How finance and politics have caused the global housing crisis The most comprehensive survey of the current crisis, Urban Warfare charts how the financial crisis and wider urban politics have left millions homeless and in financial desperation across the world. The financialization of housing has become a global catastrophe, leaving millions desperate and homeless. Since the 2008 financial collapse, models of home ownership, originating in the US and UK, are being exported around the world. Using examples from across the globe, Rolnik shows how our cities have been sold to construction companies and banks, while supported by government-facilitated schemes, such as “the right to buy” subsidies and micro-financing. Our homes and neighbourhoods have become the “last subprime frontiers of capitalism,” organised by those who benefit the most.

This book highlights the importance of renting and its potential to help solve the most pressing housing problems in Latin America and the Caribbean. Currently, 1 in 5 households in the region rent their homes, a trend which is most prevalent among the fastest-growing segments of the population, such as young people, single-person households and divorced people. This alternative can therefore help satisfy demand preferences and create greater residential mobility. Also, the quality of rented property is often similar to that of formal homes, even for households in the lowest income quintiles, proving it is an efficient and cost-effective alternative for resolving the qualitative and quantitative housing deficits in the region, suggesting that housing policies linked to better planning and improved territorial organization can lead to more dense, compact cities. For these reasons, the rental market may become a key instrument to compliment the region's housing policy.

With two thirds of the world’s population projected to live in urban areas by the middle of this century, the accelerating pace of urbanisation generates crucial opportunities and challenges for sustainable development that reach far beyond city boundaries. Many global processes have recognised ...

This book addresses the interrelationship between economic and financial crises, the responses thereto, and economic and social rights.