Urban densification: understanding landowners’ inertia in building on vacant lots
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Date
2024-11-07
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Abstract
Many municipalities promote urban densification in the interest of sustainable development and alleviating housing shortages. However, landowners as the key strategic actor for densification are still reluctant to build on their vacant lots. This inertia of the landowners in developing their land under their development rights is one of the main obstacles to the effective implementation of urban densification.
A more comprehensive understanding of the logics of the actions of landowners is necessary for the municipality to implement more effective densification policies. This article addresses this gap in knowledge by uncovering landowners’ interests and behaviour. The re search is based on a quantitative and qualitative research design with empirical evidence from Germany.
The study reveals the two most critical factors influencing landowner behaviour (acceptance of responsibility, and freedom of decision-making) and distinguishes five types of landowners. They differ in their interests and behaviour in dealing with their vacant lots.