Projects
Financialization 3.0: Real Estate Investment Trusts and the Post-crisis Financialization of Housing in the United States and the European Union
The research project examines the financialization of rental housing by publicly traded real estate investment trusts (REITs). REITs and other large institutional investors profited in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis and are well positioned to capitalize on the current economic crisis, potentially emerging with even greater iniquitous power over local housing markets. Research into this burgeoning new phase of institutional investment in housing—“financialization 3.0”—is critically necessary in order to address its potentially deleterious effects on households and neighborhoods. The project is a comparative study of the state-sponsored financialization of housing in the EU and the US through residential REITs. It addresses REITs’ impacts on housing access, security, and affordability.