Urban land production and property: plot division in the case of Natal, Brazil (1946-1990)

Abstract

This text addresses the theme of the division of private land into plots, the production mechanism that generated the configuration of most Brazilian towns. The research focus on Natal, a medium-sized city in Northeastern Brazil. The transformation of rural land into urban land and the development of a land market, initiated in the forties and consolidated from then on, determined precocious and uncontrolled configuration of settlement parcelling and street grids in a substantial fraction of the present day urban complex. The analysis has shown that part of the parcelled land had once belonged to the state and that later owners were public servants and politicians, besides the traditional estate agents. The presence of capital associated with agro-exportation and urban commerce activities. Close proximity to political groups in power benefited developers as they expanded the area of their properties, increased their profits by a high fragmentation of the urban land and to generate extensive urban growth.