ABSTRACT
Rent gap theory is both a powerful theoretical and political device. It rests on the Marxist conceptualisations of the use and exchange value of land, the class-monopoly nature of land value and the differential and absolute forms of rent. The rent gap theory considerably helps with the measurement of gentrification-led social displacement and exclusion, as the private capture of ground rent is always of a class-monopoly nature. Rent gap absorption is precisely one of the key forces that sustain the capitalist city as a machine of production and competition. The Capitalised Ground Rent 2 (CGR2) is a politico-economic device for reproducing real estate capital and is a by-product of the capitalist class imposition of socio-spatial changes in the city. Both neoliberal and authoritarian capitalist states are systems of rapid capitalisation via private accumulation of land rent, thus resulting in privately-led urban market expansion.
