Speculation
Real estate speculation means buying land or housing not to use it but to sell it at a higher price, betting on appreciation. It removes supply from the market, inflates prices and turns the city into an investment board rather than a place to live.
The most visible case is buildings bought to be kept empty: the asset appreciates without tenants in the way. Speculation also explains why land gets developed where it is not needed and withheld where it is. The classic answer is fiscal: tax capital gains and empty homes so that holding is not free.
Videos on this term (18)
- Urban ecology
Matthew Gandy: Urban Nature Reveals Power in the City
Matthew Gandy shows that water, waste, parks and expressways are nature produced by political decisions: urban…
Matthew Gandy 3 min read - Housing
The Real Cost of Living Away: More Than Rent
Cheap housing on the outskirts is paid in bus hours, fuel, care and lost opportunities: the H+T index, Carlos…
3 min read - Housing
Why People Buy Buildings to Leave Them Empty and Who Is to Blame
Emptying a tenanted block converts a wholesale valuation into retail profit: Savills figures, the Fidere, Patrizia…
4 min read - Housing
Art Washing: Murals, Investment and Displacement in Cities
Art washing uses murals, galleries and festivals to prepare working-class neighbourhoods for investment.
3 min read - Housing
Chinese Urbanization: Land, Superblocks, Hukou and Ghost Cities
Chinese urbanization moved more than 900 million people into cities in four decades. How land sales, superblocks,…
3 min read - Shrinking cities
China's Ghost Cities: Failure or Strategy According to Wade Shepard
Ghost Cities of China (2015) by Wade Shepard explains why China built empty districts, what became of Ordos or…
3 min read - Housing
Martha Rosler: art against gentrification
How Martha Rosler uses art to critique gentrification and urban capitalism: from If You Lived Here… to the city…
Martha Rosler 2 min read - Public space
Henri Lefebvre: urban space as a social product
Henri Lefebvre showed that urban space is not a neutral setting: it is socially produced, and whoever produces it…
Henri Lefebvre 3 min read - Urban geopolitics
Henri Lefebvre: The Urban Revolution as a Global Process
In The Urban Revolution (1970) Henri Lefebvre argues that urbanisation overflows the city and becomes a global…
Henri Lefebvre 2 min read - Urban economy
City of Quartz by Mike Davis: The Inequality That Made Los Angeles
City of Quartz (1990) by Mike Davis excavates the power that built Los Angeles: developers, homeowners, police and…
Mike Davis 3 min read - Urban economy
David Harvey: the right to the city under neoliberalism
David Harvey explains how neoliberalism turned housing into a commodity, and why the right to the city means…
David Harvey 3 min read - Housing
Neil Smith and Gentrification: Rent Gap and the Revanchist City
Neil Smith explained why gentrification happens: the rent gap that draws capital and the revanchist city that…
Neil Smith 2 min read - Urban economy
Sharon Zukin: Cultural Capital and Urban Transformation
A city's cultural capital draws investment and tourism, but it also gentrifies. What Sharon Zukin explains in The…
Sharon Zukin 2 min read - Urban form
Strategic Urban Planning: Patsy Healey's Collaborative Approach
Strategic urban planning sets a long-term vision for a city with all its stakeholders. What Patsy Healey proposes…
Patsy Healey 3 min read - Urban history
Haussmann's Paris and Capitalist Modernization: David Harvey
The Haussmannization of Paris (1853-1870) built boulevards, displaced workers and absorbed surplus capital.
David Harvey 2 min read - Housing
Cohousing and Coliving: What They Are, Differences and City Examples
Cohousing is collaborative housing run by its residents; coliving is a serviced rental product. Origins with…
3 min read - Housing
Real Estate Speculation and Housing Bubbles: Aalbers, Harvey, Martin
Real estate speculation turns housing into a financial asset and fuels bubbles. What Manuel Aalbers, David Harvey…
2 min read - Urban geopolitics
Fernando Carrión: the fragmented city in Latin America
What the fragmented city means for Fernando Carrión: spatial segregation, public policy and citizen security in…
Fernando Carrión 2 min read
