Housing (In)Equity and the Spatial Dynamics of Homeownership in France: A Research Agenda

Abstract

AbstractThis paper advances a research agenda on how asset‐based welfare policies, residential market volatility, stratified accumulation and vulnerability impinge upon the geography of inequality in property markets. Since the mid‐1990s, housing prices have increased faster than the income of buyers, becoming a driver of social polarisation and household vulnerability. Few studies have however explicitly linked socio‐spatial inequality to asset capitalisation, instability and vulnerability in residential housing markets. We employ an empirically‐grounded investigation of the factors driving and reinforcing these dynamics, what we conceptualise as a feedback loop mediating particular housing finance regimes. Drawing on three French cities (Paris, Lyon, and Avignon) our study develops a comparative framework to interpret the relational effects of price, equity and homeowner vulnerability on the production of inequality across different geographical scales. Our approach puts into conversation debates concerning housing markets, social inequality, and ordinary financialisation in the period since the Global Financial Crisis.