This article examines how the discursive logic of quasi-markets in Swedish university real-estate management enables depoliticisation while consolidating state control. Sweden is a distinctive case where universities are public agencies, yet most campus property is owned by Akademiska Hus AB, a profit-seeking corporation wholly owned by the state. Using interpretive policy and frame analysis of legislation, government decisions, and public debate, we trace how market rents were introduced and justified. We show that depoliticising narratives portraying academics as fiscally unaccountable and university space as wasteful legitimise New Public Management reforms. Extending the ‘ghost in the machine’ metaphor, we demonstrate how political logics permeate welfare governance but are rendered less visible. The quasi-market sustains centralised control and fuels distrust between universities and government, risking a cycle of expanding quasi-market instruments and reduced institutional autonomy. Diminished autonomy may in turn have implications for academic freedom.

Abstract While the geographical distribution of eviction filings has been explored in Toronto, the intersection of rental housing financialization, race and eviction remains underexplored. Financial actors and their intermediaries, who fuel the eviction crisis in economically disenfranchised Black renter communities, exert significant influence over housing stability, which demands deeper scrutiny. Evictions for non‐payment of rent consistently make up most filings in Toronto, with racialized communities disproportionately affected, worsened by the unequal toll of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Between 2016 and 2021, eviction filings were highest in Black‐majority neighbourhoods, where corporate landlords dominate the rental market. In some areas, eviction rates have reached 36%—36 filings per 100 rental units—exposing the scale of displacement driven by these entities. In this article we investigate the economic violence embedded in the financialization of rental housing in Toronto’s Black‐majority neighbourhoods to illustrate how profit‐driven motives systematically undermine Black lives and spaces. Yet, amid this violence, tenant resistance has emerged as a powerful counter‐narrative, underscoring the transformative potential of grassroots organizing in advancing housing as a human right. Through quantitative and spatial analyses, this study exposes the financial actors fuelling Toronto’s eviction crisis, producing racialized geographies of eviction and housing instability to offer insights into the dynamics perpetuating housing insecurity.

Housing costs and food purchasing characteristics: The role of SNAP participation and SNAP purchasing power.

Purpose The study aims to investigate how US households form expectations about housing market variables, particularly mortgage rates, home prices and rent, and how these expectations influence their buying, selling and renting decisions. It also seeks to understand how broader macroeconomic factors like inflation and interest rates shape consumer sentiment and behavior in the housing market. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a behavioral economics lens and relies on survey-based consumer sentiment data. It examines the relationships between perceived inflation, mortgage rates and housing decisions using comparative analysis across different decision types - buying, selling, and renting. Econometric tools such as regression analysis are used to interpret these relationships. Findings Households generally believe that persistent inflation will lead to higher mortgage rates, which in turn are expected to put downward pressure on home prices. Among the factors shaping home price expectations, mortgage rates exert the strongest influence. Buyers tend to be most responsive to recent home price trends, whereas sellers are more sensitive to changes in interest rates. In the rental market, inflation emerges as the primary driver of expected rent increases. Overall, market sentiment significantly shapes consumer decision-making in the housing market. Research limitations/implications The research adds to the literature on expectation formation in housing markets by distinguishing between how inflation and interest rates affect buyers, sellers, and renters differently. It highlights the need for future research on the temporal dynamics and predictive power of consumer sentiment in forecasting housing asset prices. Practical implications For policymakers, understanding how inflation expectations translate into housing decisions can help smooth monetary policy communication. For central banks, signals that consumers are more reactive to mortgage rates than federal funds rates may influence how rate changes are timed and explained. For Real Estate Professionals, knowing that movers are more likely to buy, even under unfavorable market conditions, can inform targeting strategies. Social implications Understanding the behavioral dynamic of housing market participants is essential for improving financial literacy and for designing policy communication strategies that help households interpret monetary developments more accurately and inform better decisions about when to buy, sell, or hold property. Originality/value The research offers a behavioral interpretation of housing market decisions by integrating sentiment, expectations and macroeconomic indicators. It provides a forward-looking framework to assess how consumer sentiment may serve as a leading indicator for home price trends and asset valuation.

Bogotá is a city of renters; 51% of the city’s population lives under a rental agreement. While half of them live in the informal rental market, new investors have entered the formal rental market. Reflecting a broader global real estate trend and drawing inspiration from the Chilean case, Bogotá has incorporated new real estate actors into rental housing models through institutional investment. Real estate actors are looking for new investment opportunities, particularly multifamily buildings, student housing, and ‘coliving’ typologies, which are starting to emerge. At the same time, the housing policy has changed. For decades, developers primarily focused on constructing and selling social housing for middle-income groups through state subsidies. However, the new left-wing presidential administration has recently reshaped this approach, restricting subsidies to the private sector. This paper looks to unfold the new niche areas of real estate investment, focusing on the residential housing market and how state regulations and policies have influenced this process in Bogotá. The process shows a turn to the financialization of the rental market and the reinforcement of housing as a service, reshaping the housing spectrum into new forms of living.

We develop a Housing Rental Availability Index (HRAI) to measure rental housing availability across Poland by incorporating household income, rental prices, and supply-side factors. The HRAI is constructed using the structured parametric approach, offering a comprehensive and adaptable framework for analysing rental housing dynamics in Poland. Based on the Polish rental market data from 2021 to 2024, the HRAI reveals that supply constraints and rent fluctuations have a greater impact on rental availability than household income. This result challenges traditional affordability metrics. Sensitivity analysis confirms that rental availability emerges from the interaction of supply and demand rather than from either factor alone. This integrated approach positions HRAI as an “anti-separatist” indicator and presents an original approach to examining rental housing availability. The index can help local and national policymakers design targeted rent subsidies, address supply-demand imbalances, and promote spatial equity. Our findings highlight the value of combining economic measures into a single availability index and provide a framework for applying the HRAI in both academic research and housing policy decisions.

The purpose of the study. This article analyzes the impact of digital technologies on reducing financial risks and fraud in the residential rental industry, as well as assesses the long-term economic consequences of digitalization. Methodology. The study is based on a quantitative analysis of data from 2000 to 2024, including indicators of digitalization in transactions, fraud levels, financial losses incurred by tenants, and the volume of official rental agreements. Regression analysis methods were employed to evaluate the short-term and long-term effects of digitalization. Data were collected from official sources, including Rosreestr, the Federal Tax Service of Russia, the Central Bank of Russia, Eurostat, and the OECD. A financial and economic analysis was conducted to examine the structure of rental rates, tax revenues, and the impact of digital services on macroeconomic indicators. Results. The analysis of the housing rental market dynamics over the past 24 years revealed a significant impact of digitalization on reducing financial risks and fraud levels. The application of a regression model identified a consistent inverse relationship between the growth in the share of digital transactions and the number of fraudulent schemes. The financial and economic analysis demonstrated that over the past two decades, tenant losses due to fraudulent activities have decreased by a factor of 3,5. This is attributed to the expansion of protective tools on digital platforms, enhanced verification controls for landlords, and the implementation of transaction insurance mechanisms. However, despite the positive effects of digitalization, a portion of the market remains in the «gray zone», limiting the potential growth of tax revenues. Research perspectives. In the long term, comprehensive digitalization could become a key tool for bringing residential rental relationships out of the shadows, expanding the tax base, and protecting tenant interests. This study provides recommendations for government authorities and digital platforms aimed at developing effective control mechanisms and safeguarding participants in the rental market.

This study examines the dynamics of rental time on market (TOM) for residential properties in Szczecin, Poland, from 2016 to 2023. Using data from the regional MLS system administered by the West Pomeranian Association of Realtors (ZSPON), the analysis spans four distinct periods: pre-pandemic (2016–2019), pandemic onset (2020), transitional recovery (2021), and post-pandemic normalization (2022–2023). The study investigates two primary hypotheses: (H1) TOM differs significantly across pandemic phases; and (H2) TOM is correlated with rental price levels. Employing Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and General Linear Modeling (GLM), the results confirm both hypotheses. TOM increased sharply during early pandemic phases and decreased in subsequent years, though not returning to pre-pandemic levels. Additionally, listings with mid-range prices consistently showed the shortest TOM, while overpriced and underpriced listings were associated with longer market exposure. The findings contribute to the understanding of how external shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, induce both temporary and persistent changes in rental market behavior. The study also offers practical implications for real estate professionals, suggesting that TOM-based modeling can enhance pricing and listing strategies, particularly during periods of uncertainty or recovery.

Purpose This study investigates how the concentration of young single-person households (aged 24–35 years) influences small-unit rental prices in Istanbul’s fragmented housing market. Amid rapid demographic shifts and urban restructuring, this paper aims to provide robust causal evidence on the demand-side pressures driven by young singles in shaping rental dynamics, particularly in the increasingly competitive one-bedroom apartment segment. Design/methodology/approach Using a novel cross-sectional data set covering 605 neighborhoods in Istanbul, this study applies a two-stage least squares instrumental variable strategy to address endogeneity, particularly simultaneity bias. The spatially lagged share of young singles is used as an instrument. The model controls for a rich set of neighborhood-level variables, including accessibility, amenities, income, education, population structure and housing stock age. Findings A one-percentage-point increase in the share of young single-person households leads to a 4.2% increase in average rents for one-bedroom apartments. These effects are more pronounced in neighborhoods near employment centers, with strong transit access and lifestyle amenities. The results of this study emphasize that demographic clustering at the micro scale drives localized price inflation in the rental market and disproportionately burdens high-demand segments. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to causally link neighborhood-level solo living patterns to rental inflation in emerging urban contexts. This study advances housing scholarship by segmenting the market by unit size and household structure, while offering policy-relevant insights for managing affordability. The findings of this study support a targeted small-unit housing strategy that responds to evolving demographic realities in dense metropolitan regions.

This paper investigates the heterogeneous transmission of euro-area monetary tightening to housing costs and household welfare in Ireland, a small open economy characterized by a structurally tight rental market and a legacy prevalence of tracker-rate mortgages. Exploiting high-frequency monetary policy surprises and regional variation in tenure composition, we estimate local-projection impulse responses and implement a Bartik-style instrument based on pre-tightening mortgage contract structures. We document two dominant channels: a rapid rent inflation response concentrated in rental-dense urban areas, and a delayed yet persistent rise in mortgage debt-service burdens for tracker-rate borrowers. We construct household-specific inflation indices and quantify welfare effects using equivalent-variation measures. Results show that low-income renters and tracker-mortgagors bear the largest welfare losses, whereas fixed-rate borrowers and outright owners remain largely insulated. Counterfactual simulations demonstrate that targeted rent and mortgage supports deliver higher welfare efficiency than broad-based price subsidies, offering novel evidence for fiscal-monetary coordination under heterogeneous exposure in housing-constrained economies. Keywords: Monetary policy transmission; rent inflation; mortgage cash-flow channel; housing market frictions; household heterogeneity; equivalent-variation welfare; Ireland; euro area; tracker mortgages; cost-of-living shock

This paper places focus on the little explored space of the transition to adulthood and beyond for young African men who sought asylum in Italy as ‘unaccompanied minors'. Empirical data is drawn from over five years' ethnographic research (2017 – 2023) with the young men, housed originally in a reception centre for minors in Bologna. The paper traces the young men's experiences both within and beyond the reception system that housed them as minors. Once outside the reception system, when the young men must access the private rental market as ‘adults', they find their mobility within the city constrained by their racialisation and marginalization. This paper places attention on the housing crisis that is afflicting Bologna and how, for the young men, as racialized migrants, the effects of the crisis are worse. It evidences how the borders of race continue to create problems for these young men as they seek to make claims to space and belonging, to find a home in Bologna as ‘adults'.

PARIS2019: The impact of rent control on the Parisian rental market

In advanced economies characterized by sustained immigration, rising inequality, and chronically underdeveloped social housing sectors, demand-side welfare interventions risk being capitalized into higher rents rather than improving housing affordability. This study investigates how Spain’s welfare state transformation—particularly the rollout of IPREM-indexed policies such as the Minimum Living Income (IMV) and the Youth Rental Voucher—interacted with migration flows and tourism-driven housing competition to reshape private rental markets between 2008 and 2025. Using harmonized national data from OPI, Idealista, INE, and the Bank of Spain (2010–2024), we apply a descriptive time-series approach that combines structural break tests (Chow and Bai–Perron), pre/post-2021 correlation comparisons, regional heterogeneity analysis, and robustness checks (including Spearman correlations and jackknife sensitivity analyses). We identify a pronounced structural break in 2021: while consular visa issuances—a proxy for combined migration and tourism inflows—showed no significant association with advertised rental prices before 2021 (r ≈ 0.27, p = 0.41), a remarkably strong co-movement emerged thereafter (r ≈ 0.90–0.92). This shift aligns precisely with the nationwide implementation of IMV, institutionalization of the Youth Voucher, and disbursement of EU Recovery and Resilience Facility funds. The effect is most acute in regions with rigid housing supply and high exposure to tourist-use dwellings (VUT)—notably the Balearic Islands, Murcia, Cantabria, and Navarre—suggesting that increased effective demand may have been absorbed primarily through price increases rather than expanded access. While our observational design precludes causal inference and the findings should be interpreted as exploratory and hypothesis-generating, the convergence of timing, magnitude, and institutional context renders a policy-mediated demand channel plausible. The results caution that, without complementary supply-side measures—such as social housing investment, rehabilitation incentives, or VUT regulation—demand-side subsidies may inadvertently reinforce housing inequality and reduce fiscal efficiency, thereby undermining the sustainability goals they aim to advance.

In the study of government assistance and housing insecurity, one form of intervention is often overlooked: the mortgage financing of multifamily rental properties via Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (“the Enterprises”). Enterprise-backed financing has increased rapidly since 2000 and now accounts for roughly half of all outstanding multifamily mortgage debt. In this study, we linked Enterprise-backed properties to eviction filings and rent listings. Filing rates at Enterprise-backed properties exhibit the same concentrated distribution as has been found in the general rental market; the average filing rate among the top quartile of Enterprise-backed properties was 19.8 per 100 units in 2023. In adjusted models comparing to non-Enterprise properties, Enterprise-backed properties are located in neighborhoods that are Whiter, higher income, lower poverty, and with a lower proportion renting; Enterprise-backed properties also have filing rates that are 5% (1, 9; p < .05) lower and rents that are 5% (2, 7; p < .05) lower than non-Enterprise properties. We do not find a significant change in filing rates after Enterprise financing; however, we do find evidence of large post-financing increases for a subset of high-filing properties. We discuss policy implications related to oversight of the Enterprises in achieving their goals of advancing affordability and increasing tenant stability.

ABSTRACT This study examines how Airbnb hosts develop revenue management capabilities defined as a set of resources, routines and coordination mechanisms used for managing sales for an Airbnb host and the role their degree of professionalisation plays in this process. A professional host is defined as an Airbnb provider managing more than one listing, while professionalisation degree as the growing number of listings managed by a host. The revenue management process is divided into seven key components: identifying goals, information and analysis, forecasting, decision and implementation, monitoring, key supporting elements, and interaction with guests. The research is based on qualitative data collected through 55 interviews in Milan, Italy. The Milanese context is notable for its high seasonality, prevalence of multi-listing hosts, and significant performance disparities based on professionalisation levels. The findings reveal marked differences between single hosts and those managing 10 or more listings, highlighting how professional hosts extract greater value from their properties compared to single hosts. This paper contributes to the growing recognition of professionalisation in the short-term rental market.

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.

Impact of conflict shocks on land rental market dynamics: Panel evidence from Nigeria

This paper examines open banking’s (OB) emerging role in digital tenant profiling. We focus on England’s rental market within a changing international context of newly adopted OB frameworks. OB is regulated in the UK, but the evidence base, and public awareness lag the expanding use cases. OB enables access to banking information in real-time and is being used in housing for digital tenant referencing platforms to access often intimate and detailed banking data via third-party interfaces to make inferences about tenant credibility. Drawing on 50 in-depth interviews with technology providers, landlords, agents, insurers and tenants, the paper explores OB’s role in reinforcing digital hierarchies that shape housing access. Contributing to the growing literature on platform real estate and the impact on rental systems, and exploring the intersection with open finance, the paper highlights problems of data privacy, the volume of data required to get a home and, counter to the prevailing idea of OB empowering consumers, the limited control tenants have in the market. The paper also emphasises the growing imperative placed on tenants to manage their banking and other accessible data, or what Fourcade and Healy’s term their eigencapital, in the Ordinal Society. This system, though marketed as neutral, recasts tenant selection producing winners and losers and raises ethical concerns about privacy, autonomy and fairness.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the spillover effects of neighbouring rents on housing prices. Design methodology approach Treating neighbouring rents as a locational attribute, the authors estimate a price–rent hedonic model using owner-occupied and rental housing transactions from Beijing (2016–2018). In addition, the empirical model shows substantial robustness using instrumental variable-two-stage least squares estimation, Oster’s selection-on-unobservables test and placebo tests. Findings The authors find that a 1% increase in one-quarter-lagged neighbouring rents raises sale prices by about 0.35% in OLS estimation, while the spillover is around 0.23% in instrumental variable (IV) estimation. Furthermore, rental spillovers are heterogeneous – stronger for mid-sized and newer housing units, outside school-district zones and in Chaoyang, Haidian and Shijingshan, while weaker in new-town areas. In addition, exploiting a late-2017 tightening of rental supply, the authors further show that the spillover intensifies thereafter. Practical implications The findings highlight the interconnectedness of the rental and ownership markets and underscore the need for urban housing policy to consider the signals of the rental market. Social implications Policies that optimize and professionalize rental supply can mitigate housing market volatility, moderate house price inflation and enhance market efficiency in transitional housing systems. Originality value The originality lies in regarding neighbourhood housing rents as a locational attribute of housing prices and investigating the neighbouring rental spillovers of housing rents.

Singapore’s public housing system has been praised for its high coverage and elevated rates of public homeownership. However, scholars have criticised the heteronormative housing eligibility criteria that restrict those who are not married from buying public housing until they are 35 years old. As a result, there has been the growth of an LGBTQ+ focused private rental housing market in Singapore, with landlords and estate agents who cater specifically to LGBTQ+ tenants. This is facilitated through online groups and platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Drawing on a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews with tenants and landlords, I explore how these digital platforms have connected these parties. Findings will elucidate how LGBTQ+ tenants use renting to navigate families and housing policies, and how LGBTQ+ accepting landlords commodify safe spaces and a sense of belonging. By doing so, this article offers a queer lens for a deeper understanding of the relationship between the political economy of housing and sexuality.