Causes And Effects Of Gentrification

All around the world, there is a rapid increase in urbanization which primarily results in the physical growth of urban areas. Therefore cities are growing quicker and as a result, they are changing economically, spatially and socially. Properties within cities are becoming increasingly more expensive with an escalation in demand and therefore older buildings are being revamped as new economic groups enter the neighbourhood. Gentrification is the process whereby younger, middle and upper-income households migrate into the centrally located urban neighbourhoods, such as Woodstock in Cape Town, and the accompanying upgrading of rundown properties that previously had filtered down to lower-income tenants (Levy, D; 1984). It is also linked to the consequent changes in the neighbourhood’s character and culture which can result in the effects and benefits of gentrification not being evenly shared and distributed. Ms Shari Daya stated that poorer households are often forced out of their homes, away from their neighbourhoods and social lives in order to accommodate the influx of new economic activity and wealthier people and are therefore both socially and spatially excluded.
The term, gentrification, was first created by urban geographer Ruth Glass in the 1960s (Kotze, N.J. & van der Merwe, I.J., 2000). It was used to describe the unexpected phenomenon of upper middle-class British families who were buying property in London 's “low class” East End. He devised it in order to give