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Globalizing financial valuation: International property consultants in São Paulo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2023

Lucia Shimbo  and
Daniel Sanfelici
Lucia Shimbo*
Affiliation:
Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
Daniel Sanfelici
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil
*
Corresponding author: Lucia Shimbo, Instituto de Arquitetura e Urbanismo, Universidade de São Paulo, São Carlos, São Paulo. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

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International property consultants (IPCs) have become key intermediaries in the globalization of property markets by providing a range of services that generate transparency and comparability in land and property-based investments. While their role in generating standardized information on local markets is well known, what is less is known is how IPCs help turn property into an income-yielding asset in less developed economies. This article investigates the contested diffusion of financialized valuation approaches in São Paulo's local property market. Through a qualitative inquiry into large IPCs and their main clients in the city, we show that IPCs have promoted valuation approaches that are tailored to the needs of financial market investors, thus affecting key investment decisions taken by diverse actors. Though these financialized techniques have at times clashed with more traditional views of property ownership prevalent in the country, we show that most often they co-exist with long-established valuation techniques that reflect the social and economic circumstances of Brazil's economy. The socially contingent nature of property valuation raises theoretical issues concerning the complexity of attributing value to fixed capital, as well as several policy issues.

Keywords

International property consultantsfinancializationvaluationreal estate marketsBrazil
Type
Article
Information
Finance and Society , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , 2023 , pp. 35 - 53
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© 2023 The Author(s)

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