“Bridging the Rent Gap” Online Seri

Abstract:

This theoretical study delves into the dynamics of housing submarkets with the framework of Marxian land rents. It examines the relationship between residential spaces and the reproduction of labour power in terms of commuting and the differentiated quality of reproduction by submarket. This study shows that the differentiation process of venturing to create distinct spaces for surplus profit and the emulation process of copycatting spaces of higher rents consequently form multiple housing submarkets, each characterised by different land rents of monopoly, intra-differential rent (intra-DR) and inter-differential rent (inter-DR). The coexistence of these multiple layers of land rents, in turn, becomes a driving force propelling dynamic capital movements that seek to exploit rent gaps between the layers. To illustrate these concepts, the study reviews the case of high-rise mixed-use residential developments in Seoul, highlighting the dual dynamic processes through which land rents are pursued.

Biography:

Dr. Joon Park works in the fields of land / urban economics, housing market analysis, and social housing. He worked as an associate research fellow at the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements(KRIHS) engaging in projects of land, housing, and real estate policies. He was awarded a Ph.D. degree from the Bartlett School of Planning at University College London, the UK. Major themes in his recent research include the structure of land rents in an urban context; the impacts of the expansion of cities on house prices; the transformation of spatial housing submarkets; assisted self-help housing; real estate taxes, smart cities; and more broadly the application of land rent theory and spatial analysis to questions of the structure of cities.

Upcoming lectures:

• April 16th -- Gergely Olt (HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary) Title: Housing commodification and increasing potential ground rents in post-socialist Budapest. Time: 15:00 CET/ 14:00 UK/ 10:00 Buenos Aires / 9:00 Santiago / 21:00 Hong Kong
  In this talk, Gergely Olt will discuss how institutional, social and political factors need to be connected with dynamics of rent to better understand housing commodification and gentrification in Budapest.
• April 22 (UK)/23 (Australia) -- Matthew Richmond (LSE, UK) & Jeff Garmany (Melbourne University, Australia) Title: Rent gaps, gentrification and the 'two circuits' of Latin American urban economies.
• April 29 -- Violaine Jolivet (Université de Montréal, Canada) Title: Havana's transnational gentrification: Highest and best use from elsewhere.
• May 8 -- Ivo Gasic (Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile) Title: Disentangling land financialisation: Insights from Santiago de Chile's land lease-purchase contracts.
• May 14 -- Hao Gu (Hunan University) Title: Expanding Frontiers of Commercial Gentrification: Rent Gap and Sequential Gentrification in Taikoo Li of Chengdu, China.
• May 21 -- Selim Banabak (TU Wien, Vienna, Austria) Title: Closing the Rent Index Gap – A quantitative approach to rental-sector gentrification.
• May 23 -- Thomas Sigler (University of Queensland, Australia) Title: Spatio-temporal variation in the bid–rent functions of long-term and short-term rentals: Evidence from South-East Queensland, Australia.
• May 28 -- Cheng Liu (China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China) Title: Is China making the rent gap theory untrue? Lessons from Nanjing.
• May 31 --Chunhui Liu (Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China) Title: Who Cashed the Rent Gap? An Alternative Narration of a Shantytown Renovation Project in Nanjing, China.

The organisers:

Prof. Ernesto López-Morales
School of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Design
San Sebastian University, Chile

Yunpeng Zhang, PhD
Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Urban and Regional Planning, School of Architecture, Planning and Environment Policy
University College Dublin