Commodification of housing

Commodification of housing refers to the transformation of basic shelter, rental housing, and homeownership into an investment vehicle or speculative asset as opposed to a public good, human need, or the right to housing.

Financialization of housing

Vicious cycles in the housing and financial markets.

Instead of outright purchasing in cash, homes and housing units are often purchased with 15 or 30-year mortgage loanss. These can be securitized and sold on a secondary mortgage market as packages of individual mortgages.^[1] The secondary mortgage market is considered to be the primary cause of the 2008 financial crisis as lenders made risky loans to subprime borrowers who defaulted on their mortgage payments.^[2]

Globalization has led to foreign nationals buying land and housing in many countries, including non-European-Union nationals buying 27,000 properties in Spain in 2023^[3] and Chinese companies (both acquisitions and companies originating in China) buying hundreds of acres of US agricultural land.^[4] Some countries have bans on foreign nationals purchasing land but not real estate.^[5]

Rent

The rental market has also been described as a form of commodification of housing. Margaret Jane Radin wrote that the framing of tenants' personhood as a "specific asset" invested in an apartment was a form of "universal commodification" in which, "all things and attributes that people value in themselves, in other people, and in their physical and social environment are conceived of and reasoned about as if they were objects of trade."^[6]

Some areas have a significant number of tourists who rent housing units during their stays, contributing to gentrification. Landlords often can make a larger profit with a short-term rental than a full-time tenant. This shift from a home to hotel-adjacent model has been tied to the commodification of housing.^[7]

Housing as a human right

The Juventud Comunista (Communist Youth) took to the streets during the "Demonstration for Dignified Housing" in Madrid on February 9, 2025. Their leader passionately chants through a megaphone, "Self-organization is the key. Down with the private property of housing."

Some housing advocates have called for a "decommodification" of housing in response to the housing crisis.^[8] Some groups have tied rental housing vouchers to commodification^[9] and have advocated for an expansion in public housing instead.^[10]

See also

• Commodification
• Commodification of water
• Commodity
• Privatization
• Right to housing
• Right to the city