Abstract
This article argues that urban governance, and academic theorisations of it, have focused on the role and strategies of real estate developers at the expense of understanding how investors are shaped by regulatory environments. In contrast, using the case of institutional investment in London’s private rental housing (Build to Rent), in this article I argue that unpacking the private sector and the development process helps reveal different types of risk which necessitate variegated responses from within the real estate sector. In doing so, I demonstrate the complexities of the private sector in urban development, especially housing provision, and the limitations of a binary conceptualised around pro- and anti-development narratives when discussing planning decisions. Instead, I show the multiplicity of responses from within the private sector, and how these reflect particular approaches to risk management. Uncovering this helps theorise the complexities of governing housing systems and demonstrates the potential for risk-based urban governance analysis in the future.
Highlights
The provision of affordable, high-quality housing is a problem for cities globally (Wetzstein, 2017)
I analyse how the governance of housing systems, new forms of housing tenure that are emerging in response to this form of investment, requires recognising the different risk priorities of real estate professionals and how these translate to different development objectives
In order to question ‘what is governed’ in the part of the housing system captured within Build to Rent’ (BTR) sites, it is necessary to understand how these actors and the processes which link them are shaped by regulatory tools, and how the particular firm strategies have been influenced by governance structures, beyond traditional planning literature
Summary
The provision of affordable, high-quality housing is a problem for cities globally (Wetzstein, 2017). Building on this work by focusing on institutional investors and their strategies, and how these relate to the developer– investor relationship(s), I demonstrate what the division of risk between different actors throughout the development process means for local governance, planning legislation, which I argue is deemed largely irrelevant by investors.
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