Since the Global Financial Crisis residential property in European cities has become an attractive asset class for financial institutions, many in the U.S. The virus crisis has intensified this trend.
Since the Global Financial Crisis residential property in European cities has become an attractive asset class for financial institutions, many in the US The
In this report by Daniela Gabor and Sebastian Kohl, we explore the growing importance of institutional landlords such as Blackstone, focusing in particular on the mechanisms through which European legislation has accommodated their strategies to transform housing into asset classes. We use data to map the complex financial ecosystem behind private equity landlords. We then propose a set of reforms that would de-financialize housing for the public good.
Yves here. This post takes a contrarian view of the preoccupation with home ownership and argues that single family homes increase inequality and the rate of climate change. Its authors contend that the idea that home ownership reduces inequality is largely a conservative myth.
I strongly encourage you to read it in full, with an eye to the notion that knee-jerk reactions against some of its arguments are likely to reflect a personal attachment to the notion of homeownership….which as this piece stresses, is a fairly recent cultural inculcation.
No less than the Economist magazine recently deemed the push for widespread homeownership as a massive policy failure, and also described how that demand for home-ownership was stoked by messaging and policies, such as tax breaks for developers and buyers.