Real Estate Speculation Research Articles

LUXURY REAL ESTATE MARKET IN BRAZIL DURING THE PANDEMIC: AN ANALYSIS IN RIO DE JANEIRO

The luxury real estate market grows differently from other sectors of the economy during the pandemic. The search for larger, multifunctional and safe spaces has intensified due to the need for social distancing by public health policies. Thus, the objective of this research is to analyze the Brazilian luxury real estate market, focusing on the city of Rio de Janeiro, which continues to grow during a pandemic, unlike other sectors that face difficulties. The results show that a wonderful city continues in an accelerated process of real estate speculation, mainly in the south and west zones; the square meter remains valued in the city, regardless of the economic crisis; and that forced confinement supported the search for quality of life.

Embodied Urbanisms: Corruption and the Ecologies of Eating and Excreting in India's Real Estate Economies

This article studies metabolic systems of food, body, and waste within the urban development politics of the city of Gurgaon (now Gurugram) in India’s National Capital Region. I link rapid urban transformation within the region, the labor required to produce it, and the speculative real estate economy that governs it to the phenomenology of body politics in the region. In particular, I examine corruption as both a political-economic and a physical, caste-based narrative to argue that corruption connects embodiment and urban development ecologies to each other. This allows corruption discourses in Gurgaon to form a critique of real estate economies; changing urban environments are felt and critiqued through body politics and experienced at once as a peril and a pleasure. This work is based on fifteen months of ethnographic research in the construction industry in NCR involving members across the production chain of real estate, including landowners, investment bankers, developers, engineers, architects, foremen, and laborers.

Big Tech on the Block: Examining the Impact of Tech Campuses on Local Housing Markets in the San Francisco Bay Area

The rapid growth of tech company headquarters such as Apple, Facebook, and Google could potentially put new pressure on the housing market in adjacent residential neighborhoods, in the form of housing price appreciation and real estate speculation. This article examines the relationship between the big tech corporate campuses and Silicon Valley/San Francisco housing markets using the Zillow (ZTRAX) transaction and tax assessor data. The authors compare real estate activity adjacent to new company locations with activity in nearby areas, conducting a difference-in-differences analysis to estimate changes in housing prices and speculation. They find that housing prices increase overall by an additional 7.1% in the immediate vicinity of the tech campus 2 years after arrival, with wide variation across campuses. The authors also identify significant real estate speculation occurring prior to firms’ arrival. This suggests that cities should take a proactive role in mitigating tech firm impacts on vulnerable adjacent neighborhoods.

Land speculation by villagers: Territorialities of accumulation and exclusion in peri-urban China

Speculation in land and real estate has become a chief means of revenue generation in cities across the world. The literature on speculative urbanism has discussed how the advent of land markets transformed government strategies and created new partnerships between state and capital for rent extraction. Far less attention, however, has been paid to grassroots practices of speculation among residents of peri-urban and rural areas, whose neighbourhoods are often dramatically transformed by the rapid appreciation in land prices brought about by urbanization. Based on fieldwork in a Chinese urban village, this paper demonstrates how land commodification gave rise to competitive territorialization and forms of "intimate exclusion" within the community. The boom in property prices amplified inequalities between villagers, as those with greater access to capital, authority and social networks were better positioned to reap gains from the market while those without land rights were excluded. The desire to capitalize on market gains furthermore sharpened intra-community conflicts, creating tensions between neighbours and family members over issues of ownership and distribution. By focusing on everyday practices of territorialization at the neighbourhood level, this paper sheds light on how land speculation and rentiership could contribute to deepened differentiation at the urban frontier.

Neoliberalism and neo-dirigisme in action: The state–corporate alliance and the great housing rush of the 2000s in Istanbul, Turkey

This paper foregrounds the state–corporate alliance in real estate development in Istanbul since the early 2000s. Employing a geo-coded sample of 294 private housing development projects built since the early 1980s and in-depth interviews with the private development companies, the paper focuses on how the construction industry and the massive commodification of urban land produced a new state–space nexus. The underlying question here is the nascent shape of urban political-economy, the trends of housing construction, the cycles of boom and bust and the mechanisms of capital accumulation concerning the state’s centralising control over space. In this sample, a few critical aspects of the production of concrete space became apparent. Seven findings are discussed. First, the developers of Istanbul followed the clientelistic patterns in the urban built environment. The second aspect is that the state is the sole supply-side actor that determines Istanbul’s built environment. The third point in this analysis of urban development initiated by the private sector is focused on the fact that the real estate speculation is state-led. The fourth and fifth points are related to the Turkish real estate developers’ inability to procure financing for the duration of the construction process. The sixth factor in the evaluation of the private real estate sector in Istanbul is the geographical and class dispersal of active development projects. The seventh factor in understanding those real estate developers is their novel approach to marketing and advertisement and the way they employ architecture as an extension of public relations.

Construcción de territorios alimentarios. Una experiencia de las mujeres en San Miguel Allende

San Miguel de Allende (SMA) in Guanajuato, Mexico is one of the most visited heritage cities in the country. In this city live people who have migrated from the United States as a phenomenon of second home tourism that, together, with the tourism of the national elite, have triggered a series of dynamics in the territory ranging from real estate speculation, deterritorialization, the abandonment of local crops, agroextractivism, and water extractivism, involving various types of violence against the body-territory-land. Apart from these problems, this phenomenon has allowed food resistance to take off, coordinated mainly by women where the care economy emerges as a dialogue of resistance that is established through the preservation of seeds, the continuation with the work of the land in search territorial food, the consolidation of a network of people and spaces that combine the exchange of agro-ecological food and local handicrafts that are sustained from the action and articulation of women.

Living and Planning on the Edge: Unravelling Conflict and Claim-Making in Peri-Urban Lahore, Pakistan

In Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city, high population growth rates, decades of rural-urban migration, and rampant land and real-estate speculation have contributed to the rapid urbanization of peri-urban land and the engulfing of pre-existing rural settlements. Lahore’s spatial transformation goes hand in hand with an increasingly complex urban governance framework. Historically shaped by colonial planning institutions and decades of political instability as power alternated between military and civilian regimes, Pakistan’s governance practices have contributed to increasing levels of urban segregation and inequality. This raises questions around the in- and exclusionary role of planning in fostering or constraining residents’ access to housing and services. Comparing three vignettes and drawing upon insights gained from extensive fieldwork, this article employs the concept of ‘access-assemblages’ to analyze how access to urban resources—i.e., land, housing, and services—is experienced, disputed, and negotiated in the rapidly urbanizing peri-urban fringe of Lahore. The cases represent different spatial and socio-political configurations brought about by a variety of actors involved in the planning and development of the city’s periphery as well as in contesting development: private developers, the army, the city development authorities, and the residents of affected villages. The analysis unpacks the planning rationalities and mechanisms that reinforce inequalities of access and exclusions. Unfolding practices that enable or hinder actors’ ability to access resources sheds light on the complex layers assembled in urban planning in Lahore and serves as a basis to rethink planning towards a more inclusive approach.

Urban planning and the market of development rights in Italy: learning from Milan

In recent years, the influence of neoliberal principles has led to an experimental application of new market-oriented approaches in the field of urban studies, in order to achieve different objectives of public interest, from the compensation of land use restrictions to the acquisition of areas for public services. Also in Italy, the use of equalization and non-financial compensation mechanisms has been influenced by internationally consolidated models, such as the Transfer of Development Rights programs (TDR). The key issue concerns the legal autonomy of development rights from land ownership, allowing their trade in the municipal market and thus, in theory, balancing private and public benefits. The scientific debate focuses on the several opportunities, in terms of planning effectiveness and flexibility, but also envisages the risk to generate unfairness, deregulation and other speculations. The paper aims to assess the positive and negative impacts of a generalized use of TDR in the urban governance and in the real estate market, adopting a case study research method. The experience of Milan has been investigated, analyzing the municipal registry of development rights. The results highlight strengths and weaknesses of the market of development rights application, in particular the risk of encouraging real estate speculation, in the same way as financial markets. Conclusions suggest the need of a more effective integration of market-based tools in the planning and regulatory framework, avoiding that their uncontrolled use could weaken the role of public authority in the local government.

Cultural Heritage and Obia

The historic centre of a town is its oldest and original core. It needs special protection in order to ensure the conservation of its historical, artistic and environmental heritage. In Italy, the definition of historic centres and the protection of their cultural heritage evolved in time, up to the current special attention for the historical aspects. The main threats to historical centres are real estate speculation and mass tourism. The purpose of this study is to catalog and monitor historic centers over time, in the context of urban planning. High-resolution satellite images and geographic information systems (GIS) offer new tools for urban planning and also for cultural heritage themes. “Real time” evaluation of urban structures, cartographic updating, monitoring of the progress of major works, with particular regard to cultural heritage, are made possible by the use of high-resolution images, which facilitate the identification of changes in urban and non-urban areas. The technique of Object Based Image Analysis (OBIA) has been used for image analysis and interpretation. OBIA allows a good interpretation of the scene captured by sensors thanks to classification-based segmentation and extraction of complete objects and their topological relations. This yields to a classification similar to the output of human photo-interpreter, but with a better reproducibility and homogeneity. In this paper we describe, through an application example, the potentiality and the difficulties of this technique and some results. The whole information obtained from segmented and categorized satellite images has been structured in a proper GIS, so that it can be overlaid with other environmental data. Information structuring and special metaheuristic analyses allow to study and monitor historic centers and cultural heritage. This methodology allows to identify the places at risk that need priority restoration; moreover it allows to keep track of changes that occurred over time

Gameday homes: Mapping emerging geographies of housing speculation and absentee ownership in the American South

Cities around the world are increasingly marked by the proliferation of speculative real estate developments that are owned, but rarely occupied, by the global elite. This paper examines the emergence of a particular form of speculative real estate development unique to smaller college towns across the American South, largely as a result of the regional prominence of American football: the gameday home. Just like luxury real estate in global cities, gameday homes are rarely inhabited by their owners and serve primarily as an investment vehicle, but also serve to reshape the character of urban space and put increased pressure on local housing markets. This paper represents the first known attempt at quantifying and analyzing the local geographies of gameday home investments, using a case study of Starkville, Mississippi. While estimates of gameday homes are inherently fuzzy, it is argued that gameday homes represent somewhere between 5% and 10% of the total housing units in the city. Ultimately, it is argued that even though such vacant investment properties do little to improve the lives of local residents, the tax revenue generated by such properties makes it unlikely that such forms of speculation will be regulated moving forward.

Commodity City: The case of Horizontal Gated Communities in the Municipality of Rondonópolis-MT

This article proposes to analyze the urban phenomena resulting from the implementation of horizontal gated communities, located in the municipality of Rondonópolis-MT. Its high commercial value, characterized as speculative, demonstrates the sale of the city as a commodity in the consolidated soil of the municipality. The socioeconomic development of/in cities occurs unevenly through urban interventions, resulting in socio-spatial and socio-economic inequalities produced and reproduced spatially. Thus, understanding the urban structure resulting from real estate speculation as appropriation of public space, segregation, gentrification, spreading and the fortified enclosure existing in the city's gated communitiess, which makes evident the socio-spatial and socio-economic contradictions and disparities in a medium-sized city with strong support from agribusiness in the region.

Disputas hídricas y despojoEl caso de los humedales de Montaña en San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, México

The processes of geographical expansion carried out by the capitalist economic system mean that the natural reserves that are part of the biocultural heritage of the Mexican people are continually degraded. The incorporation of land into the process of urban growth as the basis for the business of real estate speculation undoubtedly entails a process of dispossession not only of land and social rights, but also of fundamental eco-systemic services such as the right to a healthy environment, to quality water and to biodiversity. This article describes the conceptual categories that allow us to explain the process of loss of wetlands in the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, as well as the process that is being experienced specifically, in the dispute of territorialities between the defense of water, life and ecology and the process of subsuming the dynamics of urban growth and capitalist valorization of space. The qualitative research methodology was used and a series of interviews were carried out with socio-environmental actors.

Environmental Consequences Of Urban Expansion: Case Study Of Environmental Licensing Processes In The Municipality Of Governador Valadares

Urban growth is often accompanied by significant environmental changes, which include modification of the natural landscape and the problems related to it, such as real estate speculation, marginalization of the population, landslide risks, flooding, as well as pressure on environmentally protected areas. Therefore, it is necessary to understand how will new urban development affect the already modified space without generating further environmental problems. The research aimed to analyse five projects of allotments in Governador Valadares/Brazil between 2015 and 2017. Besides the information on the projects themselves, geographic information systems (GIS) were used along with laws and bibliography. The biggest obstacle observed was the lack of standardization in the process required by the City Hall, which culminated in projects with different characteristics, including those that did not present important analyzes, such as the Civil Construction Waste Management Plan. It is necessary to move forward in discussions related to urban environmental sustainability, standardizing the possible actions, not only in the municipality of Governador Valadares.

INVENTARIANDO O PATRIMÔNIO URBANO NÃO-TOMBADO

Esse texto trás a experiência de campo e identificação de patrimônio edificado não-tombado no município de Guarulhos-SP, em via do instrumento de inventário do patrimônio, baseado no modelo do Instituto Estadual do Patrimônio Cultural (INEPAC). Entendendo o inventário como formatador do ato de historiar e preservar, remontamos textuais, iconografia e bibliografia visando a trajetória, particularidades, pluralidade dos usos e as relações sociais e atores em torno da edificação. Mobilizando análises de Atique (1999; 2016), Lerner e Serra (2010) e Pignatarri et all (2020), problematizamos a temática da representatividade do patrimônio cultural urbano nas dinâmicas de espacialidade em âmbito público-privado, isto é, a existência e/ou ausência(s) de políticas e práticas de preservação, em face de outras políticas pactuadas, como da especulação imobiliária.

Critical Review of Public Policies for the Rehabilitation of Housing Stock: The Case of Barcelona

This article reviews rehabilitation programs in Barcelona, focusing on aspects such as the intervention model, actual public investment, and results. Programs of this type are not exclusive to Barcelona; however, similar examples can be found in other European cities, especially where European Union (EU) funding is present. After analyzing these models, we reached a series of general conclusions that may be of interest. Thus, an eminently practical and reflective analysis is presented, aimed at technicians and those responsible for the design of intervention policies in urban regeneration. Rehabilitation programs are increasingly focused on vulnerable settings, and in this context, the participation and service function of public administrations are particularly relevant. The general model for rehabilitation subsidies rarely takes into account the specific characteristics of disadvantaged urban settings, as the article will show. After analyzing the different policies presented in this research, we identified two essential requirements: detailed knowledge of the affected neighborhood, and ongoing evaluation of the development of programs—beyond simple management indicators—so negative effects can be corrected in time such as gentrification, real estate speculation, and other by-products that the intervention itself can promote. This study confirms that not all public investments have the expected results.

The strange case of earthquake risk mitigation in Istanbul

As an aspiring global city, Istanbul is at the crossroads of capital, political struggle, and socioeconomic transformation. Unfortunately, Istanbul is also at the crossroads of major active fault lines. This paper analyzes earthquake risk mitigation planning for the megacity since the last big seismic catastrophe of the Marmara Earthquakes in 1999 that hit the region, including Istanbul. We use the concept of riskscape to explore the political and technocratic construction of seismic risk and how this implies different experiences of risk to investment portfolios, the state, and the ordinary people living in the city. Our empirical analyses focus on the ‘Istanbul Seismic Risk Mitigation and Emergency Preparedness Project’ (ISMEP), launched as a World Bank project in 2005 and still ongoing as of 2020. We argue that the ISMEP project epitomizes the ‘strange case’ of earthquake risk mitigation in Istanbul due to its organizational complexity, financial expansion over its lifetime, and progression as a megaproject sponsored by international development funding despite its contraction in institutional targets. Our findings suggest that this centralized and non-transparent earthquake risk mitigation approach in Istanbul creates a fragmented riskscape for the megacity. The earthquake risk continues to threaten millions of inhabitants’ lives and livelihoods while making room for speculative real estate development.

Temporal Analysis of the Mangrove Forest at the Mocajuba River Hydrographic Basin-Pará

Abstract Mangrove forests are ecosystems naturally susceptible to environmental stresses, such as rising sea level and coastal erosion. However, the anthropic stresses, such as real estate speculation, deforestation and water pollution, put at risk this environment’s stability, interfering with its balance. The present work’s aim is to perform a temporal analysis of the mangrove forest that is a part of the Mocajuba river hydrographic basin and its buffer zone, as well as identifying natural and anthropic stresses to which the mangroves are susceptible. It was verified that the mangrove forest areas presented a substantial reduction between 1984 and 1999, and a small loss between 1999 and 2018. Thus, in the mangrove forest buffer zone, the anthropized areas increased while the forest areas decreased, demonstrating the deforestation in these areas. It can be concluded that the mangrove forest in the study region present a regression.

Effects of urbanization on the fauna of Odonata on the coast of southern Brazil

Abstract: Urbanization significantly increases the rates of environmental disturbance, being one of the main causes of habitat loss and biodiversity. The growing trend of converting the natural landscape into areas for real estate speculation in the coastal region of the southernmost part of Brazil is a current concern, as the region is home to unique ecosystems, such as dunes, wetlands and large brackish lagoons. As they are organisms sensitive to environmental changes, variations in the structure of Odonata communities are used as indicators of habitat quality reflecting the human impact on the environment. Here we assessed how the Odonata community is affected by the growing urbanization around natural ponds on the coast of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, testing the hypothesis that the increase in the percentage of urbanization negatively influences the Odonata community, following the same pattern found for other groups of invertebrates. The collections took place in 28 coastal ponds, which were classified as urbanized and non-urbanized based on the surrounding ground cover. Anisoptera’s richness, abundance and composition were influenced by urbanization, but the same was not found for Zygoptera. The analysis of indicator species specifies three species associated with non-urbanized areas: Erythrodiplax sp.1, Erythemis credula and Telebasis corallina. Our study highlights the importance of Odonata as organisms that indicate environmental integrity and reinforces the need for urban planning strategies that favor the conservation and maintenance of the environments affected by urbanization.

Hospitalidade urbana e planejamento turístico: os cinco estados mais hospitaleiros do Brasil em foco

Objetivos: Este artigo tem como objetivo principal investigar se as estratégias de planejamento turístico utilizadas pelos cinco estados mais hospitaleiros do país incentivam a elaboração de Planos Diretores. Tem-se ainda como objetivo secundário aprofundar os estudos que relacionam a hospitalidade urbana às políticas públicas de desenvolvimento urbano.Metodologia/Abordagem: Utilizou-se no trabalho pesquisa documental e bibliográfica. A coleta de leis, decretos e planos foi obtida através da internet, mais especificamente pelos sites do Ministério do Turismo e dos Órgãos Estaduais de Turismo dos cinco estados analisados.Originalidade/Relevância: O trabalho apresenta a hospitalidade urbana como uma solução inovadora e alternativa para a gestão de cidades turísticas. A pesquisa destaca a importância das leis que regulam o uso e ocupação do solo na condução de um planejamento turístico mais justo e acolhedor para moradores e turistas. Principais resultados: Apesar de ser uma obrigatoriedade, os resultados sugerem que a elaboração de Planos Diretores em “cidades com especial interesse turístico” não é condição essencial para que as cidades recebam o “selo” de cidades turísticas e passem a contar com recursos financeiros, técnicos e humanos. A pesquisa reforçou o papel do Estado como anfitrião urbano ao demonstrar sua função de agente regulador do uso e ocupação do solo, equilibrando a disputa do território turístico e evitando a especulação imobiliária.Contribuições teórico-metodológicas: O artigo apresenta o lado prático da ciência da hospitalidade ao demonstrar a implementação dos atributos espaciais da hospitalidade urbana nas políticas públicas de desenvolvimento urbano de cidades turísticas.

Pasolini e a forma da cidade

Este artigo busca, primeiramente, analisar o curta-metragem de Pier Paolo Pasolini e Paolo Brunatto, Pasolini e... la forma della città (1974), discutindo os elementos fundamentais da crítica de arquitetura de Pasolini. Em sua fala no documentário, sobressaem: sua argumentação sobre a perfeição estilística da antiga cidade italiana de Orte, e sobre como a “forma da cidade” é aviltada pela especulação imobiliária que constrói edifícios de outra ordem estética em seu entorno; a relação entre arquitetura, natureza e luz; a importância de defender as obras de edificadores anônimos do passado e os centros históricos das cidades antigas; a crítica à sociedade de consumo e a seu poder de destruição das obras do passado. Em um segundo momento, aproximamos as reflexões de Pasolini às do filósofo e arquiteto italiano Roberto Perigalli, elaboradas em seu livro I luoghi e la polvere (2010), no qual verificamos muitas afinidades ideológicas e estéticas com o pensamento do cineasta. Em especial há uma convergência, aqui discutida, na valorização que os autores fazem do passado arquitetônico, cuja força revolucionária pode servir para uma crítica do cenário presente, a apreensão de uma beleza imperfeita e frágil que se nutre dos efeitos do envelhecimento causado pela passagem do tempo e o apreço pelas ruínas como possibilidade de vivência de uma temporalidade diversa, uma experiência de comoção perante a transitoriedade das coisas.