# **Table 5.1 – Characteristics of land access modes**

|**Access to**<br>**land:**|**Definition**|**Number**<br>**of obs.**|**Median**<br>**distance**<br>**to city**<br>**center**|**Percentage**<br>**of plots**<br>**intended**<br>**for**<br>**residential**<br>**use**|**Medi**|**an size**|**Median p**<br>**of tran**|**rice (at time**<br>**saction)**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Private (non-**<br>**customary)**|Land bought from<br>non-customary<br>“owner” (including<br>previously allocated<br>land and customary<br>land sold on the<br>secondarymarket)|1,120|21 km|84%|Residential:<br>300 m<sup>2</sup>|Agricultural:<br>2 ha|Residential<br>(CFA/m<sup>2</sup>):<br>1,125|Agricultural<br>(CFA/ha):<br>500,000|
|**Public (non-**<br>**customary)**|Land directly allocated<br>by central or local<br>government|52|21 km|75%|Residential:<br>300 m<sup>2</sup>|Agricultural:<br>2 ha|Residential<br>(CFA/m<sup>2</sup>):<br>1,583|Agricultural<br>(CFA/ha):<br>750,000<sup>57</sup>|
|**Customary**<br>**monetary**|Customary land<br>bought from owner|328|32 km|47%|Residential:<br>400 m<sup>2</sup>|Agricultural:<br>3 ha|Residential<br>(CFA/m<sup>2</sup>):<br>823|Agricultural<br>(CFA/ha):<br>300,000|
|**Customary**<br>**non-**<br>**monetary**|Land obtained through<br>customary mechanism|154|37 km|17%|Residential:<br>450 m<sup>2</sup>|Agricultural:<br>2ha|Residential<br>(CFA/m<sup>2</sup>):<br>n/a|Agricultural<br>(CFA/ha):<br>n/a|

_Source: authors’ survey, 20_ The Table in Annex 5.3 presents the profile of sellers and buyers by land access mode. Most sellers of non-built plots are farmers (63%). While 97% of “sellers” in the non-monetary customary access mode are farmers, the figure drops to 84% in the monetary customary access mode and to 56% in the private market (53% for plots with an intended residential use but 73% for agricultural plots). The latter figures suggest that more than half the sellers on the private market are farmers that do not hold the land customarily. They may have bought parcels from customary owners and are selling them on the secondary market. Interestingly, the share of _coxers_ identified as sellers of a plot is highest on the private residential market (16%) hinting at the specialization of intermediaries in the residential segment of the market.<sup>58</sup> Contrary to sellers, the majority of buyers of non-built plots are _not_ farmers (as farmers represent only 12% of all buyers). Although the occupation of a significant proportion of buyers is not known, the figures suggest that there are important differences in terms of buyers’ characteristics depending on the land access mode. While farmers represent 77% of “buyers” of customarily transacted plots (customary plots transacted according to custom), they represent only 9% of buyers on the monetary customary land market, and 4% of buyers on the private land market. Notice that farmers demanding land in the monetized customary and private markets are likely to be investors purchasing land whereas farmers demanding land through the nonmonetary customary land access mode are lowincome households likely to have been granted a right to use the land rather than “ownership” of the plot. The small

> 57 Table 5.1 surprisingly reports _a priori_ a higher price for land obtained through the public delivery channel than on the private land market.  To understand this result, it should be noted that these are raw values that do not account for differences in plot characteristics, including location (see the regressions at the end of this section for a better analysis of land prices) and that median price values can be sensitive to small sample bias (there are only 9 observations for agricultural land accessed through the public channel).  It is not clear also whether responses to our questionnaire make it possible to distinguish publicly allocated land from land acquired by a customary owner to which a precarious title was subsequently issued (which should indeed sell for a higher price than agricultural land acquired on the private market without any precarious title).

> 58 Notice that our questionnaire did not allow for a sufficient distinction between sellers and intermediaries. Some _coxers_ who appear as sellers of customary land in survey responses are in fact simply facilitating the transfer of land.  Other _coxers_ who rightly appear as sellers on the private land market do indeed buy customary rural land which they subdivide for residential use before reselling it. There might also be some confusion in responses regarding the profession of the seller and the function of the person delivering a property right within the land administration.

26