Access to housing and to housing finance remains a challenge in African cities. This study examines the housing finance strategies of informal settlement dwellers in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and identifies a range of factors that enable or constrain actors to make investments in housing. Based on ethnographic, qualitative and quantitative research, this study provides detailed insights into individual housing biographies, and explains why some actors invest in housing, while others do not. It finally challenges widely accepted development concepts like the provision of housing microfinance, land regularisation, infrastructure upgrading and eviction and argues for a deeper understanding of everyday lives in order to improve housing conditions.