Somalia is facing one of the world's most prolonged and complex displacement crises. Ongoing conflict and climate induced shocks have displaced 3.8 million of the country’s 15.2 million people and left 8.3 million in need of humanitarian aid.
Many rural residents have sought safety and support in cities and larger towns, a trend which has been intensified by the provision of humanitarian support, such that 85 percent of the country's IDP sites are now in urban areas. Somalia has become one of the most rapidly urbanizing countries in the world, with at least half of its population living in cities. Given these demographics, the correlation between urban resilience and solutions for displaced populations is significant.
Alongside IDPs, a large number of urban poor find it difficult to secure affordable housing. This situation is exacerbated by a lack of comprehensive legal frameworks and institutions, as well as widespread land grabbing, which have contributed to an informal housing sector plagued by disputes.
Housing plays a vital role in providing stability and security for vulnerable populations such as IDPs and the urban poor, yet these populations are most likely to be affected by challenging cycles of displacement and forced evictions. Having to be constantly on the move depletes their resources and inhibits their abilities to establish stable livelihoods and build resilience.
Informal housing in Mogadishu. IOM 2021.
Informal housing in Mogadishu. IOM 2021.
Informal housing in Mogadishu. IOM 2021.
Informal housing in Mogadishu. IOM 2021.
Getting a house used to be easy.
Now, it is very difficult.
We ask a land broker, and it takes a while before he gets you a house. Sometimes you wait for two months and he will charge you money and you will have to pay in advance. The rent has also increased, and the area is more densely populated due to high demand for housing.
While land governance had been a topic of interest for humanitarian and development actors in Somalia over the past decade, there has been limited knowledge on housing and rental conditions in urban centres. Understanding how the housing market operates and the roles and incentives of private and public stakeholders is critical in providing long term solutions to displacement. The Danwadaag Durable Solutions Consortium, through the Scaling Solutions programme supported by USAID, is exploring new approaches to enhance urban resilience, with housing interventions at the core.
Focusing on Somalia’s largest city and capital, Mogadishu, Danwadaag commissioned Tana Copenhagen to conduct a rental market assessment to explore how the local housing market operates, understand the challenges that low-income families face, and uncover strategies to address these challenges.
The assessment’s results informed the design of an Integrated Rental Solutions programme, which provides rental subsidies, legal identity documentation, consumption support, and tailored livelihood support to allow targeted IDP households to sustainably move away from IDP sites, graduate from long-term poverty, and reduce long-term aid dependency.
Mogadishu is now home to over 1.2 million IDPs: almost a third of the total displaced in Somalia. In parallel, propelled by the return of members of the Somali diaspora and substantial remittances, the city has been witnessing a real estate boom, driving land prices to soaring heights.
The resulting demand for land and socioeconomic dynamics, taking place in a largely informal legal context, have created significant housing insecurity, particularly for IDPs and individuals from minority clans who lack adequate protection. In 2023 alone, 100,907 cases of eviction were recorded.
We also know that there is a vibrant and robust informal rental housing market, but remarkably little is known about how the rental market works or the quality of the accommodations available.
To better understand these dynamics, the rental market assessment conducted a quantitative survey of 653 households, 69 key informant interviews, and 43 focus group discussions across 5 targeted districts of Mogadishu.
Stylized map based on geospatial analysis in Hassan et al, "Urban sprawl patterns, drivers, and Impacts The Case of Mogadishu, Somalia Using Geo-Spatial and SEM Analyses" in Land 2023.
Stylized map based on geospatial analysis in Hassan et al, "Urban sprawl patterns, drivers, and Impacts The Case of Mogadishu, Somalia Using Geo-Spatial and SEM Analyses" in Land 2023.
Here are the top 5 things we learned
Who's who
The Mogadishu rental market is characterized by a diverse cast of stakeholders. Renters, landowners, property brokers, real estate developers, private companies, and government entities all shape the dynamics of the ecosystem, and each participant has unique perspectives and motivations that shape the city's rental landscape.
Click on each profile to learn more.
Renting and housing conditions present significant challenges for most low-income families in Mogadishu, who constantly live under threats of eviction, with little security and stability. They are often forced to make difficult choices, weighing the affordability of housing against quality in terms of security and comfort. Vulnerable groups including IDPs, women, and those with disabilities face additional barriers including discrimination throughout the rental process.
Living conditions
Most IDPs and urban poor live in the city's periphery in houses constructed with corrugated iron sheets, which provide limited soundproofing and insulation from the heat. IDPs also build makeshift structures, known as buuls, from branches and plastic sheets. Other people construct their shelters using a combination of materials. A small percentage of individuals live in old houses, apartments, stone buildings, or villas in areas closer to the city centre.
Explore the interactive story below to learn more.
Affordability
Internationally, the widely recognized benchmark for housing affordability is spending between 25-30 percent of household income on housing. In sub-Saharan Africa, low-income households spend around 13 percent of their income on housing expenses including utilities.
In Mogadishu, rent surpasses 40 percent of renters' incomes, on average.
As a result, the burden of housing costs, which can range from US$11-90 per month for two rooms plus $2-40 for amenities, weighs heavily on renters’ shoulders.
Informal leases and a high risk of eviction
Written rental contracts—usually undertaken at a notary’s office, local police station, or district office—are extremely uncommon in Mogadishu, even for regular residents, as they are costly for both tenants and landlords. When they do exist, most are written with no expiry date, as renewal incurs additional costs.
Instead, verbal agreements are often preferred and may be agreed either privately or in the presence of a witness or other third party. While the presence of an agreement does not stop evictions entirely, it can offer tenants protection during the eviction process and can serve as a resource for challenging eviction attempts.
Discrimination
Women, youth, people living with disabilities, and IDPs encounter specific challenges in renting.
Cultural norms and attitudes—such as societal patriarchy, bias against the disabled, limited integration, and the belief that IDPs have a negative impact on the environment—can lead landlords to discriminate against these groups, especially when vulnerabilities are cross-cutting.
Moreover, most housing options do not cater to the specific needs of women and people with disabilities. For example, most toilets are not gender-specific, and none are designed to accommodate people with disabilities.
Hover over and scroll through the photos to hear from the study's participants.
The Mogadishu rental market is characterized by a diverse cast of stakeholders. Renters, landowners, property brokers, real estate developers, private companies, and government entities all shape the dynamics of the ecosystem, and each participant has unique perspectives and motivations that shape the city's rental landscape.
Click on each profile to learn more.
Renting and housing conditions present significant challenges for most low-income families in Mogadishu, who constantly live under threats of eviction, with little security and stability. They are often forced to make difficult choices, weighing the affordability of housing against quality in terms of security and comfort. Vulnerable groups including IDPs, women, and those with disabilities face additional barriers, including discrimination throughout the rental process.
Most IDPs and urban poor live in the city's periphery in houses constructed with corrugated iron sheets, which provide limited soundproofing and insulation from the heat. IDPs also build makeshift structures, known as buuls, from branches and plastic sheets. Other people construct their shelters using a combination of materials. A small percentage of individuals live in old houses, apartments, stone buildings, or villas in areas closer to the city centre.
Explore the interactive story to learn more.
Internationally, the widely recognized benchmark for housing affordability is spending 25-30 percent of household income on housing. In sub-Saharan Africa, low-income households spend around 13 percent of their income on housing expenses including utilities.
In Mogadishu, rent surpasses 40 percent of renters' incomes, on average.
As a result, the burden of housing costs, which can range from US$11-90 per month for two rooms plus $2-40 for amenities, weighs heavily on renters’ shoulders.
Written rental contracts—usually undertaken at a notary’s office, local police station, or district office—are extremely uncommon in Mogadishu, even for regular residents, as they are costly for both tenants and landlords. When they do exist, most are written with no expiry date, as renewal incurs additional costs.
Instead, verbal agreements are often preferred and may be agreed either privately or in the presence of a witness or other third party. While the presence of an agreement does not stop evictions entirely, it can offer tenants protection during the eviction process and can serve as a resource for challenging eviction attempts.
Women, youth, people living with disabilities, and IDPs encounter specific challenges in renting.
Cultural norms and attitudes—such as societal patriarchy, bias against the disabled, limited integration, and the belief that IDPs have a negative impact on the environment—can lead landlords to discriminate against these groups, especially when vulnerabilities are cross-cutting.
Moreover, most housing options do not cater to the specific needs of women and people with disabilities. For example, most toilets are not gender-specific, and none are designed to accommodate people with disabilities.
Hover over and scroll through the photos to hear from the study's participants.
Based on the assessment, we recommend:
Adequately addressing the urban housing problem in Mogadishu requires considering the supply (housing stock) and demand (renter/tenant) sides of the market and designing both quick solutions to immediate, pressing needs and tackling systemic reforms.
Click on the recommendations to read more. Click on the items in the legend to filter.
Providing support to the demand side—meaning to the renters directly—could address the likely threat of eviction and enable more sustainable exit strategies from IDP sites. In consideration of this, Danwadaag Consortium members IOM and Norwegian Refugee Council, together with Save the Children and with support from USAID, designed the Integrated Rental Solutions (IRS) programme. This innovative intervention builds on two previous rental subsidy pilots, incorporating lessons learnt and increasing the scale, or number of participants, by over five times.
Targeting households that face an imminent risk of eviction, the Integrated Rental Solutions programme aims to sustainably improve tenure security, increase household incomes, and reduce dependence on humanitarian aid.
The IRS layers the proven housing, land, and property (HLP) interventions from previous pilots with more sophisticated, tailored livelihoods programming, as well as provision of legal identity documentation and consumption support.
The previous rental subsidy pilots targeted 80-100 households, and 89 percent of participants were able to continue to pay rent after project completion. The latest iteration is scaling up to support over 500 IDP households, or 3,000 people, over 15 months.
Why is this programme innovative?
The programme has four differentiating elements that make it unique and set it up for long-term success. Click each element to learn more.
Providing support to the demand side—meaning to the renters directly—could address the likely threat of eviction and provide more sustainable exit strategies from IDP sites. In consideration of this, Danwadaag Consortium members IOM and Norwegian Refugee Council, together with Save the Children and with support from USAID, designed the Integrated Rental Solutions (IRS) programme. This innovative intervention builds on two previous rental subsidy pilots, incorporating lessons learnt and increasing the scale, or number of participants, by over five times.
Targeting households that face an imminent risk of eviction, the Integrated Rental Solutions programme aims to sustainably improve tenure security, increase household incomes, and reduce dependence on humanitarian aid.
The IRS layers the proven housing, land, and property (HLP) interventions from previous pilots with more sophisticated, tailored livelihoods programming as well as provision of legal identity documentation and consumption support.
The previous rental subsidy pilots targeted 80-100 households, and 89 percent of participants were able to continue to pay rent after project completion. The latest iteration is scaling up to support over 500 IDP households, or 3,000 people, over 15 months.
Why is this programme innovative?
The programme has four differentiating elements that make it unique and set it up for long-term success. Click each element to learn more.
A government-owned and
community-led initiative
Government and community engagement are vital for the success of the Integrated Rental Solutions pilot, ensuring accountability, understanding of local needs, and enabling tailoring and collaboration.
The Benadir Regional Administration Durable Solutions Unit (BRA-DSU) was closely involved in designing the pilot and participant profiling tool. They provided trained enumerators, supported engagement with district authorities, and assigned staff to support implementation. Moving forward, BRA will be an integral part of community and landlord engagement, including facilitating security vetting processes and witnessing the signing of lease contracts.
"Safe and affordable urban housing is the foundation for a secure future for displaced populations in Mogadishu. The integrated rental solution pilot is a critical step towards a sustainable model for our city. This initiative goes beyond just shelter - it's about empowering residents, fostering stability, and creating a thriving Mogadishu where everyone has the opportunity to access livelihoods and build a brighter future."
Community members and relevant stakeholders are also involved in planning and decision-making processes. To ensure compliance with project terms and conditions, each selected household has received personalized explanations of key messages and challenges through one-on-one sessions with household heads.
Community consultations. NRC 2023.
Community consultations. NRC 2023.
Participant and housing selection
Targeted households were identified through a multi-stage and mixed approach. Identification of their new accommodations will be based on the minimum rental standards derived from the rental market research.
Before signing up for the Integrated Rental Solutions pilot, households are asked to participate in one-on-one meetings with project staff, during which they will receive an introduction to the project, including its terms and conditions and a summary of potential challenges.
After completing the participant selection process and communicating the dissemination strategy, the project team conducts sessions targeting landlords to generate interest from the housing supply side.
Selected households are then guided to identify the houses they want to move to. During this process, the project team cross-references the minimum standards of housing to ensure that the identified options meet the criteria. Additionally, the team will further validate the standards and document the prioritization process to facilitate learning for future programmes.
Ultimately, the project expects to achieve:
As of July 2024, the first group of households has been relocated.
Here is what one young woman has to say:
“I am no longer an IDP. Now, I am part of the host community living in Garasbaaley district.
My new home is more than just a roof over our heads. It represents a fresh start and a brighter future for me and my children.”
Credits
For more information about Danwadaag's work in Somalia, contact Laura Bennison, Danwadaag Durable Solutions Consortium Coordinator. Follow us on X @Danwadaag_DS.
This interactive report was designed and developed by Jenny Spencer at Untethered Impact using icons from icons8. The Integrated Rental Market Assessment was conducted by Tana Copenhagen.
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