ABSTRACT
Uneven urbanization in the developing city has triggered major challenges by bringing in new citizens of various backgrounds. The statistics of 1981 revealed that more than one-third of urban housing in Colombo was semi-permanent or improvised without sufficient access to water and sanitation facilities. Investing in the existing communities and strengthening their economic landscapes could boost the real estate values of the city as a whole. Using typical indexes such as growth rate or average family sizes cannot be justified for underserved settlements as most of them have their extended family members living with them time-to-time. Every community is an asset and its value is composed of the strengths of its members. The concept of ecological footprints also suggests that high-rise occupy larger footprints and are not sustainable. The need to move away from city marketing to a more endogenous strategy that evolves with the place and said assets is as such neglected.
