Housing as a site of financialised accumulation in Amsterdam: critique and radical alternatives

Angela Wigger

Chapter 8 in Resisting the Financialization of Housing, 2026, pp 101-114 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter examines Amsterdam's transformation from a bastion of inclusive social housing into one of Europe's least affordable cities, where housing prices more than doubled between 2013 and 2025. Adopting a historical-materialist perspective, it traces how residualisation of Amsterdam's decommodified social housing system, together with state-led promotion of private homeownership, created lucrative reinvestment opportunities for overaccumulated surplus capital. Beginning in the mid-1990s, neoliberal policies gradually dismantled democratic oversight of housing corporations, restricted social housing access to marginalised groups, and incentivised stock sales. Credit deregulation, mortgage subsidies, and government guarantees increased private homeownership while boosting prices, attracting domestic and international investors and transforming housing into a speculative asset within global financial circuits. This financialisation has created stark divisions between ‘asset-haves’ and ‘asset-have-nots’, pricing out low- and middle-income households alike. The chapter concludes by outlining radical alternatives centred on decommodification and democratically run cooperatives that prioritise use value over exchange value.

Keywords: Amsterdam housing crisis; Housing as a site of accumulation; Social housing residualisation; Decommodification; Democratic housing associations and cooperatives (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035379637
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