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The housing crisis is one of the most pressing challenges of our time. The cost of renting or buying a home has far outpaced wage growth in countries around the world, a pattern that has only intensified with the pandemic. It’s driving inequality and making cities unaffordable for the people who make them thrive. The causes of this global crisis are many, but the financialization of the residential real estate market plays a huge role. Within the current model, investors use homes to make as much money as possible while governments are often passive or even skew the market rules to favor the interests of big investors. But housing should not be treated as just another tool for speculation; it’s a basic human right and an essential element of everyone’s life.

The Shift Directives are the first-ever comprehensive framework providing governments and investors with guidance to effectively address the financialization of housing in accordance with human rights law.