The Politics of Housing Consumption: Renters as Flawed Consumers on a Master Planned Estate

Abstract

Master planned estates offer package dreams of homeownership to those wanting to live among others who share their lifestyle aspirations. Yet we show in this paper how divisions can arise between housing tenure types, with owner-occupiers constructing private rental tenants as a problem. Extending Bauman’s concept of the flawed consumer using Rose’s writings on ethopolitics, we show how renters are viewed as failing in three domains of social life: aesthetics, ethics and community by undermining the aesthetic value of the neighbourhood and by failing to demonstrate an ethic of care for themselves and others. As a result, the homeowners in this study try to avoid living among rental properties and are disappointed to find that, contrary to expectations, moving to a master planned estate does not guarantee this.