Urban Extractivism in Valparaíso: Intensive and Extensive Production and Rent Gaps in High-Rise Construction (1992–2017)

Abstract

This article characterizes high-rise real estate development in the city of Valparaíso over the past three decades. Drawing on a survey of real estate projects based on the number of developments, total built floor area, and land rent collected by former landowners and real estate developers, the analysis is framed through the concept of urban extractivism and examines its intensive and extensive dimensions. The findings show that the expansion of high-rise development has coincided with Valparaíso’s UNESCO designation, the growth of university enrollment in Chile, and the recognition of the city as “cultural capital.” More specifically, the study shows that high-rise real estate development is concentrated in specific areas and that opportunities for profit extraction, understood in terms of the rent gap, are shaped not only by the intensive or extensive character of development, but also by attributes associated with the concentration of heritage assets and locational advantages supported by criteria of spatial hierarchy.