Rental housing-formal and informal-as a new frontier of housing financialization in Latin America

Abstract

The rise of rental as a form of access to housing has been observed throughout Latin America as part of a global dynamic that took place after the 2008 global crisis. Global corporate landlords and new management models related to the “shared economy” capable of connecting financial capital to digital platforms and concentrate dispersed income flows are emerging in private residential market benefiting from great regulatory. Meanwhile, rental is also on the rise in ‘urban popular territories’, expanding a lucrative ‘popular real estate market’, fueled by new illegalities, evictions and public policies of subsidized rental. We observe, also, the emergence of a new generation of public policies, focused on promoting social rental housing, especially through public-private partnerships that connect popular housing markets with finance, with an important impact on the restructuring of popular territories and the redefinition of housing as a service. Based on a review of literature and official documents and business prospectuses, interviews, and fieldwork in popular territories, especially in Chile and Brazil, we argue that rental housing may be the new frontier that connects finance and real estate, with the ability to reach the popular world, instrumentalizing and generalizing illegalities.