Property, Real Estate Investment Trusts, and the Financialization of Retail Space in Singapore
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SECURITIZING SPECTACLE: PROPERTY, REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS, AND THE FINANCIALIZATION OF RETAIL SPACE IN SINGAPORE by Joseph A. Daniels B.A., The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2013 B.A., National University of Singapore, 2013 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Geography) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) October 2015 © Joseph A. Daniels, 2015 Abstract In this thesis I explore several intersections of the work on financialization, urbanization, the real estate financial nexus, and spectacle urbanism. Taking the recently formed Singapore real estate investment trust (REIT) market as its case, this thesis contributes to efforts to build out our understanding of the consequences of urban financialization: among them, argued here, being the production of ‘spectacle urbanism’ as an everyday experience in retail spaces. Entangled within state initiatives to develop Singapore as a leading financial center, the REIT market was initiated in 2002 as part of a wider effort to deepen financial markets in the city-state. Its existence has become a current political issue in parliament, manifestly centered upon the politics over claims to property and its seeming capture by financial actors as a “purely financial asset”. And it is here that the thesis begins in Chapter 1 to outline the contemporary relevance of this study. In Chapter 2 I argue that urbanizing financialization—that is to concern ourselves with financialization and urbanization as interdependent processes—is necessary for understanding the spatial dynamics of financialization. The strategic starting point is to focus upon the material and spatial processes that enable property to be treated as a “pure financial asset”. In Chapter 3, drawing upon interviews conducted in the Singaporean REIT market, I demonstrate the material and spatial process that REIT managers concern themselves with to realize property as a ‘pure financial asset’, guided by the notion of producing liquidity or ‘unlocking value’. Chapter 4 considers the effects of these processes and argues that a constructive dialogue is to be had between the work on spectacle urbanism and financialization. I argue that not only does financialization accelerate spectacle urbanism, but that this in turn largely sustains urban financialization in a recursive process. Finally, the thesis concludes with a reflection upon the implications of the empirical chapters and the ‘politics’ of this research—highlighting the ii urgency of future research on the role of the state in creating these infrastructures of financialization. iii Preface This dissertation is original, unpublished, independent work by the author, Joseph A. Daniels. This thesis is based in part on interviews conducted in Singapore in the summer of 2014 (approx. June-August). This research was approved by the University of British Columbia Office of Research Services Behavioral Research Ethics Board—Observed as Minimal Risk. The certificate of approval is UBC BREB Number H14-00826. iv Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ii Preface ........................................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... v List of Tables ............................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures ............................................................................................................................. viii List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... x Dedication .................................................................................................................................... xii Chapter 1: Stumbling into REITs: opening a ‘black box’ of the real estate/financial nexus 1 1.1 Introduction: the REIT encounter ....................................................................................................... 1 1.2 What is a REIT?: back to the future the REIT way in Singapore ..................................................... 12 1.2.1 The S-REIT structure ................................................................................................................. 16 1.2.2 Making space for the S-REIT market: from risky product to a catalyst for financial center development ........................................................................................................................................ 19 1.3 Methodological reflections: interviewing the REIT and promiscuous sourcing in the field ............ 23 1.3.1 Negotiated conversations: beyond the threshold of the ‘gate’(keeper) ...................................... 25 1.4 Structure of thesis ............................................................................................................................. 31 Chapter 2: Finance’s urban redux ............................................................................................ 35 2.1 Introduction: Financialization: a narrowing ‘narrative of numbers’ in Singapore ............................ 35 2.2 Financialization fragmented? ............................................................................................................ 37 2.2.1 Financializing the urban, urbanizing financialization? .............................................................. 41 2.2.2 (Re)centering real estate in the real estate-financial complex/nexus: avoiding theoretical fragmentation through an ecological approach ................................................................................... 45 2.3 Property lost? .................................................................................................................................... 52 2.3.1 Performing liquidity: enrolling property into ‘market devices’? ............................................... 56 2.4 Spectacle urbanism and financialization: a common collapse starts a dialogue ............................... 61 2.5 The making of finance’s spectacle the REIT way? ........................................................................... 65 v Chapter 3: Performing liquidity: the materiality of transforming property into a ‘pure financial asset’ in Singapore ...................................................................................................... 66 3.1 Introduction: S-REIT as ‘property in liquid form’ ............................................................................ 66 3.2 The calculative matrix of S-REIT liquidity: centering property ....................................................... 71 3.3 Producing the property portfolio: liquidity as physical volume ........................................................ 80 3.3.1 An expansive portfolio, an expansive liquidity .......................................................................... 81 3.3.2 Selecting (property) for financial liquidity ................................................................................ 83 3.4 (Re)assembling property as a flow: liquidity as interchangeability and standardization .................. 86 3.5 Liquid urbanization: spatial liquidity, liquid space and financialization .......................................... 91 Chapter 4: Emerging spectacle in the everyday: from an effect of spatial liquidity to sustaining urban financialization .............................................................................................. 94 4.1 Introduction: The S-REIT mall as an emergent site of the urban spectacle in the everyday ............ 94 4.2 J.Avenue’s 21st century spectacle of the self(ie): a case study .......................................................... 99 4.3 Going with the flow (of feet): the spectacle’s contours of contradiction in S-REIT malls ............. 105 4.4 Sustaining financialization through the urban spectacle ................................................................. 110 Chapter 5: Conclusion: Singapore’s securitized spectacle and the politics of ‘mundane’ finance ........................................................................................................................................ 112 5.1 Summary and implications.............................................................................................................. 112 5.2 Further research directions (and some omissions). ......................................................................... 119 5.3 Politics of the mundane ................................................................................................................... 121 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 125 Appendix: Table of interviews and observation sites ............................................................ 140 vi List of Tables Table 1.1: The REIT world ........................................................................................................................