Flowing Capital-Disrupted Homes: Financialisation and Maintenance of Rental Housing in Sweden

Abstract

Studies on rental housing financialisation have blossomed over the last decade. Studies are often concerned with issues around affordability and displacement, while less focus has been on how financialisation reconfigures the materials of housing, home, and the residential environment by subordinating maintenance to aggressive and unsustainable renovation strategies. We look at the case of Sweden and zoom in on a working-class Stockholm suburb where part of the housing stock is owned by the German, publicly listed real estate company Vonovia. We discuss how national and international regulations remain insufficient in ensuring that every day and structural maintenance is conducted properly by financialised landlords, leaving tenants stuck with delayed and poor-quality repair and replacement work as well as insufficient communication, severely affecting their quality of life. We propose to discuss the concepts of “housing as infrastructure” to account for these complex consequences.