Abstract:
Land is a vital resource and a driver of economic growth and development. Efficient and effective
urban land management is prerequisite to access residential land in urban centers. The principal
objective of the research was to investigate the challenges of urban residential land management
practices in Bedele town, Buno Bedelle zone, Oromiya National Regional State. To meet the intended
target, fully mixed concurrent dominant status-quantitative research approach and cross-sectional
research design were utilized. Both primary and secondary data sources were used for the study. A
simple random sampling technique was used to select 192 sample households from 9,771 total
households of the town. A purposive sampling technique was utilized to pick up key informants. To
generate pertinent empirical data for the study, structured questionnaire, semi-structured interview
guides and observation and checklist were utilized. The findings of the study showed that land
acquisition system in Bedele Town was aggravated by high demand for housing, competition,
construction of illegal housing units and illegal land use transfer. The finding of this study also clearly
showed that several problems have been encountered in Bedele town in relation to urban residential
land management practices of Bedele town. These problems include fluctuation of directives, illegal
agreement, lack of skilled labor man power and poor land management and controlling system.
Furthermore, the binary logistic regression model was used to analysis data and to find out predicting
variables to access residential land in Bedele town. Accordingly, the results of the study showed that
income was found to be the major contributing factor to access residential land in the town at 5% level
of significance. To overcome the notorious challenges, it is essential to instigate land registration and
cadastral system in the town which enables to avoid redundancies of land ownership, illegal land
transfer and to easily control land resource in the town. Simultaneously, Municipal of the town should
deliver housing units, encourages and attracts real estate developers in order to supply housing units in
the town.
