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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/2445/165521
The Impact of Economic Crisis in Areas of Sprawl in Spanish Cities [Capítol de llibre]
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Abstract
The development of dispersed urbanism in Spain ran parallel to the real estate boom and
consolidated a new model of city sprawl based on the expansion of suburban areas. This process,
which started in the mid 1980s, came to a halt with the onset of the economic crisis in 2007. With it,
construction stopped, mobility fell, and urban growth came to a standstill. The purpose of this article
is, firstly, to analyse the recent evolution and chronology of the expansion of dispersed urbanism in
the Barcelona Metropolitan Region (BMR) in order to gain an insight into some of its explanatory
factors, and secondly, to look into the future middle-term prospects of dispersed urbanism in the
BMR and Spain. To this end, we examine trends in the housing market and residential mobility
and take stock of the impact of business cycles on them. The conclusion is that dispersed areas still
retain their appeal for people in the life stages of the creation and expansion of households. For this
reason, an effective economic recovery and a renewed rise in the price of housing in denser cities
may contribute to an upturn in the popularity of the dispersed residential model, which nowadays
could be considered to be in a ‘lethargic’ phase, waiting for certain factors to concur and reactivate
its expansion.
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GARCÍA COLL, Arlinda and LÓPEZ VILLANUEVA, Cristina. The Impact of Economic Crisis in Areas of Sprawl in Spanish Cities [Capítol de llibre]. Capítol del llibre: Gonzalez Pérez. J.M.; Cebrián Abellán. Vol. ; Piñera Mantiñán, num. J. [consulted: 17 of October of 2026]. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/2445/165521