Urbanización informal en Bogotá: agentes y lógicas de producción del espacio urbano

Abstract

The informal land market in Bogota is a phenomenon that cannot be easily measured, given that the nature of data is either vague or inaccessible. This paper analyzes primary and secondary data retrieved from different sources to identify the production of informal urban space (magnitude and growth, agents and supply, demand and State intervention philosophies, resultant space). Findings suggest that the informal urbanization phenomenon still has great incidence in the production of urban space in Bogota, transcending the city limits. Such a circumstance also allows agents of supply to take advantage of the effective State intervention (legalization) to perpetuate the illegal occupation of land and thus capture added land value, especially given that demand is focused on the informal housing market. This phenomenon will continue unless structural reforms are made to housing policies aimed at low-income families.