Discoursing deregulation: the case of the Finnish rental housing market

Abstract

This paper analyses debates in the Finnish parliament over the deregulation of the private rental market between 1990 and 1995. In the European context, the complete abolition of rent regulation in Finland was quite exceptional. The liberalised rental housing market rapidly became such a normal state of affairs that since this time rent regulation has not been seriously reconsidered. This paper analyses different discursive practices that were used to support and oppose deregulation of rental market in three different stages of the deregulation process. The social and cultural representations of rental housing, the rental market, and tenants and landlords are reflected in political discourses and these reflections mould and remould housing policy. This paper shows what kinds of discourses were used in the debates and how they moulded rental housing policy. Deregulation was supported through discourses emphasising the market economy and freedom of choice. Opponents of deregulation, meanwhile, used discourses that constructed tenants as requiring protection and highlighted state involvement in the rental housing market. Thus, the Finnish rental housing market was constructed as problematic and, at first, deregulation was met with considerable suspicion. However, as the deregulation process proceeded, the notion of a liberalised rental market became more accepted, even among critics.