From homes to assets: Transcalar territorial networks and the financialization of build to rent in Greater Manchester

Richard Goulding, Adam Leaver and Jonathan Silver
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Richard Goulding: Management School, 7315the University of Sheffield, UK
Adam Leaver: Management School, 7315the University of Sheffield, UK; Management School, the University of Sheffield, UK; Department of Accounting, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Jonathan Silver: Urban Institute, 7315the University of Sheffield, UK

Environment and Planning A, 2023, vol. 55, issue 4, 828-849

Abstract: Over the last decade, Greater Manchester's city-regional centre has become an important site for build to rent (BTR) housing development in the UK. The growth of this new tenure raises important empirical and conceptual questions about how far and through what means BTR has extended in post-industrial cities like Manchester, as well as how to theorise the global–local relations involved in BTR development. Drawing on a self-built database of 155 development projects incorporating 45,069 new housing units, we show that new-build BTR units have outpaced ‘build to sell’ (BTS) units almost two to one in Manchester's city-regional centre since 2012. We also found stronger international investment in BTR relative to BTS, illustrating BTR's more globalised and financialised form. Our paper understands BTR growth in Manchester as the outcome of a transcalar territorial network – an assemblage of national policy objectives, local state actors’ urban regeneration activity and heterogenous global investor groups with different priorities all seeking a return. We highlight the important role of national and local state subsidies and local authority joint ventures in constructing a territory conducive for BTR investment in Manchester. We also show how the fungibility of BTR assets as a ‘networked product’ widens the investment appeal of the tenure type, broadening and deepening housing financialization.

Keywords: Financialization; build to rent; transcalar territorial network; local government; housing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:55:y:2023:i:4:p:828-849

DOI: 10.1177/0308518X221138104

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