Adelaide's Heart Transplant, 1970–88: 2. The ‘Transfer’ of Value within the Housing Market

Abstract

Regression analysis is used to examine the interaction of a number of processes that are thought to be responsible for the geographical transfer of value within the built environment. These are derived from an account by Smith of the restructuring of urban space. The ‘transfer’ of value is imputed from the differential movement of house prices between 1970 and 1988 for geographical submarkets within the Adelaide Metropolitan Area. Although the interpretation of the regression models is complicated, the evidence for a tilting of the ‘value transfer’ gradient from an inner-outer bias, to an outer—inner bias, can be statistically inferred from the processes of restructuring that have redirected capital flows within the built environment of Australian cities such as Adelaide, Sydney, and Melbourne in the course of the last two decades. Thus the uneven capital formation that characterises urban restructuring and is ultimately capitalised into real changes in house prices is a significant source of the added wealth that is accumulated from homeownership. By this means it is possible to bridge the two ‘islands’ of theory: Smith's account of urban restructuring and Saunders's concern with the sources of wealth accumulation within the housing market.