The article provides a conceptual overview of the main barriers of access to urban land by lower income groups in the mayor Latin American cities. The author holds the hypothesis that one of the main causes of this situation has its origin on the relatively free operation of the urban land market. Urban authorities have not implemented the necessary land policies to regulate and control this special market. The outcome is a rapid increase in land prices, much faster than wages. A first section attempts to formulate an alternative position to the one that holds that the housing problem of lower income groups does not have a solution in the near future due to budgetary restrictions. The second section provides a theorical presentation of the very special characteristics of the urban land market, which call for public intervention. The third section analysis the behavior of the private sector related to urban development and the fourth one focuses on the public sector activities related to land regulation and lower income housing policies. The concluding remarks round up a number of arguments provided in the article which call for a more active intervention of the state in urban development and the regulation and control of the urban land market.