Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism

Over the past four decades, financial markets and institutions have reshaped how housing is owned, priced, and used as a vehicle for wealth accumulation, a process scholars call financialization. Corporations increasingly prioritize returns to shareholders over wages or long-term investment, while governments have shifted welfare provision toward asset ownership—encouraging households to treat their homes as retirement savings—rather than direct public support. These shifts are closely tied to rising income inequality and the restructuring of cities, where capital flows into real estate can accelerate displacement and redevelopment. Researchers are actively debating how much financialization drives inequality versus reflecting it, and whether alternative corporate governance structures or housing policies could meaningfully redirect capital toward broader social ends.

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Keywords

FinancializationShareholder ValueHousingCapital AccumulationNeoliberalismGlobal Finance