Financial market actors as urban policy-makers: the case of real estate investment trusts in Brazil

ABSTRACT

Focusing on the growth of Real Estate Investment Trusts in Brazil, the paper explores how financializing policy instruments intertwine financial markets and the urban built environment. It studies the career of REITs and questions the role of financial market capital and actors in urban dynamics. The paper uncovers three processes usually considered separately: i) how a network of public and private financial market actors coaxes state bodies into using their regulatory powers and financial resources to transform real estate into an asset class; ii) how the government-run financial market authority and banks lure urban households into liquid real estate through marketing and education campaigns; and iii) how asset managers are “applied economic geographers” insofar as they channel households’ capital into a selected cities and properties. The active role played by financial actors in the design, enhancement and implementation of such a policy instrument leads us to conclude on their role as urban policy-makers.

KEYWORDS:

• Real estate investment trusts (REITs)
• financializing policy instruments
• urban dynamics
• financial markets
• Brazil

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Felix Adisson and Antoine Guironnet for their careful reading and inspiring comments, as well as two anonymous referees and the editor for their precious suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

i. It has proved impossible to find people with enough temporal depth to inform the more than likely

role played by the CVM at that early stage.

ii. As suggested by an anonymous referee, some Brazilian local authorities may be welcoming financial market actors as part of the adoption of entrepreneurial agendas aiming to strengthen their global status.

iii. “Diversified” funds combine investments in offices with retail and logistics.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Capes) [Grant 99999.001546/2014-07] and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) [Grant 450668/2016-9];