INTERACTIONS BETWEEN FORMAL AND INFORMAL PROPERTY MARKETS IN HOUSING SUB-MARKETS OF INDIAN CITIES

The Atlas of Urban Expansion estimates that 30-40% of land in Indian cities is occupied by "informal subdivisions" (Angel, et al., 2016). This research proposes to explore the idea that informal nature of development affects activities of several stakeholders across the city, not just the owner and user of the informal property. Given the large scale of informal settlements across developing cities, it is unlikely that formal and informal property markets do not interact and impact each other, making it important to study and understand how they interact. The proposal is structured in the following manner:
1. The second section discusses the existing literature about formal and informal real estate markets, outlining the key definitions, concepts, and learnings available so far. The section also tries to establish the need for this research.
2. The third section explores the principal themes which can be developed in the research along the identified research gaps.
3. The fourth section discusses the objectives and research questions of the proposed PhD research.
4. The fifth section briefly outlines the methodologies that can be used to address the possible research themes described in section 3 and the geographical scope of the study.