The Impact of Land Tenure Security on Housing Investment at Informal Settlements (The Case of Eslamabad Neighborhood, Tehran)

In recent years, tenure security has been one of the main objectives of improvement projects in urban poor settlements. Despite lots of international studies initiated in this field, it has received little attention in Iran. The main aim of this paper is to assess the influence of tenure security on the level of household investment in housing. Survey method is considered as the methodology of this research hence questionnaires were prepared and filled in EslamAbad Neighbourhood of Tehran, Iran. In this study, Legal, extra-legal, perceptive fear of eviction, and the probability of eviction were four main indices used to measure tenure security with household income index as a controller variable. The findings of the research showed that there is a significant relationship between three different kinds of tenure security. In addition, it revealed that between five indices used, only three indices (e.g. legal, household income and perceived fear of eviction) affect the level of investment in housing by household. In comparison to other indices, fear of eviction was the most important factor that affects tenure security.