ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies and describes the planning frameworks and patterns of urban real estate development at the city scale in two cities, Cape Town, South Africa, and Nairobi, Kenya. It unpacks three important trends emerging in Nairobi. First, tracks of land are being developed by large-scale private real estate companies, often backed by global financiers. Second, the infill of the city is largely being built by tenement landlords constructing multistorey rental accommodation for the lower and middle classes. Finally, the outskirts of Nairobi are being developed by land-buying companies (LBCs), established to purchase peri-urban land for its shareholders. Cape Town's planning department have been at the forefront of critiquing RDP housing – in particular, for its contribution to urban sprawl. While there are many similarities and differences in the development patterns in Nairobi and Cape Town, both cases combat simplistic readings of African cities as only cases of slum urbanism.
