---
title: "Higor Carvalho publishes IJURR article on Territorialization of Angola's Real Estate Frontier in Luanda outskirts; State legitimised by rent extraction"
sdDatePublished: "2026-04-30T17:49:00Z"
source: "https://www.unige.ch/gedt/accueil/actualites-2026/the-territorialization-of-angolas-real-estate-frontier/"
topics:
  - name: "construction and property"
    identifier: "medtop:20000235"
  - name: "real estate"
    identifier: "medtop:20000241"
  - name: "land resources"
    identifier: "medtop:20000432"
  - name: "college and university"
    identifier: "medtop:20000405"
locations:
  - "Angola"
  - "China"
  - "Brazil"
  - "Luanda"
---


Higor Carvalho publishes IJURR article on Territorialization of Angola's Real Estate Frontier in Luanda outskirts; State legitimised by rent extraction

The Territorialization of Angola's Real Estate Frontier - Gouvernance de l'Environnement et Développement Territorial - UNIGE

The Territorialization of Angola's Real Estate Frontier

Our colleagueHigor Carvalhohas just published an article in theInternational Journal of Urban and Regional Research (IJURR)titled "Territorialization of Angola's Real Estate Frontier : how Private-led Housing Developments are Reshaping the Outskirts of Luanda".

African cities are often regarded as the last frontier for capitalist property development. Inspired by the works of Gillespie and Rasmussen & Lund and Tomás, in this paper, Higor Carvalho introduces the concept of 'territorialization of the real estate frontier' toanalyse the shaping of domestic real estate industries in cities across Sub-Saharan Africaand countries on the periphery of the Global South. Taking post-war Angola as a case study, he demonstrates how land commodification, as well as the development of capital, local labour, building materials, and urban statehood, should be considered to identify real estate frontiers and assess their territorialisation. Moreover, understanding the real estate frontier as a space of political negotiation, he argues that the state is formed and legitimised by facilitating value creation at construction sites and rent extraction in ways that do not threaten the political status quo. Empirical cases of private-led housing developments built by Chinese, Brazilian, and Angolan firms on the outskirts of Luanda illustrate avariety of strategies employed to address challenges in establishing housing as commodities, emphasising important concerns aboutspatial justice in African and Global Southern cities.

You can read Higor's full paperhere.