Rent Regulations in Kenya, Lagos-Nigeria, Botswana and South Africa: A Comparative Analysis

Rent regulation is a system of laws controlling rents and tenant evictions aimed at ensuring that rentals are affordable. It reduces both the incidence and fear of homelessness by setting substantive and procedural guidelines to control increases in rent and tenant evictions, thereby preventing landlords from profiting from rental shortages and enabling tenants to remain in existing rentals.

This document examines the legal framework regulating the urban landlord and tenant relationship in Botswana, Kenya, Lagos State- Nigeria, and South Africa. It is not an essay on the ideology of rent regulation, but rather an examination of legislation those states enacted for regulating tenancies to identify what rules may be included in a comprehensive rent regulating regime that promotes security of tenure and affordable rental housing for the urban poor.