Some Tests for the Rent Gap Theory

Abstract

The ambiguity of the title is intended. Smith's rent gap theory is difficult to operationalize, and the authors propose tests for three of its aspects: to observe the presence or otherwise of a ‘rent valley’, to observe the coincidence of a rent gap with a period of gentrification, and to observe capital switching to inner-city alterations and additions. However, when the tests are applied to 1967–91 Melbourne data, they are somewhat testing for the theory itself: there are certainly rent gaps, but they are unevenly distributed over space and time, not consistently associated with periods of gentrification but rather with more complex shifts at the level of demand, and to be viewed as just a minor phenomenon of the broader processes of continual spatial restructuring.

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