Illegality of private subdivision and access to land for housing by the urban poor in Dhaka

• This research addresses the residential subdivision development process in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
• The land market is not competitive and only a few land developers have benefited from the current enabling policy.
• Most of the peripheral subdivisions are illegal.
• Price is an indicator of legitimacy, utility and service provision.
• The urban poor cannot access this land market.

This paper concerns the illegal peripheral subdivisions in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. These subdivisions were a cheap solution to the demand for land, thereby housing, for the urban poor. With ascent on the enabling policy, Roy (2009) refers the peripheral subdivisions as ‘privatization of informality’ and wealthy command infrastructure, services and legitimacy that come to be designated as ‘formal’ by the state. Legalisation is selective for the socio-economically and politically powerful land developers. The land price of these legal subdivisions is high. Considering the land price, this paper argues that the urban poor have little to no access to the legal subdivisions in Dhaka. Policy suggestions are made at the end of the paper.