Informal housing

Informal housing or informal settlement can include any form of housing, shelter, or settlement (or lack thereof) which is illegal, falls outside of government control or regulation, or is not afforded protection by the state.[1] As such, the informal housing-industry is part of the informal sector.[2]

Informal housing settlement in Soweto, South Africa

To have informal housing status is to exist in "a state of deregulation, one where the ownership, use, and purpose of land cannot be fixed and mapped according to any prescribed set of regulations or the law".[1] While there is no global unified law of property-ownership[3] typically, the informal occupant or community will lack security of tenure and, with this, ready or reliable access to civic amenities (portable water, electricity- and gas-supply, sanitation and waste collection). Due to the informal nature of occupancy, the state will typically be unable to extract rent or land taxes.

The term "informal housing" is useful in capturing informal population other than those living slum settlements or shanty towns, which the UN Habitat defines more narrowly as "contiguous settlement where the inhabitants are characterized as having inadequate housing and basic services, often not recognized or addressed by the public authorities as an integral or equal part of the city."[4]

Common categories or terms associated with informal housing include: slums, slum settlements, shanty towns, squats, homelessness and pavement dwellers.