Housing, Finance and State: Researching the interlinkages in the UK

The global housing, credit and eventually debt crisis that started in 2007 exposed the interconnections between housing (and real estate more generally), finance and state. Financial innovations turned mortgages on the local traditional mortgage markets into securities that could be traded and sold to investors in the secondary global financial market. Once borrowers started going into default, the housing market and eventually credit market broke down. To a large extent the state enabled these developments by deregulating and privatizing the housing and financial markets. In this paper, I argue that these interlinkages between housing, finance and state did not originate just before the crisis, but have been present for decades. In reviewing current policy responses to the crisis and past financial and housing (de)regulation, this paper attempts to connect findings in different literatures, including urban studies and (urban) political economy and to sketch the broader consequences of this real estate-finance nexus for housing. This overview will form the basis for in-depth interviews with key actors in real estate, finance and the state.status: publishe