ABSTRACT

This chapter presents a sympathetic critique that suggests that, despite the label comparative, a great deal of these comparative studies. It focuses on explaining differences between national housing systems, rather than coming to an understanding of the remarkably common trajectories shared between countries. The chapter shows what a political economy approach implies for analysing the financialization of housing, using political economys own terminology instead of relying on simple opposition to mainstream economics. It distinguish between, first, the pre-modern period; second, the modern or Fordist period; third, the flexible neoliberal or post-Fordist period; and fourth, the late neoliberal or emerging post-crisis period. The chapter investigates the rise of housing finance as an integral part of macro-economic policy and highlights the role of financial globalization in the rise of housing finance. It argues that the changes in the housing sector that led to its financialization cannot be separated from the wider financialization of the state.