Real estate development and metropolization: centralization of the capital in the production of space in São Paulo

• Grant number: 15/25214-9
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: May 01, 2016
• End date: October 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Urban and Regional Planning - Fundamentals of Urban and Regional Planning
• Principal Investigator: Maria Beatriz Cruz Rufino
• Grantee: Maria Beatriz Cruz Rufino
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research intends to articulate the debate of Real estate transformation, observed since middle of the first decade of this century in Brazil, with the metropolitan reconfiguration process, using the discussion of São Paulo reality as a reference. Over the last years in Brazil, it has been observed an expressive intensification of real Estate production within a significant increase in the number of property launches and diversification of property type and location, which are coincident with the increasing role of the largest real estate developers. Real estate development seen as a specific form of the capitalist production of space, favoring the injection of new capitals in the sector and broadening the flexibility of production, will be determining in the creation of privileged conditions of reproduction of capital in space, conditions that will intensify real estate appreciation in different areas of the metropolis, reinforcing the city's socio-spatial differentiation.Our hypothesis is that the emergence of the largest real estate developers and its entwinement with financial capital drove an important movement of capital centralization in the real estate sector which will be determinant in the conduction of metropolization. The strong insertion of São Paulo in the financialization process, the organization level of the agents involved in the production of space and the intensity of real estate dynamics render this metropolis a privileged object to the debate. Starting from the real estate relations of production dominated by property development, we will try to understand the meaning of current changes, discussing the capital reorganization in the sector, the role of the main agents involved, their strategies to maximize their gains and the effects on the production of metropolitan space. (AU)