IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v58y2021i2p297-315.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A regional growth ecology, a great wall of capital and a metropolitan housing market

Author

Listed:
  • David Ley

Abstract

In a narrative framed by Harvey Molotch’s growth machine thesis, this article examines the globalisation of property in gateway cities, and its contribution to house price inflation in Vancouver, the least affordable market in North America. In response to a floundering British Columbia (BC) economy, a favourable investment and immigration climate welcomed capital and invited capitalists to re-locate their economic skills. Substantial funds flowed to Vancouver from the buoyant Asia Pacific, from distant investors and wealthy immigrants. Capital flows were facilitated by a powerful growth coalition, as the provincial government benefited significantly from these funds, and held a common interest with a vigorous trans-Pacific property industry. Supporting this growth coalition, the deregulation of private institutions and the under-resourcing of public agencies working in the capital/real estate nexus provided an ecology favourable to the ‘animal spirits’ of the market, including real estate opportunism and money laundering. Such a growth ecology, exacerbating severe unaffordability, may exist in other globally networked cities, though relations are rarely so well developed and so powerful in their effects.

Suggested Citation

  • David Ley, 2021. "A regional growth ecology, a great wall of capital and a metropolitan housing market," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(2), pages 297-315, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:58:y:2021:i:2:p:297-315
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098019895226
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098019895226
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098019895226?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dallas Rogers & Sin Yee Koh, 2017. "The globalisation of real estate: the politics and practice of foreign real estate investment," International Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 1-14, January.
    2. George A. Akerlof, 2009. "How Human Psychology Drives the Economy and Why It Matters," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1175-1175.
    3. Rodrigo Fernandez & Annelore Hofman & Manuel B Aalbers, 2016. "London and New York as a safe deposit box for the transnational wealth elite," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(12), pages 2443-2461, December.
    4. Ron Martin, 2011. "The local geographies of the financial crisis: from the housing bubble to economic recession and beyond," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(4), pages 587-618, July.
    5. David Ley, 2017. "Global China and the making of Vancouver's residential property market," International Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 15-34, January.
    6. Weber, Rachel, 2015. "From Boom to Bubble," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226294483, September.
    7. Chris Hamnett & Jonathan Reades, 2019. "Mind the gap: implications of overseas investment for regional house price divergence in Britain," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(3), pages 388-406, March.
    8. Dallas Rogers & Sin Yee Koh, 2017. "The globalisation of real estate: the politics and practice of foreign real estate investment," European Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 1-14, January.
    9. Irène Mboumoua, 2017. "Revisiting the growth coalition concept to analyse the success of the Crossrail London megaproject," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 314-331, February.
    10. David Ley, 2017. "Global China and the making of Vancouver's residential property market," European Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 15-34, January.
    11. Sha Liu & Nicole Gurran, 2017. "Chinese investment in Australian housing: push and pull factors and implications for understanding international housing demand," European Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 489-511, October.
    12. Sha Liu & Nicole Gurran, 2017. "Chinese investment in Australian housing: push and pull factors and implications for understanding international housing demand," International Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 489-511, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Antoine Paccoud & Markus Hesse & Tom Becker & Magdalena Górczyńska, 2022. "Land and the housing affordability crisis: landowner and developer strategies in Luxembourg’s facilitative planning context," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(10), pages 1782-1799, October.
    2. Elżbieta Jasińska & Edward Preweda & Piotr Łazarz, 2023. "Renewable Energy Sources in the Residential Property Market, Exemplified by the City of Krakow (Poland)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-17, May.
    3. Lisha He & Mia M Bennett & Ronghao Jiang, 2022. "The uneven geography of real estate investment by Mainland Chinese state-owned and private enterprises in the U.S.: Local market conditions, migration, and ethnic networks," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(4), pages 653-675, June.
    4. Siu-Ming Chan & Hung Wong & Yuen-Ki Tang & Shen-Nan Li, 2023. "Social Impact Assessment of Transitional Social Housing and Service Interventions for Low-Income Families: The Case of Hong Kong," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-15, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lisha He & Mia M Bennett & Ronghao Jiang, 2022. "The uneven geography of real estate investment by Mainland Chinese state-owned and private enterprises in the U.S.: Local market conditions, migration, and ethnic networks," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(4), pages 653-675, June.
    2. Xiao Ma & Zhe Zhang & Yan Han & Xiao-Guang Yue, 2019. "Sustainable Policy Dynamics—A Study on the Recent “Bust” of Foreign Residential Real Estate Investment in Sydney," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-20, October.
    3. Hazel Easthope & Laura Crommelin & Sophie-May Kerr & Laurence Troy & Ryan van den Nouwelant & Gethin Davison, 2022. "Planning for Lower-Income Households in Privately Developed High-Density Neighbourhoods in Sydney, Australia," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(4), pages 213-228.
    4. Jiang, Yanpeng & Mohabir, Nalini & Ma, Renfeng & Zhu, Pengyu, 2017. "Sorting through Neoliberal Variations of Ghost Cities in China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 445-453.
    5. Hila Zaban, 2020. "The real estate foothold in the Holy Land: Transnational gentrification in Jerusalem," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(15), pages 3116-3134, November.
    6. Antoine Guironnet, 2019. "Cities on the global real estate marketplace: urban development policy and the circulation of financial standards in two French localities," Post-Print halshs-02297204, HAL.
    7. Agustin Cocola-Gant & Ana Gago, 2021. "Airbnb, buy-to-let investment and tourism-driven displacement: A case study in Lisbon," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(7), pages 1671-1688, October.
    8. Jonathan Bourne, 2019. "Empty homes: mapping the extent and value of low-use domestic property in England and Wales," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-14, December.
    9. Cody Hochstenbach & Richard Ronald, 2020. "The unlikely revival of private renting in Amsterdam: Re-regulating a regulated housing market," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(8), pages 1622-1642, November.
    10. Zac J. Taylor, 2020. "The real estate risk fix: Residential insurance-linked securitization in the Florida metropolis," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(6), pages 1131-1149, September.
    11. Jennifer Robinson & Katia Attuyer, 2021. "Extracting Value, London Style: Revisiting the Role of the State in Urban Development," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 303-331, March.
    12. Laure Casanova Enault & Martin Bocquet & Guilhem Boulay, 2023. "Who owns France? Uncovering the structure of property ownership for a better understanding of the socio-spatial distribution of wealth [Qui détient la France ? Révéler la structure de la propriété ," Post-Print hal-04187490, HAL.
    13. CS Ponder & Andrew Longhurst & Margaret McGregor, 2021. "Contracting-out care: The socio-spatial politics of nursing home care at the intersection of British Columbia’s labor, land, and capital markets," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(4), pages 800-817, June.
    14. Katsinas, Philipp, 2021. "Professionalisation of short-term rentals and emergent tourism gentrification in post-crisis Thessaloniki," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108590, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Frances Brill, 2020. "Complexity and coordination in London’s Silvertown Quays: How real estate developers (re)centred themselves in the planning process," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(2), pages 362-382, March.
    16. Coskun Yener & Jadevicius Arvydas, 2017. "Is there a Housing Bubble in Turkey?," Real Estate Management and Valuation, Sciendo, vol. 25(1), pages 48-73, March.
    17. Jenny McArthur, 2018. "Comparative infrastructural modalities: Examining spatial strategies for Melbourne, Auckland and Vancouver," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(5), pages 816-836, August.
    18. Philipp Katsinas, 2021. "Professionalisation of short-term rentals and emergent tourism gentrification in post-crisis Thessaloniki," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(7), pages 1652-1670, October.
    19. Polat, Zeynel Abidin, 2019. "Legal, economic, geographical and demographic analysis of the acquisition of Real Estate by foreign nationals in Turkey," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 207-217.
    20. Ke Wang & Jianjun Zhang & Wenhua Guo & Zhen Liu & Ze Xu, 2023. "A Perception and Judgement of Contributing Factors for Allocating Urban Residential Land: A Systematic Review and Statistical Analysis," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:58:y:2021:i:2:p:297-315. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.