Institutional conditions for sustainable private sector-led urban development projects: A conceptual model

Across the globe sustainable private sector-led urban development projects (SPUDPs) in the built environment rarely commence as real estate developers face several institutional barriers which limit their capacity to develop economic-viable, social-responsible, environmental-friendly urban places. Hence, SPUDPs are a promising development strategy for cities as the scale of such projects could be an effective means to integrate public planning policies and private development decisions with a broader social impact as opposed to solely developing sustainable buildings. However, it is largely unknown how SPUDPs can be effectuated as insight is lacking into institutional conditions that could incentivise real estate developers to make decisions for sustainable urban development practices. This paper explores the institutional conditions, in particular the policy instruments from local planning authorities, that nudge private decision-making to realise SPUDPs, by means of a literature review resulting in a conceptual model. The paper reveals that developers can be incentivised by pro-active local planning bodies using a combination of planning policy instruments which foster a sustainability-sensitive market decision-making environment.