IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v55y2023i3p742-759.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

State capitalism, capitalist statism: Sovereign wealth funds and the geopolitics of London’s real estate market

Author

Listed:
  • Callum Ward

    (Department of Geography and Environment, The London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom)

  • Frances Brill

    (Department of Geography, 2152University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)

  • Mike Raco

    (Bartlett School of Planning, 4905University College London, United Kingdom)

Abstract

We respond to the special issue’s call for a multiscalar, historicised approach to state capitalism through an exploration of Sovereign Wealth Fund investment into London real estate. We point to how the UK’s ostensibly market-led recovery since the 2008 financial crisis has relied in part on attracting ‘patient’ state capitalist investments. In this, we contextualise the relational regulation of real estate markets as the outcome of intersecting state projects by considering the investment motivations of the single largest owner of London real estate, the Qatari Investment Authority, and the utilisation of their investment by UK governance actors. Focusing on Qatari Investment Authority’s involvement in London’s Olympic Village, we highlight how this strategic coupling in the real estate market realised domestic and geopolitical aims for the Qataris while facilitating the UK government's strategy to ameliorate London’s housing shortage by fostering a ‘build to rent’ asset class. In doing so, we contribute to readings of state capitalism as an ‘uneven and combined’ process beyond the traditional state/market binary by placing sovereign wealth fund investment into the context of city governance, the geopolitics of real estate and resultant relational forms of regulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Callum Ward & Frances Brill & Mike Raco, 2023. "State capitalism, capitalist statism: Sovereign wealth funds and the geopolitics of London’s real estate market," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(3), pages 742-759, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:55:y:2023:i:3:p:742-759
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X221102157
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X221102157
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0308518X221102157?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:55:y:2023:i:3:p:742-759. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.