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The new trends of the real estate market in Recife ( pe, Brazil) illustrate the current dynamics of the city-making process. The integration of a topic like nature in the design and offer of the gated communities programs reveals the way the process of city-making is regenerating itself within the insular and fragmented metropolis. This paper intends in the first place to highlight the recent change in marketing rhetoric by the property developers. Then various examples (description of several condomínios fechados in or just out of town, official municipal rhetoric, residents’ opinions) illustrate the currentmotivations underlying the city-making of the fragmented metropolis which invoke nature and leisure as the new ideals for living. The recurrence of the rhetorical figure of extra-territoriality, as expressed either through the conception and promotion of the programs or via the responses of residents, highlights a general move toward this way of living.