Felix Mumbi Chilufya^1,, Elijah M. Bwalya², Francis Simui¹

Shelter forms a basic human need as expounded by Marlow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Lusaka, the capital city of Zambia, has experienced a massive population expansion since Zambia’s independence in 1964 putting a pressure on the need for housing. However observation indicates that the mushrooming of settlements abrogates stipulated building regulations of Town Planning authorities. The safety and health tenets stipulated in the Urban and Regional Planning Act of 2015 are flouted with impunity. A starting point of enquiry is the control of housing development that ought to be done by Town Planning authorities. The initial procedure is the granting of permission to housing developers through issuing of a building permit. The extent of housing developers not acquiring building permits was the focus of this study which utilised the Grounded Theory Method (GTM) approach. Respondents from Lusaka Town Planning authority and eight selected settlements were interviewed. In the preliminary enquiry, it was observed that the extent of non-acquisition of building permit was substantive. The main concern was therefore a critical limitation of housing developers seeking building permits. The majority of selected housing developers did not apply for authorisation during construction of their houses. This is attributed to what was identified in the core category as ignorance or lack of awareness of the permission seeking procedure by the selected housing developers. Finally, the concept identified in this study on the extent of unauthorised housing developers’ non-acquisition of building permits is that, this is a wide spread phenomenon caused by ignorance of the process occasioned by a lack of sensitization by Town Planning authorities.

building permits, town planners, housing developers, communication, grounded theory