The housing market and gentrification process in Latin American cities: an exploratory study in Boa Viagem neighborhood, Recife-PE

Abstract The city territory is the locus of housing market agents’ actions, which are inducers of the cities’ demographic differentiation process. This study aimed to analyze the idea that the market action establishes a new logic of urban occupation. Our goal is to understand the relationship between the action of the housing market in the city of Recife-PE and the process of gentrification resulting therefrom. We conducted a case study in the Boa Viagem neighborhood, the main focus of the formal housing market. The work is descriptive in nature and uses a statistical model of linear regression to establish a concise understanding of the relationship between some demographic variables of the neighborhood and the housing market action. The results indicated a gradual rising of the socioeconomic variables in these neighborhoods, and this increase was higher than in neighborhoods where the market action was minor or nonexistent. The hypothesis that the housing market action establishes a process of segmentation and demographic-spatial differentiation was confirmed, denoting the occurrence of real estate change and consequent process of gentrification.