One and the Same? A Systematic Literature Review of Residential Property Investor Types

Abstract

This article presents a systematic literature review on residential property investor types in selected social science disciplines and critically evaluates the status quo of academic engagement within this diverse group of property market actors. A recurring critique in recent years has been the minimal acknowledgment of investor heterogeneity particularly in relation to urban development and the financialization of housing. Yet, to date, there is no systematic evidence supporting these contentions. Therefore, we conducted an exhaustive literature review of residential investment landscapes through the Web of Science citation database in the following fields: Urban and regional planning, geography, sociology, urban studies, public administration, and economics. Subsequently, we methodically searched for the types of investors addressed, and investor categories employed, in journal articles published between 2000 and 2019. Following a meta-categorization of the results, we demonstrate how existing literature differentiates investors in terms of their spatial scale of operation, size and social composition, investment object and finance, or investment and social behavior. Additionally, we highlight the key topics and issues addressed in the reviewed literature within each meta-category. We propose to turn the four meta-categories into a multidimensional analytical framework as a point of departure for a more nuanced and in-depth understanding of investor differentiations, a tool that is urgently needed in Planning Studies and related disciplines. Furthermore, we argue that mixed method approaches combining hard and quantifiable with soft behavioral investor characteristics, as well as institutional analyses combining structural considerations with actors’ agency, are indispensable to disentangle contemporary residential property market dynamics.

After the crisis is before the crisis: Reading property market shifts through Amsterdam’s changing landscape of property investors

“…A systematic literature review on residential investor types revealed that investors in these disciplines are rarely thoroughly described, that categorisations and theorisations of investor types are scarce, and that generalisations are often made on the basis of simple divisions such as large and small, or local and global, investors (Özogul and Taşan-Kok, 2020). More technical differentiations on the type of investment finance, ownership composition and investment strategies can be found in the field of economics (Özogul and Taşan-Kok, 2020). Even financialisation literature tends to treat investors as a uniform actor group purely following 'economic calculations and rationalities' (Raco et al, 2019(Raco et al, : 1069.…”

“…To create such a framework, we start from the premise that investors are complex and multifaceted entities that may exhibit diverse behaviours, which can be far from standardised or calculable. The first three dimensions that we selected for our framework to define an investor (see Figure 1 legend) stem from the extensive literature review that we conducted elsewhere (Özogul and Taşan-Kok, 2020). In this systematic review, we methodically searched for residential investor types and differentiations addressed in existing urban studies, urban and regional planning, geography, public administration, sociology and economics literature to counter the limited in-depth scholarly engagement with investors from an interdisciplinary perspective.…”

“…Nonetheless, much of the critical urban studies, geography and planning literature struggles to recognise property investor diversities. Investors are either treated as a homogenous group or generalised based on single characteristics (Özogul and Taşan-Kok, 2020). We argue that an alternative, multidimensional approach is needed for a more comprehensive understanding of property investors and their role in property market shifts affecting urban built environments.…”

The work that place does: The London Landed Estates and a curatorial approach to estate management

“…The large and varied literature on financialisation illustrates the spread of calculative practices and transaction mechanisms influencing and influenced by a growing diversity of players (for comprehensive literature reviews see Özogul and Tasan-Kok, 2020; Pani and Holman, 2014; Pike and Pollard, 2010). One underlying assumption that cuts across this diverse body of work is that the advance of financialisation is heavily reliant on quantitative measurements and technologies.…”

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Investigating Planners’ Learning Experiences in Amsterdam’s Fragmented Governance of Property Development

“…The wider literature discerns different perspectives on actual property development processes, such as from political economy, Marxist or institutional stances (see Drane, 2013 for a useful overview). Institutional perspectives prove most beneficial to counter dichotomous thinking and the widespread generalisations of property industry actors in planning studies (Özogul & Tasan-Kok, 2020;Campbell et al, 2014;Adams and Tiesdell 2012). They tend to approach property as a 'bundle of relations' capturing the intricate interplay between public and private sector actors (Blomley, 2017;Fainstein, 2008).…”