Developers, gentrification and residential segregation in Santiago de Chile

Abstract

Attracting residents from a higher-income bracket to popular areas, or gentrification, is common practice among real estate developers in Santiago, Chile. Although displacing the original residents is not part of their business strategy, in the long term, gentrification leads to social exclusion. New home purchasers do not seek the displacement of the original residents either. Using interviews with developers, a real estate project register and a residents’ survey, this text studies the gentrification strategies used by promoters, focusing on the role played by spatial proximity between social groups and the displacement of residents in these business strategies.