The invisible hand of the shareholding state: the financialization of Italian real-estate investment funds for social housing

This article contributes to the emerging literature on the post-global-financial-crisis wave of financialization of housing 2.0 by furthering the understanding of how the national governments enable financialization and participate in financial intermediation to pursue statecraft objectives. The analysis stems from a mix-method research study combining longitudinal trans-scalar policy analysis with semi-structured interviews conducted in Lombardy since 2016. It focuses on the case of the Italian real-estate investment mutual funds dedicated to social housing as a key angle from which to observe the state-finance relation underlying the financialization of rental housing and the contextual rise of the shareholding state. While shedding light on the national government’s persistent role in favouring financial power concentrations, this research study framed financial infrastructures that connect local real estate to capital markets as contradictory condensations of power relations emerging from institutionally bounded conflicts and alliances. It thus exposed the hybrid assemblage of state and market forces behind financial market formation.