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Housing crisis intensifies internationally expropriate the speculators

Marxist Analysis · 2026-05-13

Core Argument

The article argues that the international housing crisis is not a problem of insufficient supply, but a necessary and intensifying expression of capitalism's inherent contradictions. The central thesis is that housing is being built — but for the rich, as luxury developments, tourist accommodation, and speculative assets — while working people face skyrocketing rents, mortgage costs, and homelessness. Reformist measures within capitalism are structurally incapable of solving the crisis because capital will always flow towards the highest profits, not towards social need. The only solution is the expropriation of the landlords, developers, and financial institutions, and the planned organisation of housing under working-class control.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis is rooted in Engels' classic treatment of the housing question, which the article quotes directly. Engels' insight — that the housing shortage is "no accident" but "a necessary institution" under capitalism — provides the theoretical backbone. The article extends this by connecting the housing crisis to Marx's analysis of the tendency towards speculation and fictitious capital in periods of overaccumulation. After 2008, central bank liquidity did not translate into productive investment because real demand was anaemic; instead, it fuelled speculative bubbles in real estate and other financial assets. This is a concrete application of Marx's theory of crisis: capital seeks outlets for self-expansion, and when productive investment is unprofitable, it turns to speculation. The piece also draws on the Marxist theory of the state as a "special armed body for the defence of private property", explaining why no capitalist government will enforce the right to housing against the interests of property owners.

Conjunctural Relevance

The article is written in October 2024 and draws on recent data to demonstrate the severity of the crisis. A Gallup poll cited shows over 50% dissatisfaction with affordable housing in OECD countries, up from 30% pre-pandemic, with figures exceeding 60% in the US, Spain, and the Netherlands, and approaching 80% in Portugal. Homelessness rose 12% internationally in 2023; the US has over 650,000 homeless people; Portugal's homeless population grew 78% since the pandemic. In the UK, housing costs relative to wages have doubled in 25 years. In the US, monthly mortgage payments for low-deposit buyers rose from $2,000 in 2021 to over $3,000. Meanwhile, bank profits in Spain rose almost 30% in 2023 due to higher interest rates. The article specifically names the reformist government of Ada Colau in Barcelona (2015–23), under which housing prices doubled despite extensive legislation, as a case study in the failure of reformism. The conjuncture is one of intensifying class polarisation: the working class is squeezed by rents, mortgages, and evictions, while a tiny minority of bankers, landlords, and investment funds enjoy record profits.

Where the Argument Continues

The article is a relatively self-contained polemic, but its argument connects to several ongoing threads in the Marxist corpus. The critique of reformism — that you cannot control what you do not own — is developed at greater length in other In Defence of Marxism articles on municipalism, the limits of rent control, and the experience of left governments in Latin America and Southern Europe. The analysis of fictitious capital and speculation in housing connects to broader Marxist work on financialisation and the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, which is explored in IDOM articles on the 2008 crisis and its aftermath. The call for expropriation and planned economy points towards the wider literature on socialist transition, including Engels' The Housing Question itself, which remains the foundational text. Against the Stream episodes on housing struggles in specific countries (e.g., Spain, the UK, the US) would provide concrete updates on the movements referenced.

Connections

  • Engels, The Housing Question — the theoretical foundation of the article's argument.
  • Marx, Capital Volume 3 — on the tendency of the rate of profit to fall and the growth of fictitious capital, which explains the speculative dynamic.
  • IDOM articles on the 2008 crisis and financialisation — for the broader context of how central bank liquidity fuels speculation rather than productive investment.
  • IDOM articles on reformist governments (e.g., Syriza, Podemos, Colau's Barcelona) — for the critique of attempting to manage capitalism in the interests of the working class.
  • Against the Stream episodes on housing — for contemporary reporting on housing movements and struggles.

Key Quotes

  1. "The reason why the capitalists do not invest still more than they do in workers' dwellings is that more expensive dwellings bring in still greater profits for their owners." — Engels, quoted in the article.

  2. "The problem lay in her reformist approach, which tried to provide an answer within the limits of capitalism. But you can't control what you don't own."

  3. "The right to housing is enshrined in most constitutions, but no state ever enforces this. But should ordinary people dare to stop paying their rent or mortgages, they would soon find the police knocking on their doors with eviction notices. Such is the character of the capitalist state: a special armed body for the defence of private property."

  4. "After the 2008 crisis, central banks pumped billions of dollars into the financial sector. But this hardly translated into productive investment, as real demand remained anaemic. This money rather found its way to all sorts of speculative activities, including real estate."

  5. "Houses are being built, yes, but for the rich. The capitalists are building secondary residences for the rich, expensive hotels, or empty properties for speculation."

  6. "[The housing crisis] cannot fail to be present in a society in which the great masses of the workers are exclusively dependent upon wages... in such a society the housing shortage is no accident; it is a necessary institution and it can be abolished together with all its effects on health, etc., only if the whole social order from which it springs is fundamentally refashioned." — Engels, quoted in the article.