Property driven growth in the UK?

This paper departs from observing the advocacy efforts by the real estate sector and financial media, promoting the property sector’s contribution to effectuate change for the economy, particularly after the crisis, in the run up to the 2015 UK general elections. As one interviewee during my fieldwork said: “Property for growth: housing, construction, infrastructure and planning play a crucial role in delivering a property-led recovery”. The paper will argue that the increasing professionalization of the real estate sector, its asset and market making and its lobbying have all fostered the recognition on the part of the government that commercial real estate, housing and construction are drivers of economic growth. It will discuss to what extent the state has come to rely on the outcomes of the real estate (and financial) market(s), and to what extent the real estate sector is able to create an own set of multiplier effects for the economy. This paper will make use of official statistics, interview data, media reports and official (policy) documents to do this. It is anchored in the literature on regulation theory, financialisation and varieties of capitalism.status: publishe