One theory which you could explore is critical urban theory. It deals with 'the rigth to a city' for example, a concept which was introduced by Henri Lefebvre, as far as I know. Multiple authors have used this concept in making the links from tenure security to urban livelihoods, urban space and tenure rights/formailisaiton of utenure rigths in (peri-)urban areas. Some writings related to this idea include:

Brenner, N., P. Marcuse, and M. Mayer. 2012. Cities for people, not for profit: critical urban theory and the right to the city: Routledge.

Lefebvre, H. 1996. The right to the city. Writings on cities 63181.

Mayer, M. 2012. The “right to the city” in urban social movements. Cities for people, not for profit: Critical urban theory and the right to the city:63-85.

Purcell, M. 2002. Excavating Lefebvre: The right to the city and its urban politics of the inhabitant. GeoJournal 58 (2-3):99-108.

Related to this are theories of territorial justice, or spatial justice, which may go back to the theory of territorial rights and the rights to govern land and property:

Boyne, G., and M. Powell. 1991. Territorial justice: a review of theory and evidence. Political Geography Quarterly 10 (3):263-281.

Miller, D. 2012. Territorial rights: concept and justification. Political Studies 60 (2):252-268.

Alternatively there are more economics/econometrics/property valuation -based theories and models, which essentially refer to the (dis)advantages in terms of costs and property values when formalisation informal tenure). An exmaple of such a paper is:

Cai, Y., H. Selod, and J. Steinbuks. 2015. Urbanization and property rights. , http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/827371467999377785/pdf/WPS7486.pdf

Hence, it is important to decide from which angle you aim to approach this question.

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Thank you so much for your responses and clarity, Mr Pal and Mr. De Vries. I am sure now the understanding of the content assists me in generating ideas and criticisms under this topic i intend to research. My angle of thought to be used as narrowed focus to exploring the the impacts of tenure insecurities in urban areas, are the people residing in flats or rental accommodation. I believe your criticisms and advise would help me conduct a successful research project, provided of the background and Ideas I have in regarding research.