WHIG’s Blog

Market maturity and investment in London’s Student Accommodation sector

No longer ‘alternative’? One of the most startling findings from the London team’s exploration of investment into residential real estate was the significant volume of capital flowing into the purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) sector. Research on investment...
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Planning for residential ‘value’ in London?

Image by David SamuelIn a seminar for the Department of Land Economy at the University of Cambridge, London WHIG team member Nicola Livingstone reflected on findings from a recently published paper that explores planning for ‘value’ through densification. ​The paper...
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Fragmented governance architectures in Amsterdam

In a new publication in Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, WHIG researchers Tuna Tasan-Kok and Sara Özogul examine entrepreneurial transformations in Amsterdam’s governance of residential property production.Amsterdam’s governance has been long praised for...
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Between a Rock and a Hard Place

In a new publication in the journal Planning Practice and Research, WHIG researcher Sara Özogul investigates how planners in Amsterdam learn from interacting with property industry actors, and how their learning experiences travel beyond the project scale to instigate...
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The Geographies of Viability Planning

In a recent new publication Whig researchers Jess Ferm and Mike Raco explore the geographies of viability-driven planning reform in England.Drawing on interviews and fieldwork in London and the North East region, the paper reflects on the variable outcomes and...
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One and the same?

Our new article in the Journal of Planning Literature confirms that there is limited academic engagement with investor stratifications. Furthermore, it establishes a new analytical framework for scholars to think along multidimensional lines to prevent...
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Unpacking Cognitive Biases against Property Market Actors

On 6 February 2020, the WHIG Amsterdam team organised an interactive session at the Dutch Research Council’s Synergy ’20 conference, bringing together an interdisciplinary group of academics and practitioners active in the Dutch property market. The Synergy ’20...
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Changing actors and investment landscapes of the property industry

Eleven students complete their master thesis in a WHIG-related thesis project group at the University of Amsterdam.The start of the WHIG project coincided with a new round of thesis supervision for master students of the MSc Urban and Regional Planning at the...
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Towards an understanding of the role of debt

Given our focus on investment into residential real estate, an essential dimension is understanding how housing fits more broadly within the financialized economy of the UK (and the Netherlands and France).  An important but under engaged within urban studies part of...
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Community Led Regeneration: the London Case

UCL has a long-standing relationship with Just Space, an umbrella organisation for community groups across London. Whilst the WHIG project is not explicitly working with them at this stage, their work is highly relevant to understanding the planning context of London...
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Towards some clarification on financialisation?

Towards some clarification on financialisation?

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Existing debates on ‘financialization’ in urban studies, and beyond, are intense. Given the nature of the WHIG project, we will inevitably be addressing the issue of financialization, financializing and financing head on. On Thursday 23 May, The Open University hosted...

Dynamic landscapes of spatial governance

Dynamic landscapes of spatial governance

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Professor Tuna Tasan-Kok’s Inaugural Lecture sets out new lines of planning research and education to be taken up by the WHIG project.On Friday, 24 May 2019, Professor Tuna Tasan-Kok, recently appointed as Professor of Urban Governance and Planning, delivered her...

Law at the Margins of the City

Law at the Margins of the City

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Law at the Margins of the City: a day on law and financialization, Birkbeck, London. Recent debates in urban studies on finance (and financialization) have highlighted new investors in urban development.Former UN special rapporteur on housing revisits London Luckily...