The Ethiopian Urban Land Lease Holding Law: Tenure Security and Property Rights

Abstract

As urban centers in Ethiopia are expanding fast, adopting and executing aflexible urban land use system which can respond to the ever mounting demandfor urban land and ensure tenure security would be mandatory. In the absence oftenure security, no one is happy to bring about a costly permanent improvementto land. Under this article, the author argues that the Ethiopian urban landholders encountered land tenure insecurity due to poor real property registrationsystem, restrictive rules on land holding, and their inability to pay lease andrelated debts to the government and all these have their own uncalled forconsequences on property rights. This article also unveils how urban land hasbecome unaffordable to the public at large.