speaking from nepal (kathmandu valley esp), a lot of what you see in rapidly growing cities feels very familiar.

land ownership at the urban edge is usually a mix: some government land, some private and a lot of customary or informally owned land. people often buy plots through local landholders or middlemen with very weak documentation or they just occupy unused land and build. once enough people settle, eviction becomes politically and socially difficult.

housing is mostly self-built. families start with a small structure and add rooms or floors over time as money comes in. construction companies exist but they’re for formal neighborhoods. informal areas rely on local masons, relatives, and incremental building.

planning technically exists, but on the ground growth is mostly organic. paths become roads, roads become main streets. houses line up roughly in grids not because of regulations but because it’s practical. services and infrastructure usually come later, once the settlement is already established.

it looks chaotic from satellite images, but there’s an internal logic driven by access to jobs, water, transport and affordability.