Between Housing And Investments - The financialisation of housing in zurich

Christian Lusti’s master’s thesis Between Housing and Investments: The Financialisation of Housing in Zurich was published by 4CITIES | Erasmus Mundus Master in Urban Studies. The thesis investigates how financialisation has shaped Zurich’s housing and rental market after the 2008 global financial crisis, using a critical realist approach and drawing on both qualitative and quantitative sources.

The thesis situates Zurich within a broader post-2008 urban affordability crisis while emphasising Zurich’s distinct trajectory: even as imbalances declined in many global financial centres when inflation and interest rates rose, Zurich continued to exhibit highly speculative dynamics. Since 2008, Swiss real estate prices rose by about 81% on average, while Switzerland’s general rent level increased by just over 25%. For Zurich specifically, the thesis cites real estate price increases of over 300% since the financial crisis, and asking rents rising by 33% (with existing-tenancy rents increasing around 18%). In 2022, the average rent for a 2-room apartment is cited as CHF 1,639.

A central condition for the social importance of these shifts is Switzerland’s tenant-majority housing system: around 61% of people in Switzerland live in rented housing, and in the city of Zurich this is cited at 92%. The thesis links rising asking rents and price inflation to displacement dynamics, particularly affecting vulnerable groups, and notes that residents perceive the housing crisis as the city’s biggest problem. It also highlights macro-financial concerns: higher purchase prices require larger mortgage loans, increasing private debt and systemic exposure.

Rather than treating price and rent escalation primarily as a supply-demand issue, the thesis argues for examining underlying mechanisms associated with financialisation—defined as the increasing dominance of financial actors, markets, practices, and narratives. It reviews major strands in the literature (accumulation-regime perspectives, shareholder-value orientation, and the financialisation of everyday life) and interprets the 2008 crisis as a culmination of structural shifts including boom–bust dynamics, an expanded financial sector, securitisation, and the role of rating agencies.

The thesis frames the urban built environment as central to contemporary capitalism, drawing on ideas of capital shifting into property and infrastructure as a “secondary circuit” during overaccumulation. It describes how regulatory, socio-technical, and financial innovations help transform housing into liquid, investable assets. Post-crisis investor behaviour is presented as reinforcing this: capital seeks “real assets” such as property, and institutional investors increase allocations to real estate due to perceived stability and diversification benefits.

For Zurich, the thesis highlights changing ownership structures and the rising role of institutional investors. It cites that in 2023 institutional investors (including banks and pension funds) owned about 33.3% of rental properties in Zurich, while the share of private landlords fell from 42% in 2008 to 32.6%. The thesis also argues that policy choices have often favoured financialisation trends and calls for reorientation toward more socially just housing solutions, alongside further critical examination of urban housing policy and governance.