Urban LandMark Resources on Governance: Municipal rates policies and the urban poor (2009)

Commissioned by the SA Cities Network and Urban Landmark, this paper examines how municipal property rates policies are, or could be, used as an instrument to promote access by the poor to urban land markets.

Buffalo City Municipality and the City of Johannesburg are used as case studies to probe implementation issues and highlight some of the key trade-offs made and approaches taken by municipalities to balance municipal revenue concerns with pro-poor policy intentions.

Download the paper on municipal rates policies and the urban poor [410KB]