The state of the property market in the Kingdom of Eswatini: trends since independence
type: CreativeWork
description: Eswatini has for the longest of time been predominantly rural and people depended on subsistence farming for their livelihood. The increased rate of urbanisation can be viewed as a disruption to the rural lives of the people. Urbanisation has given birth to new cultures where people, especially those living in the peri-urban areas are now selling land meant for other uses such as farming and grazing. This is done without due consideration for the protection of crop fields, animal grazing land and water sources. The study seeks to establish an effective pathway to facilitating sustainable urban growth in eSwatini through the strengthening of rural-urban linkages in the country. In achieving the foregoing, firstly, one had to identify theory or literature on similar studies done elsewhere where the loss of rural/farmland because of indiscriminate urbanisation, its impact on people's livelihood and how such challenges are being addressed with emphasis on Sub-Saharan Africa. The theory was put into context by reviewing what is being done by the Eswatini Government to ensure the sustainability of the relationship between urban growth and rural/farmland activities which is meant to provide food security to urban land while reciprocal services are provided to rural/farmland. The literature review revealed that indeed, the negative effects of urban growth are not isolated only to Eswatini, but it does appear that other countries such as the USA and China did experience similar challenges during their early development stages. It was further discovered that urbanisation and agricultural land uses are always in competition with each other as they both thrive in similar land parcels in terms of terrain, and proximity to resources such as water. It is unfortunate for rural/farmland that it always loses against urbanisation in the absence of regulation. It is in that vein that the developed world has already put in place policies to guarantee a sustainable relationship between u…
abstract: Eswatini has for the longest of time been predominantly rural and people depended on subsistence farming for their livelihood. The increased rate of urbanisation can be viewed as a disruption to the rural lives of the people. Urbanisation has given birth to new cultures where people, especially those living in the peri-urban areas are now selling land meant for other uses such as farming and grazing. This is done without due consideration for the protection of crop fields, animal grazing land and water sources. The study seeks to establish an effective pathway to facilitating sustainable urban growth in eSwatini through the strengthening of rural-urban linkages in the country. In achieving the foregoing, firstly, one had to identify theory or literature on similar studies done elsewhere where the loss of rural/farmland because of indiscriminate urbanisation, its impact on people's livelihood and how such challenges are being addressed with emphasis on Sub-Saharan Africa. The theory was put into context by reviewing what is being done by the Eswatini Government to ensure the sustainability of the relationship between urban growth and rural/farmland activities which is meant to provide food security to urban land while reciprocal services are provided to rural/farmland. The literature review revealed that indeed, the negative effects of urban growth are not isolated only to Eswatini, but it does appear that other countries such as the USA and China did experience similar challenges during their early development stages. It was further discovered that urbanisation and agricultural land uses are always in competition with each other as they both thrive in similar land parcels in terms of terrain, and proximity to resources such as water. It is unfortunate for rural/farmland that it always loses against urbanisation in the absence of regulation. It is in that vein that the developed world has already put in place policies to guarantee a sustainable relationship between u…
author: Magagula, Bongani
language: en
keywords: Property Studies, Kingdom of Eswatini
date published: 2025
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:23:05Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Department of Construction Economics and Management

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42072