Abstract

Far from the most traditional narratives of gentrification, the fifth-wave gentrification hypothesis echoes several situations seen in Santiago, Chile: the appearance of elite and corporate landlords who accumulate almost half of the new housing stock produced; municipal management of urban planning favorable to the indiscriminate construction of expensive tiny units in high-rise buildings built on low-rise traditional neighborhoods; generalized increases in housing rent and sales prices, with a rife shrink of affordable housing stock, and soaring levels of home multi-occupation; and overcrowding for the poorer ones aggravated by the increased influx of international immigrant population in central quarters of the city who experience displacement pressure in a great deal. On the flip side, the alternative production of collective housing with reduced neighborhood impact at affordable prices is not a priority goal for policymakers, even though plenty of inexpensive lands are available for alternative, smaller redevelopments in the city. This chapter explores the design of a residential financial and architectural model with reduced impact on the urban environment, low land consumption, lower unit sale price than the market average, and still high return for the developer. Our approximate results show that low-rise building protects the hundreds of modest, low-rise neighborhoods in the city and reduces housing scarcity; thus, it is possible to overcome the false choice between expensive mega redevelopment or urban decline. We conclude on the need for a policy to reduce the power of mega developers and help finance small-scale real estate developers, thus increasing market competitiveness as an alternative to the more popularized state-centralized management of housing construction.