The rent gap revisited: gentrification in point Chevalier, Auckland

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe rent gap is the difference between the actual and potential ground rent of a site. This paper estimates the rent gap into two ways: gaps estimated using actual and potential ground rents at the same scale, and those based on different scales, and unpacks the relationship between renovation and both of these rent gaps via logistic regression. Using the suburb of Point Chevalier in Auckland as a case study, we find that the rent gap at a single scale is a more appropriate proxy for Smith’s rent gap concept in this particular case. A comparison between Point Chevalier and other neighborhoods in Auckland suggests that the co-occurrence between renovation events and rent gap derives from capital flows and class struggle in gentrification and that the rent gap is both an outcome of the social relations that produce gentrification, and a symptom of it.