Downstream: You Will Rent Forever. Here’s Why. w/ Peter Apps
Summary
Peter Walker discusses his book *Homesick*, analyzing how UK housing became unaffordable due to financialization and policy shifts since the 1980s. He argues that the 1988 Housing Act and Right to Buy dismantled social safety nets, turning homes into investment assets rather than necessities. The conversation covers the rise of part-time landlords, the minimal impact of immigration on prices, and the resulting social atomization in cities like London.
Topics discussed
Introduction: The UK housing crisis and unaffordability
Financialization of housing and the shift from business to mortgage lending
The housing bubble, private landlords, and social dysfunction
Landlord profession, institutional investors, and BlackRock
London's changing demographics, community loss, and HMOs
The 1988 Housing Act and deregulation of the private rented sector
Thatcher's Right to Buy, council housing sales, and housing benefit
1970s housing policy, the Shelter campaign, and prioritizing need
New Labour, regeneration, and the demolition of social housing estates
Affordable housing targets, Vienna model, and supply-side solutions
The trap of volume house builders and reliance on rising prices
The pension triple lock, retirement poverty, and future solutions
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