Institutional actors and residential capital flows in London, Amsterdam, and Paris

This research explores the scale and nature of international and domestic investment flows in London, Paris, and Amsterdam, the three cities under investigation in the ESRC-funded ORA research project “What is Governed in Cities” (2019-2022). Using data provided by Real Capital Analytics/MSCI and other sources, we compare market churn and trends related to capital flows, existing residential investment, and new housing developments. The research charts the shifting landscape of institutional investment into residential property, and concentrates on the UK market, with Paris and Amsterdam included for comparison. The paper draws on literature from a variety of theoretical approaches to frame the investment flows across the three cities, considering real estate investment literature and institutionalist perspectives (Adams and Tiesdell, 2010; Theurillat et al., 2015), as well as the internationalisation of the real estate market (Fuerst et al., 2015; Falkenbach, 2009). Incorporating interviews with developers and investors, we analyse the key actors and locations for institutional investment across a 15-year time horizon (2005-2020) and highlight ways in which institutional investors have contributed to the creation and recreation of the urban form across the geographies of our three case study cities. The paper broadly examines investment trends and flows, as well as more detailed reflections on the strategies of particular investors, with a specific analysis of REITs. The presentation will reflection on market trends, in addition to a selection of the strategic narratives around the types of investor that are present across our European case studies of the residential market. The variations in regulation and governance, market knowledge, institutional actors and local real estate context across London, Amsterdam and Paris offer interesting insights into these investment actors and processes.