Introduction

Fuelled by major social, political and economic transformations occurring since the early 1990s, the historic centre of Madrid, home to roughly 145,000 inhabitants, has undergone a series of fundamental re-articulations that have boosted its functional role and symbolic imaginary. Among others, the implementation of different urban renewal programmes has strategically targeted its economic revalorisation. Additionally, specific master plans for the area have structured the investment policies around joint and coordinated actions between public administrations and private initiatives, chiefly aiming to bolster capital investment in commercial, cultural and real estate activities. Beyond this, an extensive ‘touristification’ of the area has been taking place. As a consequence, many parts of the historic centre of Madrid (such as the neighbourhoods of Malasaña, Chueca and the Las Letras quarter) can now be considered as gentrified or at least as spaces that have been experiencing intensive processes of gentrification. During the long boom decade between 1995 and 2007, the price increases in real estate transactions in the central district outperformed all other neighbourhoods of the city, and since then, the historic centre's housing prices have consolidated at above-average prices – both for purchase and rental agreements.

Public administrations have played a crucial role in this reconfiguration of the historic city centre (Blanco et al, 2011), configuring contemporary geographies of gentrification and creating a symbolically and strategically unique space within the metropolitan area (Díaz Orueta, 2007). In this chapter, by exploring the powerful logics of the private and public interventions that are causing gentrification in Madrid, we develop an understanding of the locally specific adaptation of neoliberal urban policies in a Spanish city so far little discussed in the gentrification literatures. It is our contention that debates about gentrification in Spain must move beyond the two iconic examples of Barcelona and Bilbao that have been dominating the literature (eg Vicario and Martínez Monje, 2005; Ribera-Fumaz, 2008; González, 2011). In this chapter, we move beyond these ‘usual Spanish suspects’ and consider two contemporary gentrification frontiers in the historic city centre of Madrid: the neighbourhoods of Lavapiés and Triball. Both areas have recently experienced significant public and private reinvestment, but they are related to quite different policies and the strategic targeting of gentrification in Madrid.