Housing production in uneven urban quarters : two case studies from Beirut (Lebanon) Aicha Bakkar and Tallet El Khayyat

Abstract

Housing production in Beirut’s post-war period has been governed by the pro-growth “enabling of the market” rationale that follows the World Bank’s dogma of the 1990s. While this rationale has been locally promoted for its effectiveness in securing access to housing and sometimes also for employment generation and inclusive economic development, this study shows that its implementation was far from matching such claims. Instead, the thesis argues that post-war policies, specifically Building Law 646-2004 and subsidized housing loans by Public Corporation of Housing, have enormously influenced housing production in the city by promoting speculative practices that work against inclusiveness. To assess the impact of these policies on the production of housing in Beirut, the thesis combines a longitudinal and actors-centered approach comparing development activities in two adjacent neighborhoods of the city, Aicha Bakkar and Tallet El Khayyat. The two neighborhoods display distinct class differences, while they maintain relatively similar positions in the city’s historical sectarian divisions. The thesis explores the materialization of these policies comparatively in the two neighborhoods. The thesis begins by documenting the way in which the production of residential buildings in Beirut reproduces socio-spatial inequalities in the city, both economic and religious. It shows that processes of urban production follow path dependent trajectories where property ownership patterns, land subdivisions, building development, financing, and exchange are strongly shaped by neighborhood-scale institutions. These processes, in turn, create opportunities for specific developers in each of these neighborhoods. Thus, in Aicha Bakkar, successful developers were those who consolidated their roles by tapping on existing social and institutional hierarchies such as family groupings, religious organizations, and more. Conversely, in Tallet el Khayyat, successful developers were more often those who could