Mexico's mass housing: An underexplored locus of informality

Abstract

This paper discusses an array of irregular and informal practices related to the construction and inhabitation of mass housing built throughout Mexico. In speculative and financialized land and housing markets, builders expedited development to minimize costs and maximize profits, bypassing government legislation and codes even if often condoned by the state. In the face of the resulting structural and infrastructural deficiencies, as well as limited access to municipal services and economic opportunities, residents have resorted to informal means to address precarious living conditions, from improving their properties and running informal businesses to organizing crime watches and withholding mortgage payments. Field research in nine peri-urban developments in Mexico City and Tijuana sheds light on informal tactics pursued by developers, lenders, governments, and residents. Informality emerged first within formal institutions engaged in financing and building mass housing and evolved as a multidimensional mechanism allowing a better life for residents facing precarity. This analysis offers an updated, nuanced understanding around the blurred boundaries between formal structures and informal practices in the Global South, destabilizing the formal-informal dichotomy often employed in policy circles.