Governments and local authorities in developing countries could not ignore the vitality, actions and products of the informal sector in housing and settlements. In Egypt; as in many developing nations, the informal sector provided, throughout the past decades, the majority of housing units and environs for low income groups, solving their urgent need for shelter, closely related to work and services. While depilating invaluable agriculture land, providing poor social and physical quality, internal and external living, the informal housing and development process, proved hard to match, control or stop. The government and related institutions couldn’t compete with the ‘meagre’ affordable product built by the users and demand groups. The positive aspects of informal and related incremental developments were accepted and deployed in formal policies and housing scenarios since the 1980’s; advocating loose partnership between central and local authorities, and the targeted low income families, and collectively resulting in legal housing developments that could be improved with time. Limited success marked the applications of the said policies of joint endeavours and incremental developments; and informal housing and settlements continued to grow. A new scenario was adopted and applied since 2005, entitled ‘Build Your Home’; aiming at avoiding the drawbacks of earlier developments’ policies and actions; invariably lacking: reasonable outlook, quality external spaces and efficient control. Nine years later, it is possible to review and assess the experience; pointing-out its merits and shortcomings, including; distorted development, in-completed infrastructure and services, thin population, and absence of community living. The present work critically looks into the promise and misfortunes of Incremental Housing Developments in Egypt, with emphasis on the recent experience of ‘Build Your Home’; addressing and suggesting means of improving: the ‘inefficient’ Process of implementation and the ‘humble’ Products; in Incremental Development Projects. The paper comprises three parts: 1- Incremental development process, on potentials and actors’ roles, 2- ‘Build your Home’ Incremental Housing, Egypt, 2005 -2013, a critical analysis, 3- Revitalization of Incremental Housing Developments – Proposed Framework.
