The ascendance of build to rent in London and Amsterdam

This post was written by Sara Özogul.

Economic geography and housing studies have started to explore how institutional investment works and its impact on specific cities or areas. However, there has been less focus on understanding how institutional investment operates at different levels. The concept of financialization, which examines the increasing influence of financial actors, has not adequately addressed how global or international actors navigate corporate strategies, politics, and markets across various scales.

In this article, Frances Brill and I take a close look at the financialization of rental housing in two cities by analyzing the actions of a residential landlord who entered the professionalized private rental market, specifically the build-to-rent (BTR) sector, in London and Amsterdam.

By combining insights from economic geography and critical perspectives from spatial sciences, we gain a better understanding of how a firm operates within the broader political and institutional dynamics. This approach helps us comprehend how the firm’s strategies at different levels interact with the specific regulatory and governance systems in both cities.

For this research, we collected a substantial amount of data to gain a comprehensive understanding of the key actors and organizations involved in the governance of the cities. We also examined the discourses and approaches of the public sector towards private property investors.

Even though London and Amsterdam have different market conditions, the firm reduces its risk by initially entering the market through student housing. By doing so, the firm gains valuable local knowledge and builds important relationships with private individuals and policymakers in the area. These findings suggest that the process of financialization operates at multiple levels and adds to our understanding of how it works.

The full publication can be accessed here: Frances Brill & Sara Özogul (2021) Follow the Firm: Analyzing the International Ascendance of Build to Rent, Economic Geography, 97:3, 235-256.