The Myth of Affordable Housing

Affordable housing makes housing unaffordable.

The Myth of Affordable Housing is a critique of the abject failure of affordable housing policies to address a global crisis of need. It is an evaluation of affordability as a policy goal, and it investigates the political economy of housing from a Marxist perspective.

The displacement of need by affordability has made market price the standard against which all goals are valued. It is this act of valuation that guides the book’s critique of affordability, and it is the value form of affordable housing, its production, circulation and exchange, that provides its trajectory. Just like any other commodity, so-called affordable housing creates value and surplus value in production to realise value as money in exchange. Affordability in housing has proved an excuse for unleashing financial speculation in real estate, channelling subsidies to profit landlords, developers, capital markets, and landowners. It is a regressive strategy to maintain demand without reducing price. The Myth of Affordable Housing demonstrates the failure of price to effectively fulfil socially needed goals, and it maps out a revolutionary new strategy to bring decent housing for all.

This book will be essential reading for postgraduate and undergraduate students, as well as researchers, working in the areas of housing policy, urban studies, and planning, surveying, construction, and real estate management.