From welfare to debt-fare: financialisation and the right to housing in Ireland and Spain. Mick O'Broin, October 2012

Privatising social housing Housing Act 1966: allowed people in social housing to buy their house Slow down in social housing construction in the '70s/'80s Surrender Grant 1984: £5,000 grant for people to move out of social housing into owner occupancy 1990: of the 330,000 social houses built in the previous 100 years 220,000 privatised

Deregulation of mortgages Banks allowed to issue mortgages (c.1975) 1987: Local Authorities stop providing mortgages 1990s: mortgage based on two incomes instead of one 30,40,50 year mortgages 100% and 110% mortgages Subprime mortgages (Start Mortgages)

State support for property speculation Section 27 (1988): tax relief for the cost of construction and on the interest on the loan Section 23 (1998): tax relief on the construction costs for building/renovating rental accommodation

Privatisation of social housing “From 1993 cut backs in the construction of social housing added to the already dramatic decrease in the construction of social housing which had taken place between 1984 and 1989” (Rodriguez and Lopez)

Privatisation of social housing Boyer Decree (1985): sanctioned liquidation of social housing stock 1980s: deregulation of mortgage market Land Act (1988): freed up huge tracts of land for urbanisation

Debt bubble (Ireland) : 466% increase in lending : 75% of lending for property

Debt Bubble (Spain) 2007: Real estate debt = €1.5 trillion 70% of lending for property

The result (from Sins of the Father) “The de facto privatization of Irish housing meant that the need for a house was now replaced by the need for a mortgage”

Financialisation “It is necessary [for financialization]…that pensions or real estate are no longer…relatively socialized forms of basic social welfare and social services and become investment markets based on “assets” (housing/pensions) which nobody can live without”. (Rodriguez and Lopez)

Carlo Vercelone: 'the becoming rent of profit' Financial Rent Financial rent and enclosure

Financial exploitation Financialisation = “an extension of the spatial and temporal dynamics of exploitation”