USING PUBLICLY-OWNED LANDS AS ASSETS FOR URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE FINANCING

Abstract

Using publicly-owned lands as assets for urban infrastructure financing is considered one of the most ambitious and encouraging approaches to finance urban infrastructure, since this approach would provide the needed financing to different types of infrastructure without depending on the government or on the low-income groups. This financing approach is based on obtaining revenues from private developers and high-end land owners through publicly owned land selling, leasing, granting, or participating to capture the increment in land value. This increment is resulted of public investment in infrastructure, which creates a sustainable financing mechanism for infrastructure provision and for urban development and expansion. However, the usage of this financing approach has proven its economic efficiency in many local and international cases as its revenues can exceed all the governmental spending for all the infrastructure projects by many times. On the other hand, the usage of this financing approach in some Egyptian new cities have exposed the government to many negative financial instability risks due to the current used policies and the lack and absence of a verified public land management framework. These have caused to hinge and disturb the national urban development strategies.