Professional experts and lay knowledge in Vancouver’s accessory apartment rental market

Abstract

Over the past few decades, many homeowners in North American cities have engaged in the practice of converting under-utilised spaces in their house (such as basements and attics) into self-contained apartments known as accessory dwelling units or secondary suites. Such apartments are then often rented out in order to generate ‘mortgage helper’ revenue. Homeowners-cum-landlords often benefit from professional expertise received from real estate agents and mortgage brokers at the initial stages of entering this private rental housing market. But interviews I conducted in Vancouver with homeowners renting out secondary suites reveal that the ‘lay expertise’ required to navigate ongoing participation in this rental market is often generated by homeowner-landlords themselves. All the same, the interviews also provide evidence that not all homeowner-landlords succeed in developing or acquiring sufficient lay expertise. The production and circulation of this lay knowledge, I conclude, are contingent rather inevitable processes.