Financialization of urban development in Mexico City

Abstract

Financialization is a form of capital reproduction based on investments in global financial markets. The real estate market has increasingly become a highly lucrative vehicle for the reproduction of financial capitals and has acquired a colossal scale in several cities of the world. The financialization of urban development is contributing to the deepening of socio-spatial segregation, urban fragmentation and the construction of an urban wastefulness, since buildings are not built according to local needs, but as financial assets in international capital markets. This article investigates how the financialization of urban development occurs in Mexico City, based on the analysis of a database of 272 large real estate developments, promoted and carried out between 2010 and 2020, with financing systems articulated to international investments. The article reviews recent Latin American contributions on the topic of financialization of urban development and housing; and analyzes the financial instruments, the real estate agents involved and the neoliberal local urban policy, which allow the capture of foreign capital in the construction of colossal real estate developments.