What land is available for the development of non-market housing in Greater Kuala Lumpur (KL) and how do housing providers attain the rights to them? In Malaysia, the power relations that underlie the relationship between land, housing, and society are entrenched in historically path dependent processes that were instigated at specific critical junctures in the country’s colonial history. This research utilizes historical institutionalist concepts and analytical approaches to reconceptualize existing constraints in the land and housing markets in Greater KL. Findings from the research highlight the role of existing land institutions in structuring the capacity of critical actors to produce non-market housing. This study bridges the analysis of contemporary findings with their historical underpinnings. Data were collected over a 16-month period of fieldwork, from 2019 to 2020, using a two-part data strategy that combines qualitative data from in depth interviews with elite participants alongside archival data from repositories as well as secondary sources to illustrate this relationship. The findings show that the corresponding rights to land in Malaysia can be held and controlled by a complex constellation of actors depending on how these rights are allocated, which may differ depending on whether these claims are assessed through the legislative framework or in practice. More specifically, differences in claimants over the right of disposal, use, and dealings may lead to friction during the land procurement process when the interests of these claimants are not aligned. This study further finds that differences in power exist among critical actors within the non-market housing sector and remains an important factor in determining housing outcomes. The research specifies two development pathways along which negotiations for the procurement of land transpire, i.e., the constitutional and the operational, based on the different levels of power entrenchment that guide the actions of critical actors and influence their bargaining positions. iv This study further identifies three critical junctures that altered the way land is governed in Malaysia in significant ways. The first introduced the concept of allodial rights into the existing Malay tenure system, the second installed separate spheres of government within the Federated Malay States, and the third ratified allodial rights to its rights holder within a newly minted national constitution. This study illustrates that the emergence of critical junctures was contingent on both the capacity of actors to capitalize on and benefit from the external shifts that jolted their prevailing social systems as well as the propensity of the external shock to successfully generate a tangible impact onto the agency of the critical actors. These transformations were shown to catalyse institutional innovations that promoted an intended advancement in the land tenure system of the country. Inherent to this process, the findings suggest that the institutional innovations acted as a medium to allocate and transfer power between critical actors in a causal cycle that allows those to benefit from this innovation to solidify their positions. This study contributes to knowledge with its empirical and conceptual findings as well as methodology. The empirical and conceptual findings generate understanding on the role of institutional structures in determining land and housing outcomes in Greater Kuala Lumpur. It considers how rights to land and property are allocated, distributed, and negotiated within the housing system and see power as the driving force in shaping housing outcomes in non-market housing developments. The use of the critical juncture framework as well as the historical institutional approach provide new insights into how land and housing constraints are conceptualized. It highlights the need to consider the contextual dynamism (both spatial and temporal) of the site of intervention when policy reforms are instituted. Lastly, the methodology used in this research introduces a new approach for amalgamating contemporary and historical data within housing studies.