Hyper-commodified rental housing: Emergence of short-term, shared and digitized housing products as new accumulation modes in Luxembourg.

This research project examines emergent housing products resulting from the hyper-commodification of rental housing under finance-led accumulation and rentier capitalism (Fig.1). While commodification refers to the dominance of the economic value of housing over its other uses, 'hyper-commodification' emphasises the extreme influence of economic accumulation and Real Estate in housing provision and relies on the combination of deregulation, financialisation and globalisation. The emergent types studied in this project relate to three market segments that have developed across different contexts: Buy-to-let, Build-to-rent and Platform Real Estate. Within these segments, flexible housing products have been developed purposely for young (expatriate) adults and transitional target groups. Such products include shared housing (e.g., newly-built high-density projects with studios and shared spaces, co-living houses) as institutionalised forms of dwelling-sharing under housing financialisation. Housing platformisation and rentier capitalism have further financialised and professionalised short-term rentals and digitised tenants' and property management. Hence, what characterises hyper-commodified housing products is their institutionalisation, flexibility, space sharing, branding as experiential and transitional living, and increasingly digitised management. Real estate actors in Luxembourg have framed these fast-growing products as solutions to demand for short-term flexible living, whereas they drive up housing prices. They also fuel housing exclusion since they do not address the needs of low and middle-income households who are forced to move towards the cross-border region. Little is known about the actors' landscapes behind these housing segments ? their interests, strategies and relationships, their roles in territorial development centred on growth and densification, and the risks of these products in terms of housing exclusion and socio-spatial inequality. Accordingly, this project aims to (i) understand the emergence of hyper-commodified housing products in Luxembourg, their actors' accumulation strategies and their role in the country's spatial-economic development, and (ii) critically discuss the related risks of housing exclusion and worsened inequality to inform policy-making. This project originally combines investigations of different types of hyper-commodified housing, which are usually studied separately. The topic is also timely because hyper-commodified rental housing forms have received political attention that led to housing (de)regulation in specific contexts. Furthermore, improving knowledge of the effects of hyper-commodified housing can lead to policy measures to curb these. Such measures can contribute to improving housing affordability and accessibility, in the context of a structural global housing crisis. Finally, this project addresses Luxembourg's research priorities related to the central roles of housing in social cohesion and urban and regional development. NB: The research design and corresponding work packages are described in the next frame.