Coping with financialisation. Understanding socio-emotional dynamics in urban housing markets

Financialisation increasingly exposes asset-poor households, often reluctantly, to the adverse effects of urban property inflation. This phenomenon is characterised by experiences of ‘unwillingness’ within financialised housing systems. Yet, there remains limited understanding of how households across diverse housing tenures confront and navigate the socio-emotional repercussions of financialisation. Moreover, the specific ways in which different asset-owner categories shape and define household agency and well-being are still ambiguously addressed. To advance this discourse, this study explores the dialectics of unwilling objectification and contested subjectification. Drawing on comprehensive qualitative empirical research in Leipzig, Germany, we develop a typology that connects asset owners' managerial strategies with residents' perceptions and coping mechanisms. Our findings elucidate that, while financialisation imposes material and cognitive constraints, the persistence of social safety nets and collective coping strategies can offer pathways to mitigate these pressures. Consequently, household agency under financialisation is complex and multifaceted; it remains persistently constrained, yet is also continuously negotiated and contested.