Towards a Better-Functioning Private Rented Sector in Metropolitan China

References

This Working Paper studies ways to stimulate the private rental sector (PRS) of the housing market – and compares experiences with policies and reforms in Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and the Czech Republic. Although in many countries the PRS has decreased in importance since the Second World War, there are signs of a growing importance and possible ‘revival’ of the PRS. A well-functioning PRS and neutrality in housing policies can improve the functioning of the housing market – by promoting residential mobility, increasing housing options for households and generating competitive supply and affordable prices. The PRS can have positive effects on the economy and labour mobility and reduce inefficiencies and risks of owner-occupied and social housing. Trade-offs between goals in housing policies, and regulatory impediments to a level playing field between segments of the housing market (owner-occupancy, social rental, private rental) are analysed. The article outlines policy options in promoting a well-functioning PRS: lessons are drawn on tenancy security, rent-setting regulations, social housing, demand subsidies, fiscal measures for rental and owner-occupied housing and barriers for PRS supply. Experiences from the countries show that it is hard to create a level playing field – there are inefficiencies in all four countries. Nonetheless, there are many positive experiences of stimulating the PRS: reforms in Finland and the Czech Republic stimulated the PRS to become a competitive and important part of the housing market, and Dutch policies are adapted to stimulate a level playing field. The ‘resilience’ of the German housing system during the economic crisis shows that the large PRS and tenure neutrality have important stabilising effects on the German economy.

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.

PurposeThis paper aims to analyse the extent to which the government’s recent proposals to end no-fault evictions will result in “family-friendly” tenancies.Design/methodology/approachIt applies the theoretical scholarship on the meaning of family and home to the current law relating to private rented tenancies and the government’s proposals to increase security of tenure in the private rented sector.FindingsSecurity of tenure is important to a number of the key aspects of home. However, feelings of home are better protected by security of occupancy, which requires more than de jure security of tenure. For families to feel at home in the private rented sector, they must be permitted to personalise their home and to keep pets. Further legislative changes could achieve these changes. However, for families to really make a home in the private rented sector, they need to exercise some choice over where they live and for low-income families; this will only be possible with broader policy changes.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the important scholarship on the meaning of home and applies this to the very current debate on the rights of tenants in the private rented sector.

Once, by giving long-term security of tenure and succession rights to those living in the private and public rented sectors, and ‘settled' accommodation to the homeless, housing law could be regarded as attempting 'to provide those who cannot afford to buy their own homes with a substitute for home ownership, a right to remain in occupation for at least a lifetime and often more' (Honore, 1982: 37). Today, home ownership is itself far more problematic and far less secure than in previous decades. In the private rented sector, the Housing Act 1988 has drastically curtailed security of tenure and rights of succession to tenancies. Councils are being replaced by (quasi-private) housing associations as the main providers of social housing. The homelessness legislation has been judicially interpreted as imposing no duty to provide 'settled’ accommodation at all and the Housing Bill 1996 will take the process still further. A job for life is said to be a thing of the past. How many people now can reaso...

Purpose– This paper aims to investigate the views of landlords and agents on the voluntary scheme, along with their opinions of the Welsh Government’s proposals to make accreditation compulsory for landlords and agents renting or letting in Wales. This paper is based on a conference paper given in India at the RICS COBRA 2013 Conference. Landlord Accreditation Wales (LAW) is a voluntary accreditation scheme for landlords and agents operating within the private rented sector (PRS) in Wales. When it launched in 1999, it was a pioneering accreditation scheme offering voluntary rather than legal regulation of the Welsh PRS.Design/methodology/approach– A questionnaire, designed and developed in partnership with LAW, was sent out nationwide. All the landlords and agents on file were sent the questionnaire by LAW. This was followed up by reminder e-mails, along with the promotion of this national project at locally run landlord and agent events. The research provides a snapshot and coverage of the views of landlords and agents connected to LAW only.Findings– The PRS in Wales, as with the rest of Britain, still suffers from negative imagery because of the behavior of a minority of agents and landlords that operate poor housing management practices and standards. While on the whole popular amongst landlords and agents, voluntary regulation is unlikely to tackle these issues effectually. Accordingly, the Welsh Government intends to make registration and accreditation within the PRS compulsory. The results of this empirical study show that the LAW scheme has positive effects on the standards and practices of a number of landlords and agents. The proposal to have mandatory registration and accreditation in Wales has not been met with overwhelming support from landlords and agents. Instead, there are significant pockets of uncertainty about, and resistance to, the introduction of legal regulation within the PRS.Originality/value– The research contributes to the existing literature surrounding the regulation of the PRS by providing a distinctive insight into the views of landlords and agents on voluntary accreditation within the PRS in Wales as well as examining their opinions on the proposal to impose mandatory accreditation throughout the Sector.

Young people increasingly comprise the key demand group for private rented accommodation in England and are overrepresented in the sector. For many young people this is their first experience of independent living, managing a tenancy and dealing with a landlord. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with young people, this article focuses upon their experiences of living in the private rented sector in England. The article explores how young people’s experiences of independent living are often spoiled as a result of poor property conditions and management practices. The article raises issues about the quality of accommodation and repairs services provided in the private rented sector in England, as well as highlighting ineffective legislation and regulatory controls and insecurity of tenure. The article questions whether the private rented sector as it currently operates in England, is an appropriate housing solution for young people given the risks and nature of the conditions with which they often have to live.

Concerns about increasingly precarious working and living conditions have highlighted the particularly vulnerable nature of low-income economic migrants, who often experience high levels of housing precarity, alongside precarious employment. Economic migrants to the UK often lack housing support, and access housing in the private rented sector (PRS), where they struggle to secure safe, decent and affordable accommodation. This article presents a qualitative exploration of low-income economic migrants’ lived experiences of housing precarity, based on research in Manchester. Housing represents a critical element of migrants’ experiences, which can have a determining effect on other outcomes. Yet despite the acknowledged higher levels of precarity in the PRS, there have been few in-depth studies of how tenants experience this, particularly at the lower end of the sector. The conceptual lens of precarity offers a deeper understanding of the affective dimension, multidimensionality and structure-agency dynamics of low-income migrants’ housing experiences. In this way, the paper contributes to debates on insecurity, perception, and agency in housing studies.

This paper traces the development of the private rental sector (PRS) in China, in particular how the state fosters diverse forms of landlordism, a topic that remains underexplored in housing debates. Drawing on document analysis and interviews, we demonstrate how marketization and regulation in the PRS exemplify ‘variegated neoliberalization’ in a state-led development context, extending the East Asian ‘developmental neoliberalism’ debate to China’s PRS. Neoliberal housing policies in China did not entail institutional retreat so much as the expansion and consolidation of the networks of institutional linkages that sustained the power of the Chinese state. The evolving relationship between state and market can be unfolded into three distinct phases, each reflecting varying degrees, scopes and types of state regulation, shaped by endogenous contradictions and exogenous shocks, leading to different market outcomes. We argue that the development of the PRS is to some extent a ‘byproduct’ of changing market conditions and regulations, driven by varying motivations in national economic challenges, rather than a tailor-made masterplan. The PRS, once marginalized, has significantly elevated its position driven by both direct and indirect state facilitation, transitioning from a small sector embedded in a homeowner society to a financialized hybrid of corporate and individual actors.

The Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated the fundamental importance of secure, affordable and quality housing. However, it has also revealed the precariousness of housing for many and how pre-existing inequalities have been amplified by a global health emergency. The private rental sector has long been considered a precarious tenure, owing to weaker regulation, the temporary leases and a power imbalance between the rights of tenants and the interests of landlords. This article mobilises the concept of precarity to explore the lived experiences of tenants navigating Ireland’s rental sector, the challenges they face regarding housing affordability, security, quality and accessibility, and the ways the pandemic has intensified their experience of housing precarity. The research is operationalised through 28 interviews with renters from Dublin’s inner-city, suburbs and commuter belt. The concept of precarity captures the economic importance of housing for financial well-being and security, as well as the non-economic functions of home as an emotional conduit for belonging, ontological security and mental health.

This paper examines digital tenant risk-profiling tools in England’s Private Rented Sector (PRS) and their influence on housing access and fairness. Based on qualitative data from 50 interviews and a survey of PRS landlords drawn from a larger project, the study analyses adoption patterns, algorithmic biases and the implications for tenant rights. Issues such as data privacy, discrimination, and exclusionary practices affecting marginalised groups are highlighted. The research underscores how digital platforms reshape landlord-tenant relationships and broader housing market dynamics in the light of recent, broader, theorisations of what sociologists Marian Fourcade and Kieran Healy have conceptualised as an emerging ordinal society. In this article, we argue that the logic of such metrics and data-informed algorithmic systems has led to the emergence of an ordinal tenant.

The place of student housing in the built environment and everyday life of the city has been the focus of much research. Much of this literature has focused on the experiences and impacts of undergraduate student populations. We bring to the debate a different cohort of students—those undertaking PhDs. Drawing on 30 interviews with PhD students living in Parramatta, Sydney, we position PhD students as a fundamentally different student cohort with distinct housing needs and experiences. PhD students experience a strong connection to their university as their workplace and require their housing to facilitate this relationship. The nature of the student/university relationship and the different family/age composition results in different housing needs compared to undergraduate students. Simultaneously, given that many, primarily international, PhD students live in the private rental sector, they represent a distinct sub-category of the low-income private rental market at risk of extreme housing stress.

This paper draws on the figurational sociology of Norbert Elias in understanding the current housing crisis in the UK: one which emphasizes the social interdependencies between individuals and groups, and the power relations that characterize them, in explaining household behaviour. It is argued that such an approach can contribute to a better understanding of housing processes and their differentiated outcomes. At the same time, this analysis exposes the myriad negative consequences that emerge from short-term housing policies based on static, over-simplified assumptions and applied to an ever-increasingly complex housing figuration, which is constantly in flux. These arguments are made with reference to empirical evidence on the impact of changes to housing benefit in the private rented sector, which shows how neoliberal housing policy contributes to long-term detrimental effects on marginalized households and groups. Through this example, it is argued that the governmental presentation of welfare reforms differs markedly from the reality of consequences on the ground and corresponds to “neoliberal state-crafting”. It is suggested that any approach to understanding the complexities of the housing system must retain a focus on historical change, precedents and fluctuations in power balances to avoid the pernicious “retreat into the present” characteristic of policy.

In the period after the Second World War, the dominant position of the private rental sector in the housing market in many West European countries came to an end. Economic developments and government policy both contributed to the greatly deteriorating competitive position of the private rental sector in many countries. Although there have been comparable developments in many countries that have led to a decrease in the share of private rented dwellings, there are also considerable differences between them regarding the size and function of the private rental sector in the housing system. There are also differences in the use of policy instruments and the volume of new construction of private rented dwellings. As a result of recent developments in housing policy in many West European countries the competitive position of the private rental sector has started to improve. Moreover, in a number of countries (regional) housing shortages are again occurring. For the private rental sector this perhaps ...

The standard of existing homes in the English private rented sector (PRS) presents several challenges. As the sector has expanded, issues of inadequate renovation, maintenance and upgrading have assumed greater salience. Research has also highlighted enforcement challenges which make it more difficult to raise property standards and improve tenants’ housing experiences. This article, informed by regulatory theory and systems thinking, argues that there is benefit in thinking more expansively about the practical policy interventions available to address the problem of standards. The article presents a framework for doing so which has currency in thinking about policy design and effectiveness beyond PRS standards. The policy debate would benefit from attending to more powerful leverage points associated with the design and intent of the system in pursuit of transformative change towards a stronger culture of compliance with standards.