<scp>MAINTAINING RENTAL HOUSING AS AN ASSET</scp> : Exploring Institutional Investors in Sweden’s Rental Market

Abstract Institutional investors have asserted significant power over rental markets across the transatlantic. However, their stronghold has been contested after rising interest rates in 2022. In this article I address the situated dimensions of the assetization of the built environment by examining the establishment of residential property investors in Sweden’s rental market with the aim to explore the enclosure of rental housing as an asset through reforms and transaction flows, to investigate how rent extraction has been realized via apartment renovations and to critically contextualize the heightened social conflict around rental housing in the post‐zero‐interest‐rate era. Through transaction and market data, annual reports and interviews with property investors and tenants, this article provides novel insights into the transformation of Sweden’s rental market and conceptually furthers the assetization optics by centring on the concept of maintenance. I argue that assetization is a situated and material process in which maintenance is crucial to sustaining financial values. I also contend that the rising cost of capital has exacerbated the social struggle over rental housing as an asset, threatening the maintenance of this asset class.