Details

<p>Series Editors’ Preface ix</p> <p>Acknowledgements xi</p> <p>List of Figures xiii</p> <p>List of Tables xv</p> <p>List of Abbreviations xvii</p> <p>Glossary xix</p> <p>Preface xxi</p> <p><b>1 Introduction: Singapore as a Case and Comparison 1</b></p> <p>European Classics and Western Theories 6</p> <p>Asian Studies: A Focus on Villages 8</p> <p>Urban Studies 10</p> <p>The Developmental State, Asian Values and Rent-seeking 12</p> <p>Singapore as a Property State 15</p> <p>The Chapters 21</p> <p>Notes 24</p> <p><b>2 Ideologies of Land 26</b></p> <p>Land Regimes 27</p> <p>Debates on Genealogies 33</p> <p>Philosophies of Property 36</p> <p>Myths of Frontier and Homeownership 38</p> <p>The Economic, Moral and Political Land Question 43</p> <p>Notes 45</p> <p><b>3 Economic Arguments: Rent Theory and Property Rights Theory 46</b></p> <p>Concepts and Forms of Rent 46</p> <p>Rent and Social Problems 48</p> <p>Extending the Rent Concept 51</p> <p>Property Rights Theory 53</p> <p>Ambiguous Property Rights and the Market for Development Rights 56</p> <p>Rent as a Social Relation 57</p> <p>Urban Land Rent 59</p> <p>Notes 61</p> <p><b>4 Land Reforms: Practical Solutions and Politics of Land 63</b></p> <p>Radicals and Moralists 64</p> <p>Two Chinese Models of Land Reform 69</p> <p>Modern Land Reform 72</p> <p>Land Value Tax 78</p> <p>Neoliberal Land Reforms 80</p> <p>From Revolutions to Pragmatism 82</p> <p>Notes 85</p> <p><b>5 Land Institutions and Housing 86</b></p> <p>Land Institutions and the Second Round of Land Acquisitions 87</p> <p>National and Urban Development 94</p> <p>Housing the Nation 98</p> <p>Housing Welfare 105</p> <p>Private, Expatriate and Migrant Housing 107</p> <p>Challenges 109</p> <p>The Value of Public Land and Fiscalisation of Rent 113</p> <p>Notes 119</p> <p><b>6 Property Tycoons and Speculation 120</b></p> <p>Rent-seeking 121</p> <p>Property is a Hot Topic in Singapore 123</p> <p>Rumours in Hong Kong 127</p> <p>Conglomerates, Dynasties and Pension Funds 130</p> <p>Private and Government-linked Companies in Singapore 134</p> <p>Industrial Landscape and the Jurong Town Corporation 137</p> <p>Private and Government Companies Sharing the Market 139</p> <p>Transnational Property Companies 146</p> <p>Capricious Landlords and Mean Developers: Absolute Rent 148</p> <p>Land Without Speculation 152</p> <p>Notes 156</p> <p><b>7 Diversification of a Real Estate Portfolio: The World is Singapore’s Hinterland 158</b></p> <p>Safe Haven for Global Real Estate Flows 160</p> <p>Real Estate Investment Trusts 164</p> <p>Singapore Colonising the World: Sovereign Wealth Funds 167</p> <p>Real Estate Investment into Singapore 170</p> <p>Property-minded People 172</p> <p>Casinos and Singapore as the World’s Wealth Management Centre 176</p> <p>Global Rent and Racism in the Real Estate Market 178</p> <p>Notes 182</p> <p><b>8 Financial Crises and Real Estate 183</b></p> <p>Financial Centres 186</p> <p>Singapore and Hong Kong as Financial Centres 187</p> <p>Nick Leeson and the Collapse of Barings 192</p> <p>The IMF in Singapore 195</p> <p>The Asian Crisis 197</p> <p>Bangkok and Real Estate Speculation 200</p> <p>Singapore and the Financial Crisis 204</p> <p>The Financialisation of Land and Derivative Rent 209</p> <p>Notes 213</p> <p><b>9 Conclusion: The Land, Urban and Rent Question 215</b></p> <p>The Regime of Regulating Public Land 215</p> <p>The Land Question 217</p> <p>The Urban Question 221</p> <p>The Rent Question 223</p> <p>Annex: Note on Data 227</p> <p>References 229</p> <p>Index 261</p>

<b>Anne Haila</b> is Professor of Urban Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She was previously Professor at the Agricultural University of Norway and Senior Fellow at the National University of Singapore.  She is the author of many peer-reviewed journal articles on urban land rent theory and other topics in urban economics.

<p>In <i>Urban Land Rent</i>, Anne Haila develops an original theory of urban land rent with important implications for urban studies and urban theory.  The book is a comprehensive analysis of land, rent theory, and the modern city, using Singapore as a case study. It examines the question of land from a variety of perspectives: as a resource, ideologies, interventions in the land market, actors in the land market, the global scope of land markets, and investments in land. In doing so, it details the Asian development state model, historical and contemporary land regimes, public housing models, and the development industry for Singapore and several other cities, such as Hong Kong. The book also incorporates discussion of the modern real estate market, with reference to real estate investment trusts, sovereign wealth funds investing in real estate, and the fusion between sophisticated financial instruments and real estate. The result is a timely and in-depth examination of the role of land and real estate in urban and economic development with insights for scholars and professionals in a range of fields, from geography and planning to development and real estate.</p>

‘The role of land and property markets in recent economic crises has clearly been significant. It also seems as if capitalism is trending towards more and more rentier as opposed to productive activities. Yet there is surprisingly little written on the subject. Haila’s book remedies this lack and comes at a very opportune moment. This is a must-read for anyone concerned with contemporary economic conditions and trends.’ <br /><b>? David Harvey, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Geography, City University of New York (CUNY) </b><br /><br />'By placing Singapore’s policies and practices within a coherent analytic framework of concepts, ideologies and practices of 'land’ and ‘rent’, this book takes Singapore out of the realm of a ‘unique’ case and places it in the larger and historically deeper arena of conceptual debates in the political economy of land, property ownership and rent. Haila simultaneously provides the political economists of land with a substantive case which has seemingly solved much of the conceptual issues pragmatically.' <br /><b><b>?</b> Professor Chua Beng Huat, Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore</b>

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