Chinese Real Estate Speculation in Lilongwe, Malawi: ‘Transcalar Territorial Networks’ and the ‘Real Estate Frontier’

Abstract

In this paper we examine the motivations, aspirations and speculations of Chinese private capital as it plays out in both commercial and residential urban real estate projects in Lilongwe, Malawi. We do so in light of increasing attention paid to the emergence of new, embedded, urban real estate markets across the African context, enabled by: i) an infrastructure turn that has seen development capital channelled towards improved infrastructures in and around African cities; and ii) the commodification of urban land by post-colonial states. However, while these dynamics are helping to ‘filter away’ the perceived risks of investment by lifting them out of their unique spatial contexts, the embeddedness of Chinese actors in Lilongwe serves to trouble simplistic accounts of foreign capital parachuting in and taking advantage of the ‘fungible’ value of urban space. Our analysis draws attention to how – beyond the initial obtaining of land – the ongoing success (and thus their overall investability) of real estate projects, relies upon the dynamic cultivating of a multitude of relationships with the existing urban terrain and how this terrain and its future is imagined and speculated upon by local populations. By better understanding when, how and to what ends, new real estate projects interact with (and rely upon) the concrete specificity and place particularity of urban landscapes, the more opportunities are opened up for maximising the benefits of new investment for existing communities.