Search

Arguably the first significant shot of the 2022 federal election campaign came in then Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese's 2021 budget reply speech when he pledged that: 'A Labor Government I [...]

Homeowners who originally bought when marketwide price levels were high (low) fetch high (low) sales prices and rents, even decades later. We study the propagation of reference-dependence to neighboring listings. The "spillover" reference point effect is about one-half as large as the "own" reference point effect. Neither house quality nor location appears capable of explaining the result. Using a simple model to provide empirical predictions, we find support for a competition-based mechanism. We quantify the aggregate effect of own and spillover reference point effects on aggregate prices and/or rents at the ZIP code level. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale text data from public sources, including social media or online platforms, can expand urban planners’ ability to monitor and analyze urban conditions in near real-time. To overcome scalability challenges of manual techniques for qualitative data analysis, researchers and practitioners have turned to computer-automated methods, such as natural language processing (NLP) and deep learning. However, the benefits, challenges, and trade-offs of these methods remain poorly understood. How much meaning can different NLP techniques capture and how do their results compare to traditional manual techniques? Drawing on 90,000 online rental listings in Los Angeles County, this study proposes and compares manual, semi-automated, and fully automated methods for identifying context-informed topics in unstructured, user-generated text data. We find that fully automated methods perform best with more-structured text, but struggle to separate topics in free-flow text and when handling nuanced language. Introducing a manual technique first on a small data set to train a semi-automated method, however, improves accuracy even as the structure of the text degrades. We argue that while fully automated NLP methods are attractive replacements for scaling manual techniques, leveraging the contextual understanding of human expertise alongside efficient computer-based methods like BERT models generates better accuracy without sacrificing scalability.

Private renting increasingly comprises a complex ecosystem of actors who assemble housing within the market, and collect rental income and data from tenants, and data on the material assets themselves. Our analysis – at the intersection of rentier and platform capitalism – focuses on landed (material real estate) and technological (digital infrastructure and data) property in Australia's private rental system. Drawing out relationships between the various actors – landlords, rental property managers and real estate agencies, software developers and providers, property developers and investors – and both their properties and their uses of Proptech (property technology), we show how housing and technology are being leveraged for profit in new ways. In Australia, landed property retains its precedence for established (individual and institutional) landlords, whose interest in Proptech relates to enhancing or value-adding to rental housing assets. For Proptech and institutional real estate players seeking to consolidate both landed and technology property, capturing the tech landscape is increasingly important; indeed, securing control and/or consolidation of technology property is a key motivation for building and/or using Proptech among the largest property developers. Our findings show how rent extraction operates across and between different types and scales of property and market actors, and in new ways that differentiate the figure of the rentier while upholding the dynamics of the rentier model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can struggles for housing justice act as a lens to expand housing researchers' understanding of the rental crisis and of the systems that underpin this crisis? By presenting papers from Sweden, Spain, Greece, the UK, and Australia this special issue contributes with knowledge on how housing struggles can inform new theoretical and methodological approaches within the field of housing studies. In turn, the SI presents three tenets that together form a framework for housing scholars: institutionalization as politics, tenants as political actors, and learning housing justice. We argue that it is crucial for housing scholars to recenter on struggles for housing justice in their readings of contemporary housing systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adds to a revitalization of alienation as a political problem in the field of housing studies, pointing us to property relations that fragment tenants from acting together with other residents in similar positions. Analyzing ethnographic observations and interviews conducted in Basel with tenants facing mass cancellations of rental contracts, it operationalizes the problem of alienation to more closely examine the interplay of property relations and the subjective or collective experience of tenants: The consolidation of landlords' interests through complicit legal frameworks fragments tenants not only by producing insecurities within affected blocks. This consolidation also drives processes of individualization and conflict between fellow tenants and between tenants and their union, as well as harms tenants' belief in (local) political institutions. On the other hand, experiencing these fragmentations and the widespread inhibition of people to act together with others is, in some cases, the most sorrowful aspect for tenants facing rental contract cancellations in Basel. With the proposed understanding of alienation, the paper adds to two debates in housing studies: Outlining alienating property relations, it first foregrounds institutional constraints regarding the question of why many residents do not confront landlords' plans. Secondly, political alienation highlights the sorrow that can stem from the inhibition of collective action. Here the paper contributes to the debate around displacement and un-homing, showing them to be much more than the loss of original habitat. Lastly, the paper responds to the query of how to empirically apply the theoretically driven concept of alienation by moving questions of collective agency to the fore in housing and alienation theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shared housing in the private rental sector (PRS) is becoming a globally significant household arrangement. However, research indicates that shared housing is associated with problems including financial and housing insecurity. Given the growth of shared housing in the PRS, it is necessary for policy solutions to appropriately address the needs of shared housing renters. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between housing policy and non-commercial shared housing in the PRS – that is, autonomous households in self-contained dwellings – and how this has been conceptualised and examined in academic scholarship thus far. To achieve these aims, we conduct a scoping review on non-commercial shared housing in the PRS. Research illustrates that the reality of shared housing is not accommodated well in existing housing policy systems. We analyse reasons that housing policy may not adapt easily to non-commercial shared housing, and outline the need for further research on policy implications and recommendations about shared housing in the PRS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Securing appropriate housing is a crucial component of resettlement for people with refugee experience, but many face challenges in securing private rental housing, including discrimination, particularly for large families. This paper explores refugee and asylum seeker experiences of discrimination in the private rental market through in-depth semi-structured interviews with refugees and asylum seekers from large families (N = 22), service providers (N = 18), community leaders (N = 4), real estate agents (N = 11) and lessors (N = 10). Interviews were thematically analysed. The analysis identified the pervasive nature of discriminatory practices in private rental housing affecting large refugee and asylum-seeking families, though it was not always recognised as discrimination. Market factors and risk assessments were highlighted as contributing to discrimination and how agents' and lessors' working definition of discrimination manifested in their tenant selection practices. While service providers and some agents sought to counter discriminatory practices, the significant impact of discriminatory housing practices for refugees and asylum seekers was evident and poses important policy and practice questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like many countries in the OECD, Aotearoa NZ does not comprehensively regulate or enforce the safety of rental housing, despite evidence that the significant scale of home injury can be reduced through cost-effective home modifications. We examine the framing of home injury in media, political, and organisational discourse to identify barriers to creating and enforcing laws for safer rental homes. We find progress in addressing safety via rental housing regulations is stymied, in part, by institutional arrangements that favour the framing of home injury as a product of individual behaviour and culpability rather than environmental risk, and the prioritisation of education and awareness-raising over regulatory and systemic interventions framed politically, as overreaching 'nanny state' policies. We propose opportunities to address the incidence of injury and inequities in outcomes and argue that effective regulation and enforcement will address the inherent power inequities in the rental sector between owner and occupier, which can influence the presence of injury hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a correction notice for an article titled "A Room for One's Own? The Partisan Allocation of Affordable Housing" by C. Gay. The author requested amendments to clarify attribution, but these changes do not affect the analysis or conclusions of the article. The corrections include clarifying the source of information and adding references to support certain statements. The journal editor confirms that these changes do not alter the article's conclusions. [Extracted from the article]

Few studies have examined county-level hotspots of veteran suicide and associated place-based contributors, limiting development of targeted community-level prevention strategies. The objectives of this national spatial analysis of all veteran suicides were to identify areas of the United States with higher-than-expected veteran suicide rates and determine county-level social and economic characteristics associated with areas of higher risk. Using Bayesian hierarchical modeling, county-level standardized mortality ratios for veteran suicide deaths were estimated for time periods 2011–2018, 2011–2014, and 2015–2018. Adjusted relative risk, accounting for community characteristics, for each county was then estimated and associations between community characteristics and veteran suicide risk were examined. Analyses were conducted in 2023–2024. Risk of veteran suicide is predominantly concentrated in the Mountain West and West. Significant predictors of risk across all time periods were per capita number of firearm retailers (2011–2018 relative risk [RR]=1.065 [95% credible interval [CI] 1.030–1.102]), the proportion of residents who moved in the past year (2011–2018 RR=1.060 [95% CI 1.039–1.081]), the proportion of residents who live alone (2011–2018 RR=1.067 [95% CI 1.046–1.089]), the proportion of residents in rental housing (2011–2018 RR=1.041 [95% CI 1.018–1.065]), and the proportion of married residents (2011–2018 RR=0.915 [95% CI 0.890–0.941]). This study contributes to a comprehensive public health approach to veteran suicide prevention by identifying where resources are needed most, and which place-based intervention targets have the largest potential for impact. Findings suggest that public health efforts to address suicide among veterans should address community-level firearm access and identify ways to alleviate deleterious effects of social fragmentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maintaining a stable residence is a primary requirement of probation compliance. Prior research has spoken to the increase in requirements for people on probation and how they are often tied to financial capability. Using data from in-depth interviews with people on probation and probation staff, our analysis extends extant research by highlighting the unique challenges of finding housing during a historic rise in housing and rental prices in the context of COVID-19. This work furthers research on the role that economic means play in the probation revocation process. Results from the research suggest that housing is a barrier to success on probation, which is further hampered by the lack of employment opportunities available to individuals with felony criminal records. Participants relayed that the lack of affordable housing led to heavy reliance on family members for assistance. Information from staff triangulated their concerns about how compliance was tied to poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities play a crucial role in urban economic and structural development. The government of Bangladesh has undertaken the initiative to establish a public university in each of the 64 districts. These newly founded universities have the potential to impact urban growth significantly. We aimed to project university-induced urban expansion to address this knowledge gap and identify the mechanisms driving urban growth. The classification of supervised and unsupervised methods was employed to analyze urban development for the years 2000, 2010, 2016, and 2022. We used the Cellular Automata and Markov Chain approach to forecast future urban growth and land transition capacity. Additionally, the driving factors and selection of the study area were derived from Focus Group Discussions (FGD), Key Informant Interviews (KII), Probit Model, and Perception Index (PI). The findings of this study reveal a 1.6% urban growth rate within ten years of the establishment of the university, while urban expansion accelerated to 29.78% after ten years. The predictions also indicate a sustained urban growth rate of 4.7% by 2042. Furthermore, the PI index demonstrates that the establishment of the university has resulted in high demand for rental housing, serving as one of the primary drivers of urban expansion. Moreover, the Probit model highlights strong economic capability, proximity to the town, railway station, hospital, and easy access to credit as vital facilitators behind the drivers of urban expansion. Policymakers, the scientific community, and urban planners can benefit from this study in pursuing sustainable city development through university establishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractSince 2008, financial actors and practices have become increasingly embedded within US rental housing markets. The growing consolidation of rental real estate into corporate hands has contributed to higher rents, more eviction filings, and more systematic tenant harassment aimed at forcing tenant turnover. Until recently, the influence of ‘corporate landlords’ on local housing markets was largely unregulated and unconstrained. This paper compares novel policy strategies to regulate the tenant-landlord relationship in two California cities, focusing on enforcement mechanisms and the role of the municipal government. Both policies, San Francisco’s ‘Union at Home Ordinance’ and Los Angeles’s ‘Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance’, were developed in response to public pressure to regulate corporate landlords and give tenants recourse in the context of unfettered rental housing financialisation. Using policy documents and data collected through the Los Angeles Housing Department and the UC Berkeley Labour Centre, alongside interviews with tenants and organisers who have utilized the ordinances, this paper argues that Union at Home–which is enforced by tenants as opposed to the municipal government, renders organising a ‘housing service’, and imposes an obligation on landlords to negotiate with tenants associations–appears to more effectively redress the power dynamics in the rental housing sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wealthy and orderly city of Geneva, Switzerland, accommodation centres built in haste between the 1950s and the 1980s to house seasonal guestworkers from southern Europe are still standing and still inhabited. Today's residents are precarious workers, undocumented or with temporary permits as well as asylum seekers. While the seasonal status disappeared in the early 2000s, the demand for low-skilled, flexible labour did not. Analysing the historical trajectories of specific buildings helps us to answer the question of who replaced the seasonal workers, not only in the labour and the housing markets, but also in the symbolic spectrum of legitimacy. This article introduces the notion of 'Subaltern Housing Policies' to account for the public action that leads to the production and subsequent use of forms of housing characterised by standards of comfort and security far below those of the rental and social housing stock, but considered 'good enough' for their occupants. We argue that 'subaltern' relates not only to housing conditions, but also to the policies themselves, and last but not least to the people who are subjected to them. This notion allows us to trace a link between the production of substandard forms of housing and the production of categories of people who are kept on the margins of full citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Digital platforms have transformed housing practices and enabled new markets to emerge. Here we report on a study in which we examined these practices and their implications for planning, focusing particularly on low-cost and informal rental accommodation. With reference to Australia's three largest cities (Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane), we investigated the range and scale of accommodation types advertised on major commercial and peer-to-peer platforms Realestate.com.au, Flatmates.com.au, Gumtree.com.au, and Airbnb.com, identifying an informal housing typology comprising secondary dwelling units, share homes or rooms, and Airbnb-style holiday accommodation, much of which violates local regulation. We found that secondary dwellings and other irregular types of accommodation comprised more than 3% of Sydney's rental vacancies and more than 10% of enumerated rental vacancies in Brisbane during the study period of August 2021. Informal tenures such as rooms in share homes or negotiated arrangements offered by property owners extended rental supply in Sydney and Melbourne by the equivalent of more than 16% over the same period, rising to almost 34% in Brisbane. These findings show that platforms have enabled property owners to market illegal rentals and unauthorized dwellings but also have helped lower-income earners access lower-cost accommodations. Planners must determine which practices support affordability without generating unacceptable risks for residents and neighborhoods. Takeaway for practice: Platforms have enabled landlords to market informal and illegal rental accommodation while evading regulatory oversight. Using data exposed on these platforms, our study shows the important role played by this sector in serving lower-income renters but also the risks for tenants occupying substandard units or precarious tenures. Planners must address these risks in supporting diverse rental supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past, immigrants and refugees tended to overlook small and mid-sized cities in Canada, but this has changed since the beginning of the 21th century, and the mid-sized city of Kelowna has gradually emerged as a popular destination for newcomers from all over the world. Housing is critical to the resettlement and integration of all immigrants. Recent immigrants, especially renters, face challenges in their settlement and housing experiences, including limited financial resources, language barriers, and rental-housing discrimination based on ethnicity or race, and yet relatively little is known about these experiences and the barriers they encounter in mid-sized cities. This paper explores the settlement and housing experiences of recent immigrants in the city of Kelowna, a mid-sized city in the interior of British Columbia (Canada) with a focus on the rental housing market. The study draws on data from questionnaire surveys administered in 2015 and 2018 with a total of 67 recent immigrant respondents. The findings reveal that immigrant newcomers experienced financial stress and significant challenges in locating affordable rental housing due to high housing costs, low vacancy rates, lack of reliable information, language barriers, and discrimination by landlords based on immigrants’ ethnic and racial background. Immigrants are increasingly redefining the social and cultural geography of mid-sized Canadian cities, and there is a need to ensure that they are able to access affordable, adequate, and suitable housing, and ultimately settle into society. This is particularly crucial given the rising cost of living in Canada, the projected increase in immigrant levels for 2023-25, and the importance of immigrant settlement in a post-pandemic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Housing is a Human Sustainability Issue" discusses the global increase in housing prices and the burden it places on low-income individuals. It highlights the social impacts of homeownership, income inequality, and racial disparities in housing insecurity, particularly affecting Black Americans. The text also delves into historical discriminatory housing policies in the United States and the need for localized living wages to address poverty and housing insecurity. The article emphasizes the interconnectedness of income, housing, and social cohesion, calling for holistic initiatives to combat marginalization and promote sustainable development. [Extracted from the article]

The private rental market is a key provider of housing to forced migrants. This paper examines qualitative data from case study research in rapidly urbanizing towns in the Biqa' Valley, Lebanon, focusing on Syrian forced migrants' efforts to access housing through the local private rental sector. Building on literature about landlord–tenant relations and anthropological work on kin, I argue that rental agreements ought to be understood as both financial and social arrangements, which involve family members, landlords and middlemen (shaweesh) in complex rental ecologies. I find that young Syrians are caught up in evolving financial and social obligations, which make inhabitation possible, but which perpetuate gendered and xenophobic forms of dispossession. I argue that humanitarian and development actors advocating for the right of forced migrants to settle in urban areas ought to avoid perpetuating reliance on an inequitable private rental sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe governance of informal settlements in China – primarily urban villages – remains a persistent challenge. Recently, some urban village houses have been transformed into long-term rental apartments (LRAs). This highlights a potentially novel approach to addressing the longstanding informality issue, but how the rental market in urban villages has thus been reshaped remains unknown. Examining the case of Shenzhen’s Yuanfen Village through the lens of regulating informality, this paper reveals that (1) new renovations are facilitated by the intermediary management of LRA companies with government consent; (2) the renovation into LRAs involves a balancing process among stakeholders but leaves the illegal aspects untouched; and (3) while the renovation improves the living environment, low-income households are inevitably displaced. This study contributes to a theoretical and practical understanding of regulating informality by challenging the monolithic formal-informal dichotomy and connecting the conceptualization and materialization of continuous and dynamic property rights that enable new possibilities for effective and inclusive management of urban growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThere has recently been a burgeoning interest in private rental housing, yet few studies have addressed the tenant/landlord relationship as lived. This paper contributes related insights from the ‘young’ markets of Eastern Europe where the tenant/landlord relationship is entirely market based but embedded in specific cultural norms and supply/demand balances. Drawing on cultural theories of risk and rich qualitative data from tenants and landlords in Romania, this paper examines narratives of risk and repertoires of risk mitigation practices of the relational risks of renting. Findings portray a supply-rich market where tenants have market power hence financial checks on tenants are socially unacceptable, evictions are rare, and most tenants feel at home in their rented properties. In this tenant market, landlords rely on the social vibe of the first tenant/landlord encounter, showing openness to construct win-win collaborations. These less institutionalised practices seem more inclusive to tenants’ economic unpredictability but high rents push the poor, and ethnic stigmatisation drives the Roma ‘others’ into alternative housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guided by scholarship on housing insecurity and the survival strategies of poor families, this study examines how impoverished families navigate and assess appropriate responses to housing insecurity in the private rental market. Drawing on interviews with 100 low-income families across Israel, the study finds that families construct rental housing as a chief source of subjugation, instability, and emotional distress. Poor families often draw on their relationships with their landlords to survive conditions of housing insecurity. I term this strategy leveraging "transactional ties." The concept emphasizes economic relationships between destitute families and advantaged actors in various market arenas. Families are subjugated by these well-positioned actors; nevertheless, they are sometimes able to negotiate a better deal for themselves. By emphasizing the importance of how renters construct transactional ties with powerful actors, the article contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of housing insecurity among disadvantaged populations today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mirroring developments elsewhere, for recent college graduates in China the transition to employment is increasingly protracted and, for some, precarious. Case studies of individual strategies and cities indicate a diversification of housing pathways, where economic precarity is rendering at least some vulnerable. Based on original survey data collected in 2019, I investigate the housing choices of Chinese college graduate job market entrants and ask who is vulnerable and whether adverse outcomes are mere market entry strategies or lasting. I find that recent graduates generally find housing in central locations, close to their work. However, to achieve favourable locational outcomes on low budgets, many resort to sharing. High-density room sharing of three or more people is illegal but prominent and dominates in first-tier cities. The findings highlight how urbanization interacts with housing vulnerability and contribute to theorizing on the housing crisis, the Global North-South binary, and the very nature of home sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Housing influences life chances and trajectories through many roles, differently and in relation to the socioeconomic characteristics of people and population groups. This article uses the concept – 'housing niches' to present an alternative, bottom-up, plural and bundled view of housing and advantage. Using a large, representative sample of an Australian rental population (the Australian Rental Housing Conditions Dataset [ARHCD]), our analysis describes housing as multidimensional, bound across other aspects of people's lives. Understanding advantage requires methodologies that capture risk as cumulative, mediated by multilevel social processes that expose and select particular populations to particular residential environments that contribute to people's multiple disadvantage. Housing niches compel research and debate on comprehensive housing policy as not only necessary, but to have an imperative of cumulative risk and more broadly, inequality and poverty reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In metropolitan areas, rising house prices make it more difficult for low- and middle-income people to access affordable housing. However, the availability of affordable rental housing in metropolitan areas serves the survival and social sustainability of all social groups in urban areas. Despite the critical importance of rental housing affordability at the metropolitan level, studies on this issue, especially spatial studies, are limited. This article spatially analyzes housing affordability for low- and middle-income households in Istanbul, a city experiencing a neoliberal housing policy. The methodology of the study is based on an analysis of rental housing affordability in the metropolitan area of Istanbul by taking into account the polycentric structure of Istanbul, the central grading (center, subcenters, and periphery), and regular and irregular housing subregions. The findings of the article demonstrate that low- and middle-income households in Istanbul have no access to affordable rental housing in the city center and limited access to the subcenters. Furthermore, low- and middle-income households have access mainly to irregular housing areas within the city. The findings imply that without social policies, they will be excluded from central or regular housing areas. This points to the critical role of social policies in neoliberal housing markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses coliving as a product shaped to attract both young professionals in a student-style accommodation and investors of various scales, while integrating new geographies and housing types into capital accumulation. Taking Brussels as case-study, it answers the question 'how are new residential products created by the financialization process affecting the private rental sector?' by combining quantitative and qualitative methods. The paper also provides results on intra-urban geographies of financialized housing. First, coliving is aimed at a particular market segment consisting of young international workers attracted by the international functions of Brussels. To attract this clientele to a student-style accommodation, operators must promote a unique experience. Second, the Brussels coliving market illustrates that the financialization of the private rental sector relies notably on the creation of new products shaped so that investors of various scales can easily inject their capital. Third, most Brussels coliving establishments remain small-scale projects located in renovated old single-family houses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In context of diminishing housing affordability, shared renting has acquired new salience in recent years, especially for single young-adults. Public discourses often pose shared renting as a potential solution to the 'housing crisis', with new regulation and investment stimulating conversions to multiple-occupancy and growth in co-living developments. This paper addresses how Amsterdam, a deeply regulated market, has approached affordability concerns through transformations in the shared rental sector. Drawing on secondary data and stakeholder interviews we analyze developments in the institutional features of shared housing, focusing on the regulatory context under neo-liberal pressures. We identify shifts from 'traditional', relatively informalized sharing arrangements towards a more complex and institutionalized sector featuring growth and diversification in co-living provision. Beyond illustrating interaction between changing real-estate investment practices and Amsterdam's socioeconomic and regulatory context, our analysis innovates a rough typology of sharing and co-living and seeks to contribute to understanding of emerging forms of housing and precarity characteristic to the experiences of young urbanites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past decade has seen the growth of Short-Term Lets (STLs) through Airbnb and other platforms. Measuring the scale of this activity is challenging as platforms appear unwilling to share data. Most research on Airbnb uses data from commercial sources but this raises issues of equity in access and transparency. Open data exist, but geographic and temporal coverage is limited. We consider whether these open data can be used to study the STLs sector, using a city in Scotland. Using 2017 data to construct: (i) property-level estimates of income; and (ii) through comparisons with rents in the long-term rental market, an area-level vulnerability index to identify neighbourhoods at greatest risk of properties switching from long-term to short-term renting. This index is strongly associated with the growth of Airbnb listings over two years. We conclude that open data can provide a valuable basis for research and policy. We discuss strategies for improving knowledge about this sector including through new data collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen the resurgence of private-rental housing as both a place to live, and a site of capital investment. Individual landlordism is a key feature of this resurgence. This paper aims to understand the networked geographies of private landlordism. Drawing on Dutch register data, containing geocoded information on the full population and housing stock, this paper is able to uniquely link private-rental units to their (landlord) owners. By linking landlords' places of residence and investment, flows of capital across space are visualized. Empirically, these findings show that, despite the liquidity of capital and the typical focus on transnational investments, most landlords invest locally or regionally, resulting in urban-regional networks of landlordism. These patterns pertain to landlord spatial strategies as well as the functioning of urban systems. Conceptually, findings demonstrate that property-based class relations between tenants and landlords are spatial relations as well, linking places of accumulation with places of extraction and reproducing spatial patterns of (dis)advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many countries, rental housing is associated with insecure occupant rights and limited control for residents and homeownership is linked with ontological security. In the literature on homemaking, ontological security comprises a set of attributes, i.e., secure occupancy, autonomy and control, but these are often bundled, or treated jointly. In this paper we draw on the lived experiences of residents in Rental Housing Cooperatives (RHC) in Honduras and Australia, and ask how the experience of ontological security in RHC is shaped by its distinct characteristics? We argue that, if the experience of ontological security can be 'unbundled', wellbeing in rental housing, particularly for population groups increasingly locked out of homeownerships, can be advanced through housing policy innovation that enhances these, or specific, attributes of ontological security. Methodologically the paper draws on relational thinking, interview data (n = 15) and qualitative analysis of homemaking practices within RHC in Honduras and Australia. The paper utilises a four-quadrant qualitative assessment framework for evaluating occupants' sense of security and autonomy/control, relative to their sense of home and simply being housed. Our results suggest that secure occupancy more fundamentally underpins a sense of home, than autonomy/control. Implications for rental policy and research are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Classical assimilation theories hold that immigrant groups will slowly integrate economically over time over multiple generations, which implies that the (grand)children of immigrants will improve their housing market position compared to their (grand)parents and transition from rental housing to owner-occupation. This study uses unique data on the children and grandchildren of immigrants and native Dutch ('third generation') in 2018 to assess whether and how the descendants of large immigrant groups from the postwar era have attained ownership. The generational perspective is two-fold. First, we are interested in how individuals from various generations compare within and between origin groups (generational comparison). Second, the study also assesses the role of parental wealth and tenure in intergenerational transfers, i.e., ethnic and generational differences in the effects of these parental background variables. Our estimates from logistic regression models show that Surinamese-Dutch and Turkish-Dutch see higher predicted owner-occupation rates over generations, with some Turkish-Dutch groups having higher rates than native-Dutch. The parental background variables partly predict owner-occupation rates and explain group differences, which indicates the importance of generational transfers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Planning Education & Research is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The urban settlement of migrants and their families is an important aspect of new urbanization. Affordable housing, a key measure to improve their living conditions, can advance their urbanization goals. Based on the China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS) data and land transaction data of cities, this study employs a complementary log–log model to estimate the effect of public rental housing (PRH) on the long-term settlement intention (LTSI) of migrants and delves into the intrinsic effect mechanism through the mediating effect. The results show that: (1) Living in PRH can significantly improve the LTSI of migrants who rent. A series of robustness tests and endogeneity tests support the validity of this conclusion; (2) The visualization of a heterogeneity analysis shows that PRH has a greater influence on the LTSI of first-generation migrants and urban–urban migrants. As the city class of the destination decreases, the effect of PRH gradually diminishes; (3) A mechanism analysis suggests that a sense of identity plays a mediating role in PRH affecting the LTSI of the migrants, particularly in first-tier cities. This paper enriches the literature related to the field of housing security programs, provides policy references for enhancing the LTSI of the migrants, and promotes the development of urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, rental housing has been supplied by a large pool of individual investors who own a few units and invest their savings, with some leverage, to take advantage of the tax regime in Australia. The last five years have seen the emergence of build-to-rent (BTR) units, which are supplied by investors who own a large number of units. The state of Victoria in Australia has the largest share of these projects. In the current market and regulatory environment, the financial viability of BTR projects is low for investors and hinges on the ability of units to be leased at higher than market rents. This paper examines four groups of levers, including those already being pursued by the building industry, that can be used to improve the financial viability of BTRs. These include: (i) revenue maximization, (ii) cost reduction (iii) fiscal and (iv) planning incentives. An archetypical BTR project which mimics current practice is considered, assumed to be in Docklands, Victoria, where several BTR projects are planned. For the robustness check, a feasibility analysis is conducted for a site in North Melbourne, a neighbourhood in Victoria with several BTR projects. The results indicate that for revenue maximization, the mix of unit types in a BTR project should be location-specific, as market preferences (and the characteristics of renters) determine the rent for different types of units that can be achieved. In a conventional BTR project development, where land is bought upfront and the project is developed, the mixed-use BTR (residential in combination with commercial) does not provide significant financial benefits though including small retail (3–4% of the net lettable area) may provide complementary benefits. Incurring large capital costs upfront and having the revenue stream spread over long periods reduces financial viability. While construction costs are more difficult to reduce, ways to reduce land costs could be through zoning land for BTR use, through mechanisms such as joint ventures with landowners, and land leasing. Exemptions on income, land tax, and rates (like CHPs) can result in a higher return for investors. A full GST refund, an incentive that industry is lobbying for, results in a similar IRR as an exemption on income, land tax and rates would offer. These results will assist in determining priorities for policies that are aimed at BTR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the interplay between Airbnb and gentrification in Thessaloniki and Greece, focusing on their economic and social impacts on urban neighborhoods. Utilizing data from 110 online publications and qualitative insights from ten semi-structured interviews with real estate agents, Airbnb stakeholders, residents, and experts, the research provides a nuanced view of these dynamics. The findings suggest that Airbnb influences housing markets by driving up rental and home prices, potentially exacerbating housing scarcity and displacing vulnerable populations in gentrifying areas. While this aligns with the existing literature, the results remain tentative due to the complexities involved. The trend toward corporate-hosted short-term rentals appears to shift Airbnb away from its original community-focused model, though this shift is still evolving. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced changes, such as a move from short-term to long-term rentals and the conversion of commercial spaces to residential use, impacting neighborhood dynamics. However, these effects may be temporary and do not fully address broader housing issues. While an oversupply of Airbnb accommodations might stabilize rental prices to some extent, its impact on the overall housing crisis remains uncertain. Future research should investigate the long-term effects on housing affordability and social equity, considering the limitations of current findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevailing norm in Ghana’s rental housing market involves a mandatory and recurrent advance rent payment of two years or more by renters to their landlords. This paper employs sociological institutionalism, coupled with mixed-methods research design, to investigate the challenges renters face in adhering to the norm and its associated implications. Based on a survey of 362 renters across Ghana and an in-depth literature review, our findings demonstrate that extended advance rent periods, employment-related reasons, and limited savings are the primary factors contributing to the challenges renters face regarding the norm. Adhering to this norm often transforms renters into perpetual borrowers, limits personal development, and alters savings behaviour. The norm’s deep entrenchment can be attributed to Ghana’s political economy, market operations, and institutional deficiencies, perpetuating its prevalence. This research has implications for proposed interventions in the rental housing sector and advances our theoretical understanding of the emergence of distinct norms.

AbstractDrawing inspiration from autoethnographic accounts of gentrification, this paper examines the privileges and disadvantages of middling transnationals in the private rented sector to reveal the complexity of housing decisions, thereby challenging the inclination to conceive this particular group as ‘gentrifiers’. By demonstrating the ability of middle-class migrants to prioritize their preferences while considering the challenges they face due to their newcomer status, this paper contends that housing decisions are the outcome of the interplay between migrants, rental agents, and digital platforms. In so doing, this paper highlights the gatekeeping capability of traditional and digital intermediaries in the rental market. Methodologically, this paper underscores the value of the microscopic view enabled by autoethnography, which broadens gentrification research by facilitating the recognition of emerging trends and the identification of promising areas for future research. Overall, through its reflection on the potential influences of transnational migrants on gentrification, this paper contributes to research efforts that intend to understand gentrification in relation to migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis article provides direct evidence of the role of housing in central banks’ monetary policy decisions through the examination of the minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia Board (RBA) and the UK’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). It focuses on three periods when economic shocks necessitated monetary policy activism: the Global Financial Crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent inflationary resurgence. It enhances understanding of the monetary transmission mechanism by identifying the role of lender behaviour which contributed to the adoption of Quantitative Easing by the MPC; and of the ‘leaning against the wind’ debate by revealing the RBA’s view on rising house prices as a bulwark against mortgage default and financial instability. However, it also reveals these central banks’ underdeveloped understanding of the role of rental housing, and challenges the fragmentation of fiscal and monetary policy between elected governments and independent central banks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe aim of this article is to examine the association between different types of rental housing and household economic wellbeing. Its main objective is to better understand how the different types of assistance promoted by housing policies contribute to the reduction of material hardship among renter households. To achieve this objective, the study is based on the creation of an original typology designed to catch the different models of social and non-market housing that characterize the rental housing system in Canada. The research design it adopts controls for compositional effects linked to housing policy through a matching procedure that reduces the imbalance existing between households residing in social housing and the rest of the population. The analyses produced demonstrate the importance of promoting and maintaining social and non-market housing models that favour rent-geared-to-income housing, guarantee long-term affordability, and value public and co-operative tenure models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether behavioural interventions can reduce racial and gender discrimination in the rental housing market. In our correspondence tests, we incorporated two specific behavioural interventions: providing employment details to assist letting agents in overcoming statistical discrimination and incorporating anti-discrimination messages to encourage adherence to the 'Equality, Diversity and Inclusion' social norm. Although these strategies notably influenced the likelihood of prospective renters receiving responses to their housing inquiries, the outcomes were not consistent across genders or ethnic groups and were not always positive. Racial and gender discrimination in housing markets is a complex issue. There are no 'one-size-fits-all' solutions when using behavioural tools to address complex social problems such as racial and gender discrimination. Behavioural interventions demand rigorous field testing prior to widespread adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary urban areas, a growing 'generation rent' is finding shelter in expensive and precarious private rental housing. Tenant organisations and legislative initiatives have been pushing to improve housing conditions for renters, yet have been met with strong resistance. Intense policy and academic debates have ensued. This paper delves into the discourses used by dominant actors involved in legislative changes affecting the private rental sector in Catalonia and Spain. Through a critical discourse analysis of the positions of governments, opposition parties and landlord organisations, we identify three main arguments employed to limit or contest 'post-neoliberal' measures favouring tenants: 'the vulnerable landlord', 'the counterproductive effects' and 'the violation of property rights'. Each of these arguments is placed under theoretical and empirical scrutiny, revealing important weaknesses. By unsettling dominant discourses, we contribute to advancing the terms of the debates and sketch out the coordinates for a counter-discourse informed by critical theory and the interests of renters rather than rentiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops the concept of housing ideology in order to analyze the rise of co-living. Housing ideology refers to the dominant ideas and knowledge about housing that are used to justify and legitimize the housing system and its place within the broader political economy. Co-living is the term for privately operated, for-profit multiple occupancy rental housing. The article argues that the rise of co-living is supported by four key ideological elements—corporate futurism, technocratic urbanism, market populism and curated collectivism—which serve to legitimize co-living within the housing system and enable its profitability. The ideology of co-living appears to critique many elements of the contemporary urban housing system. But despite its critical self-image, co-living does not represent an alternative to today's financialized urbanization. Ultimately, the article argues for the importance of understanding the role of housing ideologies in residential change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Housing's value is contested, with discussions including the economic value of housing through literature on assetisation and financialisation, social value in debates about housing as a human right, value capture in infrastructure development, and the value of housing for social reproduction. With this in mind, we engage with the various ways housing, tenants and Proptech are valued by tenant advocates, real estate professionals, and proptech developers in Sydney, Australia. This is not as a reductive exercise to find 'the value' of housing or Proptech, but to recognise and engage with the ways various social, digital and financial valuations of housing, tenants and digital technologies inform a situated and relational politics of Proptech value. As such we advance a 'more-than-political' economy of Proptech. To illustrate this conceptual case, we discuss three regimes of rental Proptech value in Australia – capitalist and economic regimes; social capital through an ethic of care; and techno-utopian values, where technology is deployed on the basis that it will solve a presumed problem. Our empirical focus is on the application of Proptech to longer-term rental market, which is emerging in less visible ways than its highly contested counterparts in the short-term rental sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how racial capitalism intersects with platform capitalism through the rise of rental platforms and corporate landlords in the post-apartheid housing market. Combining 18 months of fieldwork in Cape Town with the spatial analysis of sales and longitudinal census data, I demonstrate how rental platforms enabled the consolidation of the private rental sector and the emergence of corporate landlords through the classification of tenants centered upon credit scoring. To automate tenant screening solutions, rental platforms leveraged and extended the information dragnet knitted by credit bureaus. This dragnet of unprecedented depth and volume is built upon the infrastructures and devices that enabled the for-profit, racial classification of people, housing and neighborhoods during colonialism and apartheid, notably ID numbers. In the context of racialized indebtedness and housing inequalities engineered by racial property regimes, the use of platforms to sort the "good" from the "bad" tenant and manage rental portfolios shifts mechanisms of segregation and reproduces racialized patterns of capital accumulation across the post-apartheid city. The article argues that rental platforms extend the extractive logic of racial capitalism through two joint rentier mechanisms: the transformation of rental housing into a new asset class; the extraction and assetization of rental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]