Land value capture in practice: Unpacking the experience of Naranjal through a spatial (in)justice lens

Abstract

Land-value capture (LVC) has gained traction as a self-financing instrument for urban development. This article examines its opportunities and limits through a single case study, the Naranjal Partial Urban Renewal Plan, a large-scale, municipally led intervention in a low-income neighbourhood of Medellín. Anchored in Soja’s spatial justice, it advances a framework to identify LVC (in)justices across three dimensions: influence over spatial production, distribution of costs and risks, and the spatial allocation of socially valued resources. Case evidence shows that, in the absence of early public investment and sustained institutional–political support, LVC instruments generated revenue neither sufficient nor timely to fund infrastructure and social mitigation, ultimately shifting costs and risks onto vulnerable, lower-income groups.