HOUSING PRODUCTION IN THE SUBURBS OF BEIRUT: A DEVELOPER’S STORY, THE CASE OF MK REAL ESTATE

Abstract

Urban planning research has converged on the centrality of social networks in supporting the production and exchange of housing. Smith (1999) described housing networks as critical in securing the basic ingredients of housing such as land, building materials, or construction permits. The concept of networks was further expanded to highlight their central role in contextual social fields where they could be turned as effective social (Fawaz, 2009) or political (Zhang, 2010) capitals, empowering individuals to control and manage the building development and exchange industries.

Building on these approaches, my thesis, develops an ethnographic study of one development company operating in Beirut’s suburbs. The thesis investigates the processes of building development that empower one small-scale trader to establish himself over two decades as a leading development agency in the city. The thesis argues that the success of the development agency rests on the visible and invisible social networks which the agency’s owner cultivated carefully, connecting him to well established individuals in the areas where he operated, granting him access to land and permits, but also empowering him to negotiate better deals and make higher profits. My thesis further shows that the company’s primary strategy to socialize all business relations allowed it to secure housing ingredients, reach better deals, overcome territorial boundaries and restrictions on building in specific areas, and sometimes receive cover for the illegal building activities (e.g., adding floors, expanding basements) it resorted to in order to maximize profit and mitigate problems. Despite these advantages, the thesis shows that social networks operate at a cost, forcing the developer into sometimes disadvantageous exchanges of favors and/or worse deals. It also shows that reliance on networks created an opaque market where inexperienced clients and investors were at a severe disadvantage in the transactions they conducted. . The thesis findings are significant in providing empirical insights about the role and functioning of social networks in supporting the housing industry in Beirut’s suburbs. They also provide important insights for how to mitigate the disadvantages of these modes of operation.

This research methodology built on my experience working as at the development agency for two years (2018 and 2019). Most of the data and analysis are collected through a participant observer’s approach.