This page gathers the main contributions of Alejandro Segura’s PhD Thesis. Below you can download the original thesis published in Spanish, as well as in other languages into which the document has been automatically translated through Deepl.
Downloadable document from UPM website
CITATION: Segura de la Cal, Alejandro (2024). Análisis del Proceso de Capitalización del Sector Inmobiliario Español. Tesis (Doctoral), E.T.S. de Edificación (UPM). https://doi.org/10.20868/UPM.thesis.81421.
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THESIS ABSTRACT
Today’s economy is based on the existence of two Production Factors (FP) (labour and
capital) that determine the relations of all Human Beings with each other and with the
environment. It is a foundation that acts as a central point of economic thought, of property
rights, of public action, of business accounting or of the sustainability of the planet in that it
defines the treatment of the elements that interact in the economy and the returns they
obtain. The economy treats capital as anything other than labour by treating elements such
as agricultural plots, urban spaces, mines, hydrocarbon deposits, animals, buildings,
machinery, software, brands, or patents as assets. This is a set of elements with different
characteristics, since those that have an unlimited duration are treated as capital in the
same way as those that are indefinite, those that have life and those that are inert, or those
that have been created by human action, as well as natural goods that exist independently
of the market.
Among capital goods, the real estate sector represents the main asset in today’s world,
accounting for two thirds of all property in the economy, including housing, offices and
infrastructures. It is a sector with unique economic implications as it combines an undefined
and scarce natural asset such as land with other elements such as construction materials
and the work involved in its construction. Its characteristics make it a unique investment
asset that combines the possibilities of profitability and risk inherent to the markets with
those of security and family as the home of Human Beings. Real estate investment acquires
prominence in a context of a continuous increase in society’s accumulated capital, which
causes a gap between housing prices and the individual investment capacity of citizens.
Under these conditions, the market function takes precedence over the household function
in a situation that has important economic and social implications.
The paper starts by analysing the process of capitalization of the real estate sector in Spain,
working on the concept of financiarización, the role of regulation and the market activity of
Real Estate Investment Companies. The results obtained lead to the study of the relationship
between these elements and the FP of the economy as the foundations of the system. Based
on the study of the FP, a new classification is proposed in the form of space, inert matter,
living beings, labour, and capital, which considers the characteristics of each one at the
highest level of aggregation. This classification leads to the reformulation of the aggregate
Production Function and to the study of the implications on different aspects of the economy,
such as the financial representation of FP, their link with the household and market
functions, their relationship with the sustainability of the conditions of the Earth and their
relationship with public action.
The results show how the application of the FP presented above introduce significant
changes in the economic system, favouring society’s access to nature’s resources and
protecting individual incentives that encourage work and investment as a source of wealth
creation. This allows for an improvement in the efficiency and equity criteria of markets in
conditions of sustainability, while at the same time facilitating the de-capitalization of
housing in defence of its function as a home for Human Beings.