Cuban migrants and the making of Havana’s property market

Abstract

The emerging literature on the globalization of real estate has addressed how internationally circulating capital has increasingly found its ways into housing markets of the "Global South". With relatively underdeveloped financial and real estate markets, these countries have discursively and materially been rebranded as emerging markets, that is, they have been shaped into frontiers in the global urbanization of capital. In this paper we scrutinize the transnational real estate networks that shape and reshape the Cuban housing market. First, we reconstruct how, following the 2011 legalization of housing prices set between buyers and sellers, Cuban migrants and a few foreign investors, in cooperation with Cubans residing in Cuba, are buying properties in Cuba's cities, beach resorts and other towns. Second, we explore the economic and extra-economic motives behind such transnational property transactions, highlighting how residential properties are bought and converted into private restaurants or hotels. Central to our analysis is that the present development is not simply shaped by local or national demand and processes but also by international investment. We contend that a pattern of economic globalization unfolds where transnational remittances, rather than institutional investments or mortgage finance, steer Cuba's emerging property market, along with local investments among Cuban citizens.

Reinvesting in Havana: Housing Commodification and Gentrification in the Central Neighbourhoods of a Socialist City in the Global South

“…Consequently, there are important inequalities between Cubans who have access to these economic circuits linked to tourism and the global economy, and those who do not have these transnational relations (Scarpaci et al 2002). More recently, the article by Wijburg et al (2020) situates Havana within the analysis of emerging markets and processes of commodification and financialisation that highlight the significance of transnational dynamics.…”

“…One clue identified by several experts is the growth of the private sector on the island in recent decades, which has increased significantly since the 2011 Guidelines to encourage private investment, which were later enshrined in the 2019 Constitution. Another reason is that the Cuban diaspora has been investing in the domestic economy (Hansing and Orozco 2014;Henken and Vignoli 2017;Wijburg et al 2020). Several analyses show two main groups of buyers: (1) Cubans with very limited labour income and spending capacity who need to acquire a basic property in which to live, and (2) Cubans, Cuban dual-citizens and foreigners with sufficient capital who want to buy better housing for themselves, run a business on the property or speculate in real estate (Pleyán 2020).…”

Transnational gentrification: The crossroads of transnational mobility and urban research

“…These contributions attempt to distinguish between different phases of gentrification, identifying transnational trends as more recent, while nonetheless acknowledging urban governments’ desires to promote urban amenities internationally, to higher-income migrants, second-home investors and short-term visitors. In many respects, these policies have also been exported from the Iberian Peninsula towards other geographies of real estate accumulation in North Africa (Kurzac-Souali, 2013; Kutz and Lenhardt, 2016) and Latin America (Benson and O’Reilly, 2018; Janoschka, 2009; Wijburg et al, 2020).…”

Reinvertir en la Habana: Mercantilización de la vivienda, y gentrificación en los barrios céntricos de una ciudad socialista del sur global

“…Es evidente que la inversión inmobiliaria también está vinculada a formas de mercantilización de la vivienda, pues su valor ya no se basa únicamente en sus características intrínsecas sino también en la posibilidad de beneficiarse monetariamente de ella, especialmente en el contexto del crecimiento del turismo urbano en La Habana y del crecimiento del trabajo por cuenta propia. La conexión de este mercado de propiedad turística con las remesas y otras formas de inversión de extranjeros permiten también resaltar formas de gentrificación transnacional y la conversión de la vivienda en Cuba en activos financieros (Pleyán 2020;Wijburg et al 2020) que confirman la afirmación del peso de la centralidad de La Habana a escala regional y mundial.…”

“…De este modo, aunque las necesidades de vivienda son muy elevadas, ¿quiénes pueden participar o invertir en este mercado? El desarrollo del sector privado en la isla durante las últimas décadas que ha crecido de manera importante desde los lineamientos de 2011, reconocidos en la constitución de 2019, es uno de los cambios importantes identificados por varios expertos quienes resaltan la participación de la diáspora cubana en las economías domésticas y las inversiones (Hansing y Orozco 2014;Henken y Vignoli 2017;Wijburg et al, 2020). Otros análisis muestran que el mercado está formado por dos segmentos: (1) cubanos con una capacidad de inversión muy limitada por sus ingresos laborales pero que están en la necesidad de adquirir una propiedad básica para vivir, y (2) compradores cubanos, extranjeros o binacionales con un capital suficientemente alto como para mejorar su situación habitacional, o que buscan realizar una inversión inmobiliaria especulando un aumento de los precios o creando un negocio (Pleyán 2020).…”