‘Between a rock and a hard place’: the failure to agree on regulation for the private rented sector in England

The private rented sector in England presents a number of widely-acknowledged problems for the policy maker including relatively poor property conditions and sometimes low management standards. There are a number of intractable obstacles to dealing with these problems, including an inability to agree on how the sector should be regulated, extreme variation in letting arrangements, a lack of clarity on the relationship between regulation and supply, industry distrust of regulation, and an anti-landlord culture.     

Hybridity in the housing sector: examining impacts on social and private rented sector tenants in Scotland

Abstract

Housing Associations in many countries exhibit increasing levels of ‘hybridity’, as reductions in state financing for social housing, exacerbated by austerity policies since the 2008 crash, have instigated ‘enterprising’ approaches to maintaining income. Alongside this, hybrid organisations have emerged in the Private Rented Sector (PRS), responding to sectoral growth and consequent increases in vulnerable households entering private renting. These developing hybridities have been considered at a strategic level, but there has been little exploration of the impacts on tenants. This article examines two organisations, operating across the social and private rented sectors, to elucidate potential implications for tenants. The research suggests that different forms of hybridity can affect tenant outcomes and, moreover, that examining such impacts is important in understanding hybridity itself. Furthermore, the study suggests that emerging forms of hybridity, particularly in the PRS, may be blurring the boundaries between housing sectors, with implications for policy and research.     

Becoming a landlord: strategies of property-based welfare in the private rental sector in Great Britain

Ongoing neoliberal policies have realigned the links between housing and welfare, positioning residential property investment – commonly through homeownership and exceptionally also through landlordism – at the core of households’ asset-building strategies. Nonetheless, the private rented sector (PRS) has been commonly portrayed as a tenure option for tenants rather than a welfare strategy for landlords. Drawing on qualitative interviews with landlords across Great Britain, we explore landlords’ different motivations in engaging in landlordism; and the ways in which their property-based welfare strategies are shaped by the particular intersection of individual socioeconomic and life-course circumstances, and the broader socioeconomic and financial environment. By employing a constructionist grounded approach to research, our study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the different ways that asset-based welfare strategies operate within the PRS. We draw attention to an understudied nexus between homeownership and landlordism which we argue represents a promising route for future research.     

The changing role of the Dutch social rented sector

The article traces the evolution of the research interests of Dieleman, an academic who combined the development of analytical models with explorations of the policy implications of the changing structure of housing markets. During his long career as a professor of geography, he championed international cooperation in research and played a major role in disseminating the results of Dutch academic studies to an international audience. His own work was concentrated on the analysis of residential mobility. But much of that work also revealed his interest in applying scholarly insights to policy issues. Throughout his career he showed a deep commitment to improving the functioning of the social rented sector in the Dutch housing market. After reviewing some of Dieleman’s major contributions to the understanding of the housing market, the article follows in his footsteps by analyzing the current use of social rented housing. In this way, this article provides an update on his field of interest based on recent survey data that underlines the validity of his insights.     

Telling stories: the role of narratives in rental housing policy change in New Zealand

Abstract

This paper examines the emergence of the regulation of housing conditions in the private rental sector as a policy issue in New Zealand using an analysis of narratives in media, advocacy and political texts. Narratives are evident in public discourse and are the stories told by interest groups to identify and cast a problem as a policy issue in a way analogous to the beliefs of the speaker. This case study shows that while the narratives used by advocates for policy change were effective in raising the issue, they were ineffective in overcoming a counter-narrative of excessive regulation by the government and concerns of possible rent rises. This opposition to regulation of the private sector by a right-leaning government needs to be more effectively countered by more powerful intersecting narratives, if evidence on the relationship between housing, health and safety is to become the basis for effectively implemented government policy.     

Changes in transitions from private renting to homeownership in the context of rapidly rising house prices

A period associated with the emergence of the current housing crisis in Britain provides a testbed in which to investigate household tenure choice in the context of rapidly rising house prices. We compile a bespoke data-set combining data from the British Household Panel Survey and sources of local and national housing and mortgage market information covering the period 1994–2008. During this period, we observe three key changes in behaviour associated with the emergence of the housing crisis: (i) increasing acceptance of long-term renting; (ii) the emergence of local house prices as a factor inhibiting entry to homeownership at district level; and (iii) the cessation of moving to a lower cost district as a strategy to enter homeownership. We interpret these findings as some private tenants reducing their aspiration for homeownership, and those seeking entry to homeownership shifting strategy from moving to cheaper districts in favour of staying put and saving.     

The private rental sector: Problems,prospects and policy

Abstract

Despite the neglect in research and policy for rental housing, there is a developing awareness of the problems of the private rental sector and the need for policy intervention. The paper suggests that the development of policies must proceed with caution; there are many areas where our knowledge of the problems and processes of the private rental market are insufficient for policy development.     

A private rental sector paradox: unpacking the effects of urban restructuring on housing market dynamics

The private rental sector (PRS) is growing in many advanced economies due to declining home ownership and retrenchment in social housing. This paper examines changes in the PRS in the context of housing market change and ongoing urbanisation processes. Using the example of Australia, it identifies a paradox when examining detailed changes in PRS composition between 1996 and 2011. Increasing demand from higher and lower income households has occurred alongside increasing concentration of supply in mid-market segments. The paper discusses possible explanations of this mismatch. It suggests that middle/higher income households rent through a mixture of constraint and choice in areas with a high level of amenity, adding to understanding of gentrification of inner-city areas. Urban restructuring, evident in increased land values in inner areas of large cities, has resulted in limited ‘filtering down’ of older housing into low-rent private rental stock and a concentration of investment in supply in mid-market segments with greatest prospects for resale and rental.     

Estimates of a model of pricing behaviour in the private sector rented housing market

This study looks at the behaviour of prices in the student rented housing market It investigates the role of different housing characteristics such as damp, location, heating, noise and legal factors as influences on rental. Of the factors considered it appears that only three are statistically significant — distance from college site and dampness reduce rental whilst the presence of a written contract raises it.     

A review of global research on private investment in the water sector

This study critically examines the evidence on private-sector water investment over the past 24 years. It provides a basis on which future research can consider how global water investment issues can be better addressed. Moreover, this study exhibits scenarios of water investment performance that can potentially help investors make better investment decisions. Overall, we find that the water sector is expanding, and the market appears to be resistant to economic forces, suggesting that private investors can obtain positive returns.     

The private sector and public space in Dutch city centres

Private sector involvement in the design and financing of urban redevelopment projects has been relatively rare in the Netherlands. The public sector has traditionally played a central role in spatial planning and development. Since the 1980s, however, local authorities have been sharing the responsibility for urban development with the private sector. This article explores the viability of claims drawn from the literature about the effects of private sector involvement in redeveloped public space. Confronting those claims with our empirical material, we expected to find that the participation of the private sector would increase the redevelopment budget but would also lead to restrictions on public access. These two expectations are evaluated in light of the experience in four redeveloped squares in four Dutch cities: Rotterdam, Dordrecht, Enschede and ’s-Hertogenbosch. We found that actors on the public and private sides have different interpretations of what constitutes a direct financial contribution. Those from the private sector believe they have made significant contributions, while those from the public sector see themselves as the sole funders. But they agree on the issue of free access: both public and private actors deny any negative effects of private sector involvement in this respect.     

Culture and creativity: A case study from the West of Ireland

Taking the dynamics of second tier city of Galway as a case study, this paper sets out to answer two simple and related questions: How important has culture been to the city’s economic and social development, and how integral is culture in maintaining the city’s economic and social sustainability? In order to provide answers, we look at the city’s development in relation to an emerging body of literature concerning creative cities. We focus on production of culture and gauge its assimilation into the economic life of the city by looking at various facets of the city’s economic structure, including the technology sector.The aim of this paper is to look at cultural policy in Ireland under three interrelated domains: Technology; Institutions; and Spatial Culture (encompassing the place of public performance in urban morphology). The case study of a second tier city provides interesting insights for policy and practice as well as cultural/creative activity arising out of place specific circumstances. The paper explores the changing role of culture and concludes by drawing attention to the tensions surrounding the perceptions of ownership of culture and questions to what impact this will have regarding the city’s sustainability into the future.     

The Everyman archetype: discursive reframing of private landlords in the financialization of rental housing

Abstract

This article investigates the politico-cultural processes underpinning the financialization of private rental housing. Exploring the case of Australia, it shows how debt-financed landlords have been discursively reframed as ‘mum and dad investors’ who are valorized politically as enterprising, self-reliant and providing essential housing. This article then critically appraises this depiction based on available secondary data, and finds that protagonists are, predominantly, midlife and older households with higher household incomes and higher wealth levels. Furthermore, deployment of an Everyman archetype is a politico-cultural device for normalizing this type of activity as part of the financialization of everyday life. Discursive reframing bolsters political and public support for investor-landlordism as an important contributor to asset-based welfare.     

National,regional and local patterns in the residualisation of the social rented tenure: the case of ireland and dublin

To date, research on the socio-economic characteristics of the social renting population in the Republic of Ireland has focused on the national level and has found that in common with many other Western European countries the years since the mid-1980s have seen an increased concentration of low income and socially excluded households in this tenure. Drawing on data on the incomes and socio-demographic status of the households who rent their dwellings from Ireland's largest social landlord, Dublin City Council, this paper explores the impact of this macro-process of residualisation on tenants in this region, and also on different localities within it. It demonstrates that residualisation has resulted in higher concentrations of poor households in social rented accommodation in Dublin compared to the general social renting population of the country and at the micro-level has impacted differently on different districts of the city and contemplates the factors which have contributed to this uneven pattern of residualisation.     

The Dynamics of Policy-Making under UK Devolution: Social Housing in Northern Ireland

Housing policy formation under the United Kingdom's devolution settlement is currently under-researched and insufficiently understood. This article uses the example of social housing policy-making in Northern Ireland to reflect on its impact. Five factors with the potential to influence post-devolution policy-making are identified: common UK citizenship and ideology, policy networks, the political process, the mechanics of devolution and membership of the European Union. A post-devolution review of social housing policy in Northern Ireland is followed by a discussion of three key issues from the 2007 to 2011 administration: governance, procurement of new social housing, and ‘shared space’ and a shared future. Interviews with policy-makers indicate that 2007–2011 marked the beginnings of a trend away from the technocratic domination of officials towards greater intervention and policy ownership by politicians, but that the significance of this should not be overstated. The implications for multi-level and multi-jurisdictional policy-making in devolved and federal states are considered.     

An econometric analysis of private sector participation in China’s urban water supply

This paper explores the impact of private sector participation on industrial performance of urban water supply by using panel data for 35 major cities in China over the period 1998 to 2008. We find that the introduction of private sector participation is significantly correlated with improvement in integrated production capacity and water coverage rate, but not correlated with the investment in fixed assets. Private sector participation has a positive impact on the integrated production capacity in the developed eastern cities and contributes to narrowing the gap of water coverage rate between the less developed central and western cities and the more developed eastern cities. We also find that the participation of foreign companies, but not domestic private companies, significantly improves water industry performance. The research sheds some light on the importance of private participation in urban water markets. However, the performance of domestic private firms in urban water supply still needs be improved.     

Housing, the state and the market in Thailand: Enabling and enriching the private sector

Housing has never been high on the political agenda in Thailand. Except in the late 1970s and early 1980s when the National Housing Authority built low-cost rental apartments, successive governments have not much interfered in the land and housing market, but allowed supply and demand to meet. When it played an active role, the government would facilitate private-sector housing development and keep interest rates low to support homebuyers. However, over the years, the number of slum dwellers in Bangkok has not decreased, while government policy may have benefited private developers more than it benefited low-income homebuyers.     

The real estate bubble in Ireland. Policy context and responses

The impact of surges and corrections in residential property prices has been a feature of many international economies in the past two decades and was pronounced as the global financial crisis evolved from 2007 to 2015. Many European states such as Spain and Ireland were severely affected by market corrections, having experienced major property-development surges in the decade to 2007. Factors associated with such surges include a rapid growth in housing demand both for occupation and for investment purposes, often supported by relaxed credit and monetary policy stances. Many jurisdictions, including Ireland, also experienced supportive fiscal regimes, which artificially boosted investment in property acquisition and development, and ineffective planning and zoning regulatory systems for major growth centres leading to sprawl-type patterns of development. Irish residential property prices were at the top range of such international price increases and corrections, with major consequences for the general economy and the property market. This article explores the policy context which shaped the boom and bust and the policy response in place for market recovery.     

Social Housing Management,Governance and Delivery in Ireland: Ten Years of Reform on Seven Estates

This paper examines developments in social housing management, governance and delivery in the Republic of Ireland during the last decade, using evidence from two rounds of research conducted in 1997 and 2007 on seven social rented estates, located in a variety of regions. Among the three most significant developments in this regard, the reconceptualisation of the housing management function has had the most positive impact on the views of tenants. Some aspects of the externalisation of social housing provision, such as the growth of the housing association sector and the use of PPP arrangements for social housing regeneration, have also been positive, but the future of this externalisation agenda is uncertain. The impact of the various reforms to the management of the social housing service, such as advent of strategic policy making and performance monitoring, has been uneven in some cases and uniformly low in others.     

Housing Rural Communities: Connecting Rural Dwellings to Rural Development in Ireland

This paper explores the interaction between rural development policy and planning policies for rural housing within the context of Ireland. Drawing on an interpretive approach to policy analysis, the paper examines competing narratives of ‘the rural’ within the policy arena that underpin a fragmented approach to rural sustainable development. The evidence points to a disconnection between these spheres of public policy marked by a strained relationship between rural communities and regulatory planning, not least with regard to the preferred shape of the rural settlement pattern. It is argued that any housing policy for rural areas must give full regard to the social, economic and cultural attributes of rural life and not just the criteria of environment and landscape. In this context, partnership based local planning processes would enable the exploration of competing rural narratives to be re-orientated towards local needs, capacities and the perspectives of local people and the adoption of cultural, environmental and community values within the policy process.