The effect of macroprudential policy tools on the rental and owner-occupied housing market substitution

How proptech platforms are reshaping discretionary power in the private rental housing market

“All concerns me”: Collaborative governance in pre-regeneration of public rental housing in Hong Kong from the boundary-work perspective

Background: Chronic diseases are a significant and escalating public health concern in the United States (U.S.) and globally. Chronic co-morbidities such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, other cardiovascular diseases, and asthma are major risk factors for death and disability. Behavioral factors such as smoking, alcohol use, sedentary lifestyle, and poor dietary habits are among the major risk factors leading to these chronic diseases. Purpose: This study aims to investigate how combinations of unhealthy behaviors are associated with the risk of cardiovascular diseases in various populations. Methods: Using data from the 2023 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), we computed multivariable logistic regression models to assess the association of unhealthy behaviors with the risk of chronic diseases. Results: Our results show that compounded score of risky health behaviors such as smoking, alcohol use, and physical inactivity, as well as other covariates such as older age, being male, previously married, living in a rented house, unemployed, living in non-metropolitan counties, having high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, were associated with experiencing a heart attack, coronary heart disease, and stroke. Conclusions: Our results highlight the need for behavior-focused population health interventions to lower morbidity and health inequities by showing that unhealthy behaviors and sociodemographic disparities significantly raise the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Rural-to-urban migrant workers constitute a crucial component of China's urban development, yet their access to welfare protections remains limited. They provide labor for large-scale infrastructure projects and sustain the daily operation of urban services, highlighting their indispensable economic contributions. This study takes Shanghai as a case study to analyze welfare policies affecting migrant workers and their children across four domains: education, healthcare, housing, and social security. By drawing on government reports, census data, and scholarly research, the paper identifies persistent gaps between policy intentions and actual outcomes. Although initiatives such as wage guarantee funds, expanded social insurance coverage, and broader access to public schooling have been implemented, structural obstacles linked to the hukou system and fiscal constraints continue to hinder effectiveness. Migrant children experience significant educational disadvantages, while healthcare access is limited due to poor portability of insurance schemes. Public housing programs frequently exclude migrant families, and enforcement of social security provisions is uneven across districts. These issues are compounded by policy fragmentation, limited financial resources, and entrenched social biases. Suggested reforms include collaboration between the government and non-profit organisations to address the gap between policy and actual practice, revising school enrolment policies to improve equality in education, strengthening cross-regional commonality in health insurance, expanding affordable rental housing, and improving pension entitlements for the mobile population.

This article explores the housing experiences of migrant renters in three major Vietnamese cities—Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang—through a qualitative study of 60 participants combining in-depth interviews and participant observation. The analysis is organized around four thematic domains: meanings and attachments to home, spatial and material practices of place-making, belonging and social embeddedness, and the intersections of housing insecurity with identity and affect. Findings show that migrant renters attribute layered meanings to their rental dwellings, from sites of economic necessity to spaces of family continuity and emotional refuge. At the same time, they actively engage in place-making practices such as personalizing interiors and negotiating shared spaces to create a sense of home despite constraints. Social networks and neighbourhood relations emerge as critical to establishing belonging, though experiences vary across the three cities. Housing insecurity—manifested in unstable contracts, rising rents and limited tenant rights—deeply shapes renters’ identities and emotional well-being, reinforcing a persistent sense of precarity. Cross-city comparisons highlight common vulnerabilities but also demonstrate how urban contexts influence strategies of adaptation and integration. By situating migrants’ lived experiences within broader debates on housing, urban precarity and identity, the study contributes to scholarship on the social meaning of home and underscores the need for more inclusive rental housing policies in Vietnam.

While early rounds of rental housing financialization were predominantly driven by private equity firms and other speculative landlords acquiring residential portfolios, in the wake of the global financial crisis, real estate investment trusts (REITs) and institutional investors marked their entry into the public and private rental sector. Although this transition from financialization 1.0 to financialization 2.0 is arguably still unfolding, the contributions to this special issue demonstrate that we are potentially experiencing the beginning of a new cycle. Financialization 3.0 is marked by intensifying—albeit not necessarily stable and coherent—state interventions and regulatory attempts to both constraint and facilitate institutional housing investment. For all its contradictions, I argue that financialization 3.0 contributes to shifting modes of governance, enabling global financial investors to (1) negotiate housing policy and urban planning arrangements, (2) develop market-oriented crossholdings and state-supported investment schemes, and (3) diversify portfolio holdings and rentier models across the real estate sector at large. Although an emergent state-finance nexus can thus be observed, the outcomes of financialization 3.0 are controversial at best. For that reason, I conclude that financialization 3.0 will not lead to a durable asset ecosystem where tensions between public housing needs and global investment priorities are reconciled.

Abstract Institutional investors have asserted significant power over rental markets across the transatlantic. However, their stronghold has been contested after rising interest rates in 2022. In this article I address the situated dimensions of the assetization of the built environment by examining the establishment of residential property investors in Sweden’s rental market with the aim to explore the enclosure of rental housing as an asset through reforms and transaction flows, to investigate how rent extraction has been realized via apartment renovations and to critically contextualize the heightened social conflict around rental housing in the post‐zero‐interest‐rate era. Through transaction and market data, annual reports and interviews with property investors and tenants, this article provides novel insights into the transformation of Sweden’s rental market and conceptually furthers the assetization optics by centring on the concept of maintenance. I argue that assetization is a situated and material process in which maintenance is crucial to sustaining financial values. I also contend that the rising cost of capital has exacerbated the social struggle over rental housing as an asset, threatening the maintenance of this asset class.

This article examines the expansion of short-term rentals in Valparaíso, Chile, through the Airbnb platform. The study addresses the broader context of digital platforms transforming housing markets, with a focus on Latin American cities, where the implications of short-term rental growth remain understudied. The main objective is to understand how Airbnb is reshaping the spatial, economic, and social dimensions of rental housing in Valparaíso. Methodologically, the article employs quantitative methods, combining spatial analysis techniques (using ArcGIS) and descriptive statistical analysis. The results reveal that entire homes cluster in heritage-tourism hills (Concepción and Alegre) and coastal zones with panoramic views, where nightly rates can exceed the citywide average threefold, while shared rooms are dispersed in lower-income hills. Likewise, the study identifies a heterogeneous host profile; half of the hosts are owners who have another residence to live in, while the other half offers rooms within their own homes, indicating that platform usage is a complementary income strategy. These dynamics reflect asset-based welfare logics, repositioning housing as a hybrid asset for income generation rather than solely a domestic space. Even in the absence of large-scale corporate landlords, this fragmented market contributes to housing commodification and intensifies spatial inequalities. The study highlights the need for regulatory frameworks tailored to the socio-territorial specificities of heritage Latin American cities, which face both housing deficits and tourism pressures.

This article examines the housing practices and spatial inequalities within the Indian diaspora in Frankfurt, shaped by Germany’s evolving migration trends and neoliberal housing policies. The recent 495% increase in Indian highly skilled migrants contrasts sharply with earlier labour-driven Indian migration waves, creating distinct class-based residential patterns. While highly skilled migrants leverage financial capital to enter homeownership, labour migrants – once beneficiaries of Germany’s welfare-oriented housing system – now face heightened precarity due to the financialisation of housing markets. Using urban mapping, spatial analysis and in-depth interviews, this study reveals persistent residential segregation, exacerbated by class-based exclusions and shifting welfare policies. Highly skilled migrants’ property ownership in gentrified districts like Ostend and Kalbach-Riedberg contrasts with labour migrants’ reliance on subsidised rental housing in areas like Höchst and Gallus, reinforcing class hierarchies within the diaspora. By examining how the entanglement of neoliberal urbanism, nested identities and postcolonial legacies shapes housing access in Frankfurt, this article reveals how class stratification within the Indian diaspora is both historically rooted and actively reproduced. While financialised housing markets and state withdrawal from welfare provisions deepen exclusion, these structural inequities remain inseparable from postcolonial hierarchies that continue to dictate mobility, opportunity and spatial belonging.

Rhetoric vs. Reality: Unauthorized immigration and housing rents

Abstract This study examines the impact of flat size on thermal comfort in Hong Kong’s public rental housing (PRH) under future climatic conditions. Prompted by the need for resilient housing in response to rising temperatures and urbanization, the research explores how varying flat sizes affect thermal comfort and provides design recommendations. Utilizing building performance simulations with future weather data, the study analyzes different flat sizes within the PRH housing model. A linear regression model predicts comfort hours based on flat size, climate scenarios, and energy consumption. Results show larger flats improve thermal comfort through better ventilation and spatial distribution. However, future severe climate conditions reduce comfort hours, emphasizing the need for climate-resilient housing designs. Findings highlight the importance of adequate flat size for occupant well-being and resilience amid climate change, balancing thermal comfort with energy efficiency. These insights are valuable for policymakers, architects, and urban planners in developing sustainable and adaptable housing solutions for Hong Kong’s future climate challenges.

Optimizing land allocation for affordable rental housing: Lessons from Shanghai's R4 land policy

The economic disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic combined with a pre-existing housing affordability crisis to threaten a wave of evictions from rental housing in the United States. Eviction and housing loss were associated with a range of adverse outcomes even prior to the pandemic; during the public health emergency, housing instability could have additionally increased opportunities for viral spread. Mitigating eviction risk was therefore an important form of prevention. We evaluate one federal policy response to the potential eviction crisis, the Emergency Rental Assistance program (ERA). Under ERA, approximately $47 billion was transferred to state and local governments to establish programs to financially assist at-risk renter households. We examine the relationship between receipt of rental assistance and rental housing stability, both overall and for higher-risk groups defined by presence of children and respondent racial and ethnic identity. Our analysis used U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey data (July, 2021-April, 2023) and two analytical techniques. First, we created matched treatment and comparison groups using applicants awaiting a decision and coarsened exact matching (n = 18,329) to examine the relationship between rental assistance and 1) whether the household was in rental arrears and 2) perceived risk of housing loss from eviction. Second, we estimated recursive bivariate probit models simultaneously modeling rental assistance receipt and rental arrears in a larger sample (n = 160,443). We found rental assistance receipt substantially reduced the risk of being in arrears and perceived risk of eviction. Effects on arrears were somewhat larger for households with children and for Black households compared to others in the matching analysis.

Taking the case of the emerging private rental sector in the world’s top homeownership society, the paper proposes two theoretical expansions of broader interest to international housing studies. First, by drawing on insights from visual-elicitation, life-history interviews, I return the housing pathway framework to its original social-constructivist cast in order to expand beyond occupants’ tenure-applications to a broader, more dynamic perspective of pathways into renting of both tenants and landlords. Second, by showing how landlords and tenants became to rent one or several homes, the paper offers an empirically-grounded reading of rental housing as a service infrastructure of being and becoming along life-projects of personal/family welfare, social reproduction/mobility, identity searching and geographical explorations. Describing a social world in which extractivist relations are marginal, the paper unravels some of the diverse economies of renting in which ways of being and becoming are enmeshed in the long-term concerns of creating a safe future through education, employment, ownership and social embeddedness.

ABSTRACT Purpose Infant botulism is an uncommon but serious condition arising from honey containing spores of Clostridium botulinum. Despite this well-understood risk, practices like tahnik, where honey or dates are fed to newborns, continue as customs in many cultures. Understanding these traditions is important for informing global public health strategies. This study aimed to determine maternal awareness about infant botulism, investigate the prevalence of tahnik, and recognize factors affecting its practice in a Muslim community. Design Descriptive cross-sectional survey. Methods A total of 419 mothers of infants aged 12 months or younger were recruited into this descriptive cross-sectional survey through a questionnaire in Karachi, Pakistan. Maternal awareness of infant botulism, prevalence of tahnik practice, and factors affecting tahnik practice were assessed. Findings A total of 94.75% of subjects had never heard of botulism, and none linked it with C. botulinum. Despite risks, 54.42% did not view honey as harmful, and 61.6% practiced tahnik. Lower education, larger families, and rental housing were linked to higher tahnik rates, while higher education showed an inverse effect. Conclusions: Lack of awareness about infant botulism and strong cultural adherence to tahnik highlight the need for culturally sensitive public health initiatives. Clinical Relevance Honey poses a proven risk for infant botulism, yet cultural practices such as tahnik remain widespread, especially in many Muslim communities, highlighting a critical gap between medical advice and traditional beliefs.

A growing proportion of urban residents live in informal rental housing, especially in the global South. While informally constructed rented accommodation offers multiple public policy benefits, the rapid and unplanned growth of rental units can have significant negative impacts on neighbourhoods and residents. This paper draws on neighbourhood level data from Cape Town, South Africa, to examine how informal rental housing markets drive the soft densification of a low-income settlement. It illustrates the enormous scale, density and diversity of informally constructed and commercially rented accommodation and unpacks how bottom-up building practices intersect with an inappropriate regulatory regime. Widespread informality limits government’s capacity to guide soft densification and mediate between its inherent tensions, trade-offs and conflicting public/private interests. We argue that recognising the economic logics of informal rental housing markets is crucial to understanding why, where and how informal soft densification occurs. We present a novel framework to assist policymakers in better engaging informal rental housing markets, outlining seven spheres of action, to promote the sustainable densification of urban neighbourhoods and cities. In offering concrete suggestions we contribute to wider debates about planning for informal urbanism.

ABSTRACT A growing body of work shows that creating a sense of home and engaging in homemaking activities is important to people even when in difficult situations such as homelessness or living in temporary accommodation. This study examines the possibilities of making a home in substandard rental housing. We analysed interviews with 20 adults, the majority who were Māori or Pacific peoples, who were raising children in cold, damp, and mouldy housing in Aotearoa New Zealand. Iris Marion Young’s theorizing on home provides a framework to explore our findings. We find that dwellings can simultaneously provide and deny safety and personal space, allowing people to engage in homemaking practices and express their identity, but only to a limited extent. Homes must enable the expression of collective or cultural identity, as well as individual identity. Our findings provide a new dimension to the rich thread of literature on the ambiguous nature of “home”.

Objectives Emerging evidence shows that health disparities contribute to an increased risk of severe asthma. Therefore, the study objectives were to explore how socioeconomic disparities influence the risk of severe paediatric asthma in the Netherlands. Methods In this nationwide cohort study, all children aged 2–17 years living in the Netherlands between 2018–2022 were included. Asthma definitions were based upon individually linked data from non-public Dutch registry databases on asthma-related health expenditures including hospital and paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admissions. Geospatial analysis was used to identify hot spots based on the regions with the highest counts of severe asthma. Additionally, the impact of various socioeconomic variables (e.g. housing, migration background, socioeconomic status) on the primary outcome of severe asthma was assessed using a linear probability model. Results The total study population consisted of 4.538.020 children. Children from the lowest income class had twice the odds of severe asthma (p<0.001) and were 2.6 times as likely to be admitted to the PICU compared to the highest income class (p<0.001). Other socioeconomic disadvantage factors for severe (acute) asthma are, in order of level of association, living in a rental house, having a migration background, and having a lower socioeconomic status score based on income, education and employment history. Conclusions We identified several socioeconomic disparities that were increased in children with severe asthma and severe acute asthma at the PICU in the Netherlands. Comprehensive assessment and mitigation of these determinants may improve health equity in paediatric severe asthma and enhancement of asthma care.

The article presents a review of studies conducted between 2014 and 2020 and a reference framework on urban extractivism, linking this concept to theories of classical authors in urban sociology and geography, as well as to contemporary scholars. It explores how current urban development transforms housing and public space into tradable commodities, rather than recognizing them as fundamental rights and basic needs. This process is evident in phenomena such as the subprime mortgage market, the mass construction of rental housing, gentrification, and touristification, which aim to attract wealthier residents, thereby increasing property sale or rental values, particularly in urban areas on the periphery of global capitalism, which are more susceptible to these dynamics. The study was conducted from a qualitative and hermeneutic perspective, using documentary research as the main strategy, with a dynamic sampling method that was adjusted according to the findings. Regarding the conclusions, it is observed that extractivism and neo-extractivism have managed to consolidate an academic community and form a social movement that brings together environmentalists, academics, and indigenous groups. Concerning the conceptual approach, the need for a deeper analysis of the object of study is highlighted, to determine whether there are similar practices between the logics of extractivism and neo-extractivism in the urban space. Criticisms are made of the neoliberal city model and the socio-spatial inequalities that it (re)produces, especially in Latin American cities.