Speaker
Description
The financialization of urban development—particularly through conceptualizing volume as a medium of value production and extraction—has garnered significant attention in urban and regional studies. However, existing research often overlooks the critical role of real estate appraisers in enabling land value capture and the financialization of space. This paper contributes to the volumetric urbanism literature by critically examining how real estate valuation practices facilitate the development and assetization of MRT Development Zones as sites of transit-oriented development (TOD) in Taipei City.
By integrating assetization with a volumetric urbanism perspective, this paper advances our understanding of how real estate appraisers legitimize speculative valuation practices and align them with institutional planning frameworks for TOD. Methodologically, it employs a qualitative approach, combining in-depth interviews with real estate appraisers and urban planners, alongside case-study analyses of MRT Development Zones in Taipei City. The concept of assetization serves as the analytical lens through which valuation practices are interpreted, revealing how volumetric urban space is rendered, generated, and extracted as an asset class.
The central argument is that real estate valuation is a performative act that legitimizes market prices, stabilizes government-led regulatory frameworks for TOD policies, and fosters new dynamics of real estate investment. By demonstrating how volumes are valued, appraisers contribute to the assetization of MRT Development Zones, aligning them with neoliberal urban governance paradigms. This assetization reinforces TOD as a developmental paradigm, reshaping urban governance in speculative yet institutionalized ways.
| Keywords | Transit-oriented Development, assetization, real estate appraisers |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
