From the Housing Bubble to the Generation Rent

Property, Tenancy, and Rentiership after the 2008 Crisis

Abstract

The 2008 financial crisis marked a turning point in global capitalism, triggering a profound restructuring of both financial and real estate sectors. In Spain, where banks held vast quantities of toxic assets that threatened to unleash a systemic crisis across the Eurozone, the shock was particularly severe. In response, a political-financial fix emerged: an interventionist strategy aimed at restoring capital profitability by transforming the built environment. This process effectively turned the crisis into a new cycle of accumulation. Through regulatory, fiscal, and financial reforms, this fix opened the door for asset managers to enter the housing market, ushering in a new phase of accumulation centered on rental housing. This article offers a structural reading of what has come to be known as the «housing crisis», interpreting it not as a temporary market imbalance but as the expression of a new urban-financial regime of accumulation by dispossession. It explores the consequences of this shift-rising rental market pressures, growing property concentration, the expansion of rentiership, and the emergence of a generation rent increasingly excluded from ownership and trapped in a costly, unstable, and unequal rental market. Drawing on the concepts of spatial fix, financialization, rentier capitalism, and political capitalism, the article presents a critical account of the transformation of Spain’s post-crisis housing landscape.