Paper short abstract:

Private investors constructed many rental housing units in an unplanned settlement. These entrepreneurial landlords speculated with low-cost housing under extra-legal conditions. Local estate agents´ work was supportive, socially motivated and driven by responsebility towards destitute tenants.

Paper long abstract:

The ethnographic study was conducted in the unplanned settlement of Adjahui,

which is located in Port Bouët municipality of the Abidjan metropolis, Côte d’Ivoire,

where, after a short period of self-building activities, rental housing was constructed

on a massive scale. We asked about the motivations behind these investments into the

lowest price segment of rentals in Abidjan and their property management. Findings

from interviews with 12 estate agents revealed that small-scale private investors from

the middle class and West African migrant background speculated with low-cost

housing under extra-legal conditions to accumulate or maintain their wealth. These

entrepreneurial landlords delegated construction of courtyard houses and property

management to local non-accredited estate agencies. While the deals between

investors and estate agents were driven by profit, the occupational history of the estate

agents showed how they randomly moved into this business. Their work was also

socially motivated, as they expressed responsibility for their customers, who could not

afford other rental housing. The paper will discuss how the investments reduced the

quantitative deficit in low-cost rental housing.