Project Update – Vanuatu Affordable and Resilient Settlements (VARS) Project

Planning and governance challenges within Vanuatu’s urban population are significant. Port Vila City Council has never adopted a master or local plan to guide and control urban expansion or land use. Likewise, there is no clear government agency responsible for land identification and infrastructure development to meet Port Vila’s growing needs. In one respect Port Vila is in a strong position – there is land that is available for development. But the majority of development to date has been private sector-led, targeting high-income bracket earners, and even this development has been limited by regulatory uncertainty and outdated land administration processes. In the 25-year period between 1996-2020 only 4,100 new residential lots were approved in Greater Port Vila – an average of just 170 new lots per year. The majority of these have targeted high-income households, with varying levels of infrastructure (that is, roads, electricity, water) provided by developers. Affordable housing units for those on lower wages are largely absent on the private market.

This is urgently required solutions are being sought through the Vanuatu Affordable and Resilient Settlement – VARS – Project. The VARS project is implemented by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources (MoLNR) with funding from the World Bank and support by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), Ministry of Infrastructure and Public Utilities (MIPU), the Department of Environmental Protection and Conservation, Shefa Provincial Council, and Port Vila City Council. The VARS objective is to improve access to resilient infrastructure, through new settlement development, settlement upgrading and strengthened institutional capacity for land planning and management.

In May 2024, LEI commenced the Land Development Policy, Legal and Marketing Advisory Services to provide support to the MoLNR to demonstrate the viability of commercial subdivision models. These models need to both (1) meet the requirements of the National Land Subdivision Policy and land lease legislation, and (2) remain affordable to the targeted lower-middle income wage earners. The team – consisting of Economics Expert and Team Lead Nik Regenvanu, Urban Planning Expert Jennifer Day and Land Administration Expert Kate Fairlie – travelled to Port Vila in May/June to complete the project Inception Report, present to the Technical Working Group and commence conversations and data collection towards development of cost sharing principles and a Cost Recovery Policy. Discussing costs has raised some intriguing issues and questions – including what does project success look like? How do infrastructural design choices intersect with long-term affordability and inclusivity concerns? What tenure mechanisms can be adopted to encourage long-term settlement sustainability (including maintenance)?

Upcoming work for the team includes development of a report on market appetite – will the pricing be acceptable to both developers and purchasers, and will the target market be able to afford to build on, let alone purchase the land? As well as definition of beneficiary eligibility criteria and development of a marketing strategy and application process. The team is particularly keen to see the marketing strategy ‘elevated’ to encompass strengthened land and financial literacy, as one avenue to tackle the gendered nature of land ownership.

Fundamentally, the VARS new settlement pilot will be an important first step in opening land for development of affordable housing in the periphery of Port Vila. The project provides an important basis for regional cooperation and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, with such visit already made by the Government and PMU to Fiji. We look forward to sharing further findings as the project progresses.

Main image: The Etas site of the new development
Image above: An example subdivision in Port Vila, Vanuatu, including solar streetlighting