Tracing the socio-spatial logics of transnational landlords’ real estate investment: Blackstone in Madrid

Abstract

The rapid internationalisation of the Spanish property market has triggered debates about the main characteristics of emerging post-crisis urban dynamics. Financial and urban policy reforms have shaped a model depicted by incessant rent increases and displacements. Echoing these concerns, this article addresses two interconnected objectives about the way policy restructuring encouraged transnational investments into Spanish real estate and the concomitant socio-spatial effects this wider asset reshuffling has produced. Both queries are discussed by pinpointing the multi-scalar investment strategies of the private equity firm, Blackstone, which emerged as the predominant institutional investor during the recovery phase of the Spanish property market. The article initially sketches out the trajectory of the political economy of housing in Spain, and then it focuses on the strategies pursued by Blackstone for the acquisition of real estate and housing stock. The following sections connect the nodes of the financial chain that link this investor to former social housing tenants whose homes are by now owned by Blackstone. The spatial and social effects of this change in property ownership demonstrate the importance of in-depth research about the financial nodes that interplay with and shape the post-crisis urban condition in and beyond Southern Europe.

Airbnb, buy-to-let investment and tourism-driven displacement: A case study in Lisbon

“…The strategies used to harass renters in which apartment blocks are renovated while ignoring repairs in units occupied by long-standing tenants have also been documented in multifamily apartments undergoing financialization (August and Walks, 2018). Other authors further show that corporate landlords harass tenants on a regular basis in order to promote direct displacement so as to profit from tenant turnover with higher rents (Fields and Uffer, 2016;Janoschka et al, 2019). As stated, the spread of Airbnb is replicating the strategies seen in the financialization of rental housing.…”

“…Several authors have noted that the most significant consequences of the post-2008 financialization of rental housing are: (a) a progressive substitution of local property owners by transnational corporate investors and globalized landlords; and (b) a process of rental gentrification whereby these corporate investors target higher-income renters, who can guarantee higher returns (August and Walks, 2018;Beswick et al, 2016;Fields and Uffer, 2016;Janoschka et al, 2019;Paccoud, 2017;Wijburg et al, 2018). We argue that Airbnb-led investment contributes to this process: investors replace local property owners and pursue higher returns by replacing long-term tenants with tourists.…”

Real estate dispossession, income and immigration in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain)

“…Domínguez-Mujica et al (2020) did so in the case of the tourist district in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where the variables of international mobility play a significant role. From another point of view, the privatisation of social housing as a result of the actions of investment funds has also been analysed as an expression of new forms of expulsion (Janoschka et al, 2020).…”

Safe havens: overseas housing speculation and opportunity zones

“…Actors may not see the units they are trading in, but facilitate their circulation as global real estate events, digital technologies, and management firms have reduced barriers to distant investment (Rogers et al, 2015;Rogers, 2017;Fields, 2018;Mills et al, 2019). In addition, long term increases in debt-financed homeownership, consumer banking, and mortgage securitization allow for instantaneous switching of investment from the productive sector into housing, but also between portfolios of housing assets in different global markets and housing types (Aalbers, 2019;Janoschka et al, 2020).…”