Financialized Real Estate and Urban Hierarchies: FIBRAs in Mexico’s Metropolitan System

This paper examines the role of FIBRAs, Mexico's Real Estate Investment Trusts, in the financialization of the country's real estate sector, and their spatial implications for metropolitan development. Introduced in the early 2000s, FIBRAs transform stabilized rental income from commercial property into exchange-listed assets. Their investment strategies are not neutral but highly selective, concentrating capital in major metropolitan regions and within them, in municipalities that function as economic centralities with strong infrastructure, governance, and socio-economic status. The study argues that FIBRAs actively reinforce urban hierarchies. While peripheral municipalities are experiencing the fastest population growth, they are largely excluded from FIBRA investment due to weaker institutional capacity and planning. This creates a territorial mismatch between where people live and where capital flows, deepening socio-spatial inequality. Methodologically, the paper combines georeferenced data from over 200 FIBRA properties, demographic analysis from INEGI (1990–2020), socio-economic stratification using the AMAI index, and qualitative interviews with fund managers and developers in Monterrey. Results show that FIBRA capital systematically favors affluent, accessible municipalities and avoids fast-growing peripheries, despite their demographic dynamism. However, selective investment is beginning to reach non-elite but well-connected municipalities under specific conditions, such as corridor-based development or strategic infrastructure, suggesting a potential,though limited, expansion of "investable" geographies. Theoretically, the paper positions financialization as a spatial process that shapes, and is shaped by, metropolitan restructuring. It contributes to international debates on real estate finance and urban inequality, showing that the effects are particularly acute in contexts of rapid, under-resourced urban expansion like Mexico's peripheries. The conclusion emphasizes the need for public policy to realign capital flows with inclusive urban development. Proposed tools include land value capture, inclusionary zoning, corridor-based planning, spatial investment incentives, and stronger transparency requirements. Listed real estate investment, while financial in form, must be treated as a territorial governance challenge with broad implications for equity and spatial justice.