Napier is an architect by profession, with a Master’s and PhD in housing from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. As part of his more than twenty years’ policy research experience, eleven years have been at the CSIR. Napier has also spent two years seconded as Chief Director: Research to the national Department of Human Settlements, and seven years as Programme Director of the Urban Land Markets Programme Southern Africa (Urban LandMark). Since 2013 he has been a principal researcher at the CSIR.

Napier has done projects for UKaid (Department for International Development), UN Habitat, the World Bank, Comic Relief, the European Commission, and the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction. Locally, Napier has done projects with the national Department of Human Settlements, the Housing Development Agency, Gauteng Provincial Department of Human Settlements, the Estate Agency Affairs Board, FinMark Trust, Construction Industry Development Board, Human Sciences Research Council, and others.

Napier’s book, Trading Places: Accessing Land in African Cities, written along with four fellow authors, addresses the inherent inequalities in land ownership systems, and what can be done about transforming the unequal structure of cities.