El Quinon; Corruption and Speculative Urbanism in the Spanish Financial Crisis

Abstract

The article explores the dynamics of speculative development and the emergent moral claims and collective aspirations associated with housing and homeownership in Spain in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Our focus is on El Quinon, a massive residential complex targeted at middle income working families aspiring towards a spacious and affordable home. The complex, which is located in the township of Sesena outside Madrid, was only one-third finished when the housing market collapsed, leaving basic infrastructure incomplete and half of the finished apartments unsold. The developer was later forced to hand over the project to the banks and, in the process, the apartments were transformed into “toxic assets” that were eventually sold by the banks at one third of the original price to new homeowners. While El Quinon came to represent the malaise of speculative practices along with other cases in Spain and elsewhere, it also attracted unprecedented public attention after its developer was accused of cutting numerous illegal deals with local authorities in order to secure construction licenses. These revelations incited condemnation of corrupt officials as well as of the anarchic nature of Spain’s speculative boom predicating on the absence of proper planning and concern of real housing needs of citizens. Despite its negative image and ongoing legal challenges, El Quinon has become fully occupied in the last few years and its residents are apparently content with their new environment. By tracing the shifting perspectives and moral claims of different stakeholders associated with El Quinon, this paper elucidates the peculiarities of speculative development shaped as much by global flows of capital as by longstanding institutional and social practices specific to the Spanish context.