Financialization of the real estate sector and costly access to low-income housing

Abstract

This article examines how the financialization of the real estate sector has increasingly undermined access to housing for low-income populations in Brazil by driving up urban and peri-urban land prices and, consequently, rental housing costs. To investigate this process, the study has adopted a historical-institutional approach informed by oligopoly theory. The analysis has revealed: (i) how the financialization of the real estate sector has reinforced the concentration of land acquisition and property development among a small number of large corporations; (ii) how this concentration has intensified barriers to housing access for low-income populations; (iii) the limitations of existing land policies in addressing these challenges; and (iv) the extent to which rising real estate prices have prompted alternative effective and socially sustainable policy interventions in other national contexts . The findings suggest that ensuring equitable access to housing requires active State intervention to regulate the oligopolistic dynamics of real estate markets and mitigate the exclusionary effects of financialization.