Land markets in African cities: The case of peri-urban Accra, Ghana

Land markets in African cities are characterised by the co-existence of dif ferent modes of supply that originate from the different stages of their de velopment, Customary land tenure remains important in many of these cities, although its future is widely disputed, This paper discusses the implicati ons of the co-existence of customary land tenure and state involvement in t he land market in peri-urban Accra, where land is rapidly being converted f rom agricultural to residential use, The land market is shown to be complex and diverse, characterised by a high level of uncertainty and widespread d isputes. The strong sense of cultural identity associated with customary la nd, and the difficulties of introducing major changes to land markets, howe ver, point towards maintaining a modified form of customary land tenure.