Housing and Cities

On June 24, 2025, the Urban Systems Institute (USI) at The University of Hong Kong, through its Land and Housing Systems Cluster, hosted the “Housing and Cities” Urban Systems Forum. The event featured in-depth discussions on the intersections of housing, urban systems, and policy, with distinguished guests Professor Emma Baker and Professor Manuel Aalbers as keynote speakers. Professor Jin Zhu served as the chair of the forum.

Prof. Emma Baker, Professor of Housing Research at the University of Adelaide and Director of the Australian Centre for Housing Research, was the first invited speaker. In her presentation, Professor Baker drew from a long-term, cross-disciplinary research program to explore the complex relationship between housing and health, and the challenges in translating this evidence into effective policy. She shared that while housing affordability is closely linked to mental health outcomes, this effect is particularly pronounced among low-income households. Through her research, Professor Baker found that people living in fully owned homes tend to report the highest levels of mental health, followed by those with mortgages, while renters are more likely to experience poorer outcomes. She also highlighted the example of cold housing in Australia, where some households are unable to afford adequate heating, leading to significant health risks. Professor Baker emphasized that the more severe the housing problems, the greater the impact on health, and cautioned against the oversimplification of housing issues into proxy variables. She called for more nuanced, causally robust research that captures the real-world complexity of housing and health.

Prof. Manuel Aalbers, Professor of Human Geography at KU Leuven, was the second keynote speaker. His presentation focused on the concept of the “real estate/financial complex,” offering a critical analysis of the evolving and intertwined relationship between real estate, finance, and the state. Professor Aalbers argued that the growth of real estate and finance has occurred at the expense of other economic sectors, and that these two sectors have become increasingly interdependent over recent decades. Drawing on global evidence, he highlighted that this trend is not limited to North America or Western Europe, but can be observed in diverse contexts worldwide—albeit with locally varied pathways. Aalbers emphasized that real estate is not simply another asset to be financialized, but has become a central component of financialized capitalism, particularly through its role as high-quality collateral. He discussed how mortgage lending has surpassed non-mortgage lending since the early 2000s, and suggested that both high and low inflation environments can drive investment in real estate assets. Importantly, Professor Aalbers stressed the enabling role of the state: governments have played a pivotal part in supporting the growth and interdependence of real estate and finance, whether through regulation, direct participation, or the strategic use of public land to ensure profitability and market control for investors. He concluded by noting that the real estate/financial complex is organized not only at the national scale, but is also shaped by processes at the urban level, with countries and cities following different institutional pathways.

Following the keynote presentations, the forum moved into a Q&A session. Professor Shenjing He, Executive Deputy Director of USI, engaged in an insightful dialogue with Professor Aalbers on the unique and varied dynamics of housing financialization in China, particularly how the housing sector’s relationship with other sectors differs from international experiences. The discussion was further enriched by enthusiastic participation from students, who posed thoughtful questions and exchanged perspectives with both guest speakers, making for a lively and productive forum.

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Topic 1: Health, Housing, and Policy Impact

Abstract: This presentation explores the evolving field of healthy housing research, drawing on evidence from a long-range, cross-disciplinary program of research. While the relationship between housing and health is well-established, translating this evidence into effective policy is far from straightforward. The talk begins by reframing the evidence base as a product of what researchers have been able to measure, persuade funders to support, or found convenient to capture, leaving important gaps for new research to fill. The presentation challenges us to look beyond what we already know, emphasising the importance of causal evidence, capturing real-world complexity, and high-quality data.

About the Speaker: Emma Baker is Professor of Housing Research at the University of Adelaide, where she leads the Australian Centre for Housing Research. She also serves as Deputy Director of the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Healthy Housing and directs the Stretton Institute’s “Ideas for Australian Cities” program. Her work seeks to drive evidence and knowledge on the health and human impacts of housing and urban environments, producing academic, as well as policy-relevant research. Core is a focus on generating and utilising longitudinal, spatial and administrative big data. Current projects include, the creation of an accessible national housing conditions data infrastructure, work on the health impacts of cold and mould in Australian homes, and the development of tools to monitor the mental health impacts of environmental events and disasters.

Topic 2: The Real Estate/Financial Complex

Abstract: Real estate and finance were at the roots of the global economic crisis that started in 2007. The connections between real estate (both residential and non-residential), finance and states still remain under-researched and under-theorized. I here propose a new metaphor that can help us to centre attention on the connections between real estate, finance and states: the real estate/financial complex, akin the military/industrial complex. Like the military/industrial complex, the real estate/financial complex should be seen as triangles since states and their many institutions are also part of the equation. Despite discourses of withdrawing states, absent states and failed states, the hand of the state in its many guises is visible everywhere in real estate, finance and its connections.

About the Speaker: Manuel B. Aalbers is Professor of Human Geography at KU Leuven, the University of Leuven (Belgium) where he leads a research group on the intersection of real estate, finance and states. He has published on financialization, redlining, social and financial exclusion, neoliberalism, mortgage markets, the privatization of social housing, neighborhood decline and gentrification. He is the author of Place, Exclusion, and Mortgage Markets (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011) and The Financialization of Housing: A Political Economy Approach (Routledge, 2016). He is the editor of Subprime Cities: The Political Economy of Mortgage Markets (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012) and the associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Urban Studies (Sage, 2010).

Chair: Prof. Jin Zhu

Assistant Professor, Department of Real Estate and Construction & Department of Urban Planning and Design; Research Fellow, Urban Systems Institute, The University of Hong Kong