The thesis analyzes how the financialization of real estate in light of Listed Real Estate Investment Companies (SIICs), on the one hand, and sustainable development, on the other, refer to the social construction of new benchmarks. We ask whether they are compatible with each other and, if not, what compromises and convergence of interests arise from the tension between them. The aim of this work is also to see how they interact in the construction of the city. The study of each of these concepts is not straightforward, and part of the thesis work consisted of clarifying what defines their use. We approach the research topic from a management science perspective, drawing on theories of financial value creation and corporate governance, and analyzing assessment and reporting tools. Sustainable development is considered here more as a market of "standards" guaranteeing the environmental quality of the building. We hypothesize that real estate companies are constrained by public action on sustainable development to adopt different strategies: anticipating it, complying with it, circumventing it, or reinterpreting it. Sustainable development could therefore also be thought of in terms of new rules of the game, values, and private beliefs. This thesis shows that risk management and strategic opportunism on the part of companies are part of the interactions between the financialization of commercial real estate and the implementation of actions influenced by the concept of sustainable urban development. New forms of intervention, regulation, and social compromise have emerged.
Defense on Tuesday, November 18
,
2014 Doctorate in Spatial Planning, Urban Planning
Year of thesis registration:
2009
Doctoral school:
VTT – City, Transportation, and Territories