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Estate Agents as Interpreters of Economic and Cultural Capital: The Gentrification Premium in the Sydney Housing Market

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  • Gary Bridge

Abstract

This article focuses on the role of real estate agents as interpreters of the relationship between housing aesthetics (taste) and price. The research includes an analysis of housing advertisements, observation of housing auctions, and interviews with real estate agents in the gentrified inner western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Adapting the work of Pierre Bourdieu on social class, the article argues that the relationship between housing taste and price captures the interaction of cultural and economic capital and that the intermediary role of the estate agent can be used to explore this. It concludes that the gentrification aesthetic is dynamic and increasingly demands economic capital at the expense of cultural capital (a gentrification premium) to maintain class distinction. Cet article traite du rôle des agents immobiliers en tant qu'interprètes du lien entre l'esthétique (goût) et le prix d'un logement. L'étude couvre une analyse des annonces, une observation des ventes aux enchères, ainsi que des entretiens avec des agents immobiliers dans des banlieues embourgeoisées situées directement à la périphérie ouest de Sydney (Australie). En adaptant les travaux de Pierre Bourdieu sur les classes sociales, l'article établit que la relation goût‐prix du logement accapare l'interaction du capital culturel et économique, le rôle intermédiaire de l'agent immobilier permettant d'explorer celle‐ci. La conclusion démontre que l'esthétique de l'embourgeoisement est dynamique et exige un capital financier croissant au détriment du capital culturel (bonus de la réhabilitation) afin de préserver une distinction de classe.

Suggested Citation

  • Gary Bridge, 2001. "Estate Agents as Interpreters of Economic and Cultural Capital: The Gentrification Premium in the Sydney Housing Market," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 87-101, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:25:y:2001:i:1:p:87-101
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.00299
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    Cited by:

    1. Mark Davidson & Loretta Lees, 2005. "New-Build ‘Gentrification’ and London's Riverside Renaissance," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(7), pages 1165-1190, July.
    2. Gary Bridge, 2006. "Perspectives on Cultural Capital and the Neighbourhood," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(4), pages 719-730, April.
    3. Andrew Gorman-Murray & Gordon Waitt, 2009. "Queer-Friendly Neighbourhoods: Interrogating Social Cohesion across Sexual Difference in Two Australian Neighbourhoods," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 41(12), pages 2855-2873, December.
    4. Antoine Paccoud, 2017. "Buy-to-let gentrification: Extending social change through tenure shifts," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(4), pages 839-856, April.
    5. Craig Young & Martina Diep & Stephanie Drabble, 2006. "Living with Difference? The 'Cosmopolitan City' and Urban Reimaging in Manchester, UK," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(10), pages 1687-1714, September.
    6. Nilsson, Isabelle & Delmelle, Elizabeth C., 2023. "Smart growth as a luxury amenity? Exploring the relationship between the marketing of smart growth characteristics and neighborhood racial and income change," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    7. Susan J. Smith & Moira Munro & Hazel Christie, 2006. "Performing (Housing) Markets," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(1), pages 81-98, January.
    8. Willem R Boterman, 2012. "Residential Mobility of Urban Middle Classes in the Field of Parenthood," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(10), pages 2397-2412, October.
    9. Damian Collins, 2013. "Gentrification or ‘Multiplication of the Suburbs’? Residential Development in New Zealand's Coastal Countryside," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(1), pages 109-125, January.
    10. Matthew W. Rofe, 2003. "'I Want to be Global': Theorising the Gentrifying Class as an Emergent Elite Global Community," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 40(12), pages 2511-2526, November.
    11. Andrea Pollio & Liam Magee & Ien Ang & David Rowe & Deborah Stevenson & Teresa Swist & Alexandra Wong, 2021. "SURVIVING SUPERGENTRIFICATION IN INNER CITY SYDNEY: Adaptive Spaces and Makeshift Economies of Cultural Production," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(5), pages 778-794, September.
    12. Brian Doucet, 2014. "A Process of Change and a Changing Process: Introduction to the Special Issue on Contemporary Gentrification," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 105(2), pages 125-139, April.
    13. Andrew Riely, 2020. "Gentrifiers, distinction, and social preservation: A case study in consumption on Mount Pleasant Street in Washington, DC," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(12), pages 2383-2401, September.
    14. John Meligrana & Andrejs Skaburskis, 2005. "Extent, Location and Profiles of Continuing Gentrification in Canadian Metropolitan Areas, 1981-2001," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(9), pages 1569-1592, August.
    15. Nathan Marom, 2014. "Relating a City's History and Geography with Bourdieu: One Hundred Years of Spatial Distinction in Tel Aviv," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(4), pages 1344-1362, July.

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