Negotiated windfalls: Mapping how public actors pursue and share land-value capture in Nanterre-la-Folie, France

Leveraging land-value capture in contexts of urban austerity: evidence from the Grand Paris Express (France)

“…Here, the landowner was the national railway company (Société nationale des chemins de fer, SNCF). SNCF initially sought to sell the land for €1,000/m 2 , while the land developer, another public actor controlled by the State, was only willing to go as high as €100/m 2 (for further details, see Mouton et al 2023). The outcome of the negotiation was as follows: the selling price was set to €500/ m 2 , but SNCF was granted a preferential right (droit de préférence) on some of the land (20,000 m 2 ) to develop its own activities.…”

“…The city has historically housed working-class households, and the city administration feared that Nanterre-la-Folie would put more pressure on housing costs, and eventually displace the existing populationto the benefit of new white-collar households working in the neighbouring district of La Défense (Interview I). As a consequence, a defining feature of the project is the share of social housing in the project, but also the presence of a mechanism designed to reduce gentrification (Mouton et al, 2023).…”

“…the acquisition of land around future transit stations and its subsequent sale, at a profit. Indeed, focusing on a single actor is not enough to grasp phenomena of LVC, given that several public actors pursuing multiple objectives can come into play (Mouton et al 2023). Here, we look at case studies where a variety of public actors are trying to capture some or all of the economic value that derives from the construction of a major railway system in the wider metropolitan area of Paris, the Grand Paris Express (GPE).…”