The global housing crisis is a crisis of democracy driven by financial-sector capture of housing policy
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/leilani-farha. "The housing crisis is now global. It shows just how undemocratic our nations have become | Leilani Farha | The Guardian." October 19, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
The author argues that housing has become unaffordable worldwide because big financial firms, working with governments, now control housing decisions that the public used to influence. Voting hasn't changed this, since governments of all stripes keep the same economic model and block reforms when people push back. Her answer is that ordinary people have to organize and write the laws themselves to take back control.
Conclusion
The global housing crisis is fundamentally a crisis of democracy: housing decisions have been removed from democratic control and handed to financial actors, so reclaiming democratic control over housing requires people to organize and act directly rather than rely on existing democratic institutions.
Premises
- Housing decisions have been systematically transferred from democratic control to financial actors (private equity firms, pension funds, REITs) working with governments and banks, an alliance the author calls 'Housing Inc.'
- These financial actors have unique access to power (lobbyists, campaign funding, revolving-door government positions) that ordinary people lack, and they pressure even governments that try to resist them, as when Denmark's 10-year rent freeze was cut to five.
- Elections no longer change economic policy: governments of left and right alike keep a model that directs money into real estate and away from public housing investment, so rents keep rising.
- Key decisions enabling financialized housing (mortgage securitization, REIT tax exemptions, Greece's golden visa programme) were made without public debate, and when citizens protested, governments responded with police force.
- Meaningful civic participation is inaccessible to those most affected: tenants fear eviction for speaking out and overworked people lack time for consultations, and this alienation creates an opening for rightwing populism.
- When democratic majorities or popular pressure push for change, as with Madrid's 'Maricarmen decree' and Berlin's expropriation referendum, governments and legislatures strike down or pre-empt the reforms in defense of property rights.
Assumptions
- Democracy requires that people's living conditions be meaningfully shaped by the people affected, including on housing
- Financial-sector influence over housing policy is the primary cause of the housing crisis, rather than one of several causes such as supply constraints, zoning, or interest rates
- The anecdotal cases (Denmark, Greece, Spain, Germany) are representative of a global pattern
- Policy outcomes that favor financial interests against majority preferences indicate a democratic deficit rather than legitimate constitutional protections of property rights
- Direct citizen organizing and self-drafted legislation are viable and legitimate remedies
- Housing should be treated primarily as a social good or human right rather than an investment asset