"The recent history of real estate developers in the Netherlands and Belgium shows that financialization processes are geographically variegated. Although real estate developers, the intermediary between capital and the local built environment, faced a similar rise of more market-oriented banking, Dutch developers financialized their activities while their Belgian counterparts did not. The Dutch case demonstrates how financialized corporations can make accumulation cycles more extreme, particularly by placing the creation of fictitious capital at the centre of their business strategies. The Belgian case illustrates how patient capital, i.e. multi-generational wealth looking for sustainable growth, can function as a strong barrier to financialization processes, thus moderating the influence of financialized capitalism on the economy."

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