasing business
activities lead to urban intensification and urban frontier expansion to adjacent
rural areas which should be addressed with prudence and caution in the context
of accurate land information, efficient utilization of urban land, effective and
transparent land governance and due attention to good practices in comparative
legal regimes. |
