The inner city is a place where the possibility of staying of low-income households is constantly pressurised by the interests of the market and the government. In the inner city, more often than not, there is a conflicting interest among the needs of the dwellers, investors and the government. Through the instrumentality of case studies, the lecture will explore possibilities in which the often conflicting interests could be mediated and a desired spatial quality achieved. It will focus on the role of housing tenure, the relationship between stakeholders and the role of the physical urban fabric and design. The lecture derives from Elias Yitbarek?s phd thesis, which analyses urban upgrading in the inner city settlements of Addis Ababa. It is also supplemented by an ongoing research being carried out by Addisalem Feleke and Berhanu Gebrewold, both attending the NOMA MSc programme, under the supervision of dr. Elias Yitbarek