Urbanisation and construction of the real state bubble in late capitalism in Spain

Abstract

[eng] This is a paper about the housing bubble in Spain between 1996-2007, pointing out that all the three real estate bubbles took place in a political and economic context favorable towards the construction of houses as speculative investment. The significant changes in the configuration of the supply is noteworthy: the huge growth of the dispersed urban supply surpassed the most traditional concentrated supply; the role of tourism as a generator of purely real estate demand stands out; home ownership experienced a spectacular overturn in the second half of the 20th century. All these could not lead to the bubble unless these four key factors are fulfilled: qualified territory, supportive urban planning, money and available land ownership. The conclusion is that the implementation of policies promoted not only the transformation of housing into goods for exchange-rather for use-but also the flowed credit from banks. The real estate bubble finally indicated its most harmful effects on economy and institution, in terms of a large quantity of unsold homes, evictions and the unemployed.