Rent, Financialization, and Property: Constructing a Critical Approach to the Capture of Value through Real Estate Financial Assets in Brazil

• Grant number: 25/08710-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: December 01, 2025
• End date: November 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Human Geography
• Principal Investigator: Jeroen Johannes Klink
• Grantee: Bruno Leonardo Barcella Silva
• Supervisor: Thomas Francis Purcell
• Host Institution: Centro de Engenharia, Modelagem e Ciências Sociais Aplicadas (CECS). Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC). Ministério da Educação (Brasil). Santo André , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: King's College London, England
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/12730-5 - State, finance, and property: the reconfiguration of archaic rent-seeking with modern facades in Brazil, BP.PD

Abstract

This research project focuses on the analysis of contemporary economic transformations, particularly the relationship between financialization, rentierism, and property in Brazil. The interplay between financialization and rentierism is at the core of the debate, alongside discussions on the triadic relationship between finance, property, and rent, with an emphasis on the financialization of the built environment and the tendency to treat land and property as financial assets. The proposed investigation seeks to develop theoretical and methodological contributions to advance the analysis of real estate asset securitization as a mechanism for converting properties into sources of financial profitability. Securitization is thus approached as a technique that reflects the rentier nature of contemporary capitalism, consolidating the alliance between rent, finance, and property. To this end, the study will focus on two key financial instruments driving this phenomenon in Brazil. The project aims to deepen the analysis of financial rentierism in the country by examining how the financialization of the built environment-through instruments that transform property into financial assets (real estate-backed financial assets created via securitization) on one hand, and instruments that capture the income derived from these assets (Real Estate Investment Trusts specialized in acquiring such assets) on the other-contributes to the perpetuation of historically entrenched rentier structures. These structures have long relied on property as a basis for profitability in Brazil. Ultimately, the hypothesis explored in this research seeks to problematize how these dynamics reinforce an economic model that prioritizes financial profitability over urban space production, exacerbating processes of social dispossession and wealth concentration in Brazil. (AU)