Urban Land Rent: Singapore as a Property State

In Urban Land Rent , Anne Haila develops an original theory of urban land rent with important implications for urban studies and urban theory.  The book is a comprehensive analysis of land, rent theory, and the modern city, using Singapore as a case study. It examines the question of land from a variety of perspectives: as a resource, ideologies, interventions in the land market, actors in the land market, the global scope of land markets, and investments in land. In doing so, it details the Asian development state model, historical and contemporary land regimes, public housing models, and the development industry for Singapore and several other cities, such as Hong Kong. The book also incorporates discussion of the modern real estate market, with reference to real estate investment trusts, sovereign wealth funds investing in real estate, and the fusion between sophisticated financial instruments and real estate. The result is a timely and in–depth examination of the role of land and real estate in urban and economic development with insights for scholars and professionals in a range of fields, from geography and planning to development and real estate.

Anne Haila is Professor of Urban Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She was previously Professor at the Agricultural University of Norway and Senior Fellow at the National University of Singapore.  She is the author of many peer–reviewed journal articles on urban land rent theory and other topics in urban economics.