Using financialised housing as a planning instrument: the impact of urban containment policies on affordable housing in Mexico City

The main aim of this thesis is to assess the implications of using housing financial regulation as a way to control urban development patterns. To do so, this research looks at the Urban Containment Perimeters (UCPs), a federal policy in Mexico that attempts to contain urban sprawl by making federal subsidies for the development of low-income housing conditional on location closer to cities’ urban core. The UCP policy recognises the fundamental role of financialisation in the provision of housing that, supported by a narrative of finance as an enabler of homeownership, has dramatically contributed to enhancing socio-spatial inequalities associated with urban sprawl. Using a mixed methods approach and focusing on the Metropolitan Area of Mexico City, this research examines the narratives and political setting behind the origins of the policy, its effectiveness in controlling urban development and the repercussions that using housing as planning has had for the roles and strategies played by different actors, including private developers and local planning officials. As urbanisation processes have evolved in the peripheries of Mexican cities, planning approaches have remained outdated and unable to cope with the rapid pace of growth inherent in the financialised housing model. Reading the UCP policy as ‘peripheral planning’ allows us to recognise its neoliberal character while understanding its potential to respond to peripheral urbanisation processes in a way in which conventional planning strategies have failed. The research findings make an important contribution by providing novel empirical evidence, not only of the policy’s effectiveness, but also of the consequences and the potential of using financialised housing as a tool to steer urban development. This is particularly relevant in contexts where a lack of municipal enforcement skills has enhanced the negative externalities of urbanisation patterns