From Gentrification to Sterilization? Building on Big Capital

Abstract In a period of extreme inequalities, the speed and scale of capital flows into London constitutes a new economic process qualitatively different from that of gentrification. It is underpinned by the financialization of housing introduced in the 1980s, the policy of Quantitative Easing, the influx of corrupt money into the city and the growing role of private equity in real estate markets. Since the 2008 financial crash the “trickle-down” of land and property price rises has built on the existing shortage of affordable housing to create an acute crisis. Combined with the commercialization of housing benefit, inflationary pressures both top-down and bottom-up are the consequence. While the current influx of capital shares key characteristics with economic gentrification, its speed and scale is unprecedented. I propose that, since the 2008 crash, we have been witnessing a new phenomenon, which I liken to sterilization rather than gentrification.