Part-time Brokers in Financialised Rural Land Markets: Processes, Typology and Implications

Abstract

This article aims to delineate the part-time matchmaking broker in the rural land markets of Kerala, India, in the light of financialisation of land. While the land scenario in India has garnered attention with respect to urbanisation and financialisation, few studies have analysed the processes involved in rural land markets in conjuncture with financialisation. The article maps out the actors involved in rural land markets so as to trace the role of intermediary brokers, their intricate processes of intermediation and their implications, to understand the process of mediation in the working of rural land markets. Rural land market functioning is analysed in the backdrop of a tax-evading land transfer tax system and brokers who are mainly matchmakers that augment speculative land market activity. In this scenario, the study analyses the various types of intermediaries by revealing how the ‘part-time matchmaking broker’ uses social networks to mediate speculative land purchases in a financialised rural land market regime. The article concludes by drawing attention to the rent-seeking behaviour associated with intermediaries.