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The financialisation of rental housing: A comparative analysis of New York City and Berlin

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  • Desiree Fields

    (University of Sheffield, UK)

  • Sabina Uffer

    (SIT Study Abroad International Honors Program, USA)

Abstract

This paper compares how recent waves of private equity real estate investment have reshaped the rental housing markets in New York and Berlin. Through secondary analysis of separate primary research projects, we explore financialisation’s impact on tenants, neighbourhoods, and urban space. Despite their contrasting market contexts and investor strategies, financialisation heightened existing inequalities in housing affordability and stability, and rearranged spaces of abandonment and gentrification in both cities. Conversely cities themselves also shaped the process of financialisation, with weakened rental protections providing an opening to transform affordable housing into a new global asset class. We also show how financialisation’s adaptability in the face of changing market conditions entails ongoing, but shifting processes of uneven development. Comparative studies of financialisation can help highlight geographically disparate, but similar exposures to this global process, thus contributing to a critical urban politics of finance that crosses boundaries of space, sector and scale.

Suggested Citation

  • Desiree Fields & Sabina Uffer, 2016. "The financialisation of rental housing: A comparative analysis of New York City and Berlin," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(7), pages 1486-1502, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:53:y:2016:i:7:p:1486-1502
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098014543704
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    5. Rachel Weber, 2010. "Selling City Futures: The Financialization of Urban Redevelopment Policy," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 86(3), pages 251-274, July.
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    7. Ingrid Gould Ellen & Michael H. Schill & Amy Ellen Schwartz & Ioan Voicu, 2003. "Housing production subsidies and neighborhood revitalization: New York City's ten-year capital plan for housing," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, issue Jun, pages 71-85.
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    Cited by:

    1. Matthias Bernt & Laura Colini & Daniel Förste, 2017. "Privatization, Financialization and State Restructuring in Eastern Germany: The case of Am südpark," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 555-571, July.
    2. Michael Byrne, 2019. "The financialization of housing and the growth of the private rental sector in Ireland, the UK and Spain," Working Papers 201902, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    3. Desiree Fields, 2017. "Unwilling Subjects of Financialization," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 588-603, July.
    4. Manuel B. Aalbers, 2017. "The Variegated Financialization of Housing," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 542-554, July.

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