With increased urbanization around the world, accessing land as well as housing in urban
areas presents huge development limitations. This master thesis will explore the relationship
involving law as well as development through examination of ways in which law affects the
regulatory structures that govern official accessibility to land along with housing processes. It
can be argued that legal reforms affect ways in which regulatory frameworks are articulated
that in turn influence the efficient and unbiased processes whereby poor people in urban areas
may have formal access to housing as well as land. This thesis focuses on the urban renewal
policy on housing conditions in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. Other mega cities within Africa
such as Johannesburg in Southern Africa tends to have several post-legal-reform positive
trends involving the processes compared to Dar es Salaam, thus illustrating the role played by
law as an important tool that can be used to achieve development and bring change in urban
areas.