Speculating on London's housing future

Abstract

London's housing crisis is rooted in a neo-liberal urban project to recommodify and financialise housing and land in a global city. But where exactly is the crisis heading? What future is being prepared for London's urban dwellers? How can we learn from other country and city contexts to usefully speculate about London's housing future? In this paper, we bring together recent evidence and insights from the rise of what we call ‘global corporate landlords’ (GCLs) in ‘post-crisis’ urban landscapes in North America and Europe to argue that London's housing crisis—and the policies and processes impelling and intervening in it—could represent a key moment in shaping the city's long-term housing future. We trace the variegated ways in which private equity firms and institutional investors have exploited distressed housing markets and the new profitable opportunities created by states and supra-national bodies in coming to the rescue of capitalism in the USA, Spain, Ireland and Greece in response to the global financial crisis of 2007–2008. We then apply that analysis to emerging developments in the political economy of London's housing system, arguing that despite having a very low presence in the London residential property market and facing major entry barriers, GCLs are starting to position themselves in preparation for potential entry points such as the new privatisation threat to public and social rented housing.

Key words:

• private equity
• housing crisis
• dispossession
• global corporate landlords
• London

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 This paper stems from ongoing research into the transnational dimension of housing systems being undertaken by an international network of researchers and activists. The findings presented here build on insights and evidence generated by 30 participants from 11 countries who gathered in London in July 2015 for a three-day meeting to share their own research about the emergent phenomenon of global corporate landlords. The authors would like to thank those participants who all contributed to the analysis presented here and to the editors and two anonymous referees for their supportive and critically constructive comments.

Additional information

Funding

The UK research in this paper was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [Grant Ref: RES-061-25-0536].

Notes on contributors

Joe Beswick

Joe Beswick is a doctoral student at the University of Leeds, UK. Email: [email protected]

Georgia Alexandri

Georgia Alexandri holds a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral research fellowship at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain. Email: [email protected]

Michael Byrne

Michael Byrne is a postdoctoral researcher at the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin, Ireland. Email: [email protected]

Sònia Vives-Miró

Sònia Vives-Miró is a postdoctoral fellow at the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. Email: [email protected]

Desiree Fields

Desiree Fields is an urban geographer at the University of Sheffield, UK. Email: [email protected]

Stuart Hodkinson

Stuart Hodkinson is a lecturer in critical urban geography at the University of Leeds, UK. Email: [email protected]

Michael Janoschka

Michael Janoschka holds a Ramón y Cajal research professorship at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain. Email: [email protected]