Browsing by Author "Sasu A"

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    Land banking, land price and Ghana’s informal land markets: A relational complexity approach
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2024-06) Sasu A; Javed A; Muhammad I; Squires G
    Land banking practices have received little attention on how such practices shape informal land markets in developing countries. Drawing on a relational complexity framework, this study explores the land banking experience in Ghana’s informal land markets. This research conducted semi-structured interviews with over thirty participants from four communities within the Ghanaian informal land market. The analysis revealed that developers are banking large tracts of land as capital investments through land dispositions. The absence of development on these banked lands has created a situation where developers are gradually influencing land prices. The analysis also shows that developers have created complex ongoing relationships with customary land managers. This coalition relationship has shaped land prices through the displacement of state-mediated statutory powers for land exchanges. The study recommends revisiting of stakeholder discussions on the enforcement and monitoring of the processes required under the Ghanaian Lands Commission guidelines for large-scale land transactions.
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    Optimal location to land banking practices in urban-rural informal land market continuum of Ghana
    (Elsevier, 2024-09-03) Sasu A; Javed A; Muhammad I
    Land banking practices in complex informal land markets are growing in developing countries. However, the land banking (LB) literature predominantly focuses on publicly driven land banks operating within formal land markets. Against this backdrop, this study investigates optimal locations for LB projects in Ghana's complex informal land markets from the perspective of private and semi-public real estate developers. Utilising a two-stage research process, first, the study developed a conceptual framework by using: (1) suppositions regarding space under economic geography; and (2) theoretical suppositions on the use of LB and its influence on LB locational choices uncovered from an interpretive hermeneutic literature review. The second stage focused on an empirical assessment of the conceptual framework by taking four urbanised regions in Ghana. The case study stage uses primary data from 30 interviewees selected using purposive and snowball sampling, while secondary data comprised land bank inventories from the regional Lands Commissions of the case study regions. Results revealed land title security as the primary factor determining optimal locations for land banks. There are significant challenges related to land title security in urban and inner parts of peri-urban areas. These challenges are aggravating the transformation of agricultural lands into residential lands in developers' preferred land bank locations. Based on the ongoing land transformation occurrences, the study underscores the need for policy responses that enhance title security to encourage developers to diversify their land banking locational preferences beyond solely greenfield sites to a mix of green and urban brownfield sites.