Across Europe, the financial sector has pushed up house prices. It's a political timebomb | Tim White

Summary

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78% Informative

Housing has become a primary engine of inequality, reinforcing divisions between asset-haves and have-nots.

Housing lies at the heart of surging political disfranchisement across mainland Europe .

The crisis is fuelling the far right linked to the support for Alternative für Deutschland in Germany and the recent victory of the Dutch anti-Islam Freedom party.

As power has shifted to investors and speculators, so it has been withdrawn from residents.

In order to incentivise or “de-risk” private investment, governments have weakened tenant protections.

The thing is, institutional investors aren’t really into producing housing.

It is directly against their interests to significantly increase supply.

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semi-formal

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English

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External references

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