Social function of property or property speculation? Application of territorial ordering instruments in São Paulo city between 2014 and 2019

Abstract

Starting from the performance of the different agents that produce the urban space, the article’s purpose is to analyze the application of urban management instruments in São Paulo city, specifically, the Parcelamento, Edificação ou Utilização Compulsórios (PEUC) and the Imposto sobre a Propriedade Predial e Territorial Urbana (IPTU) between 2014 and 2019. To achieve the objective, a mapping of the distribution of notifications of properties considered idle by the City Hall was made, as well as a bibliographical review on the recent speculation process in the municipality was carried out, aiming to subsidize the results found in the thematic mapping. There were 1.425 notifications made by the municipal government to landowners who, according to public authorities, did not fulfill the social function of property. The administrative territories of the regional prefectures of Sé, Mooca and Ipiranga, respectively, were the ones that concentrated the largest number of notifications. The study’s hypothesis is that, in the analyzed period, the application of spatial planning instruments in the municipality contributed to the fulfillment of the social function of property and, contradictorily, tended to increase as socio-spatial inequalities, action resulting of capital property. This article contributes to the discussions about the relations between the public government and the capital property, especially with regard to the connecting territorial links and express the intentionalities of the agents producing urban space.