A shelter of their own: informal settlement expansion in Greater Cairo and government responses

Abstract

This paper describes why there has been a rapid growth of informal settlements in Cairo when there was an oversupply of formal housing, and why most new informal settlements develop on scarce agricultural land while large stretches of desert nearby remain mostly undeveloped. The paper also reviews the changes in the Egyptian government's housing and land policies over the last 40 years, including attempts to upgrade informal settlement and to combine upgrading with the development of settlements for middle-income households.