Public Housing Neighbourhood Malls and the Real Estate Investment Trust‐Driven Retail Gentrification

Abstract This article aims to investigate a relatively underexplored aspect in the literature on retail financialisation, namely, retail landlords. It empirically examines a Hong Kong‐based Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), which is the largest retail landlord in the city's public housing neighbourhoods. The study illustrates the connection between the REIT's pursuit of shareholder value, its rent‐extraction strategies and the resulting retail gentrification. Specifically, the REIT's commitment to delivering shareholder value in the stock market translates locally into the displacement of individual stores and the affordable consumption space. This article argues that, in this particular case, financialisation becomes a mechanism of retail gentrification, as the monopolist retail landlord's relentless pursuit of higher rent ultimately serves the accumulation of finance capital and contradicts local retailers and residents. By focusing on retail gentrification in Hong Kong, this article also contributes to broader debates on planetary gentrification within the context of East Asian urbanism.