Becoming a landlord: strategies of property-based welfare in the private rental sector in Great Britain

Soaita, A. M. , Searle, B. A., McKee, K. and Moore, T. (2017) Becoming a landlord: strategies of property-based welfare in the private rental sector in Great Britain. Housing Studies, 32(5), pp. 613-637. (doi: 10.1080/02673037.2016.1228855)

Abstract

Ongoing neoliberal policies have realigned the links between housing and welfare, positioning residential property investment – commonly through homeownership and exceptionally also through landlordism – at the core of households’ asset-building strategies. Nonetheless, the private rented sector (PRS) has been commonly portrayed as a tenure option for tenants rather than a welfare strategy for landlords. Drawing on qualitative interviews with landlords across Great Britain, we explore landlords’ different motivations in engaging in landlordism; and the ways in which their property-based welfare strategies are shaped by the particular intersection of individual socioeconomic and life-course circumstances, and the broader socioeconomic and financial environment. By employing a constructionist grounded approach to research, our study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the different ways that asset-based welfare strategies operate within the PRS. We draw attention to an understudied nexus between homeownership and landlordism which we argue represents a promising route for future research.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Soaita, Dr Adriana Mihaela
• Authors: Soaita, A. M., Searle, B. A., McKee, K., and Moore, T.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies
• Journal Name: Housing Studies
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 0267-3037
• ISSN (Online): 1466-1810
• Published Online: 27 September 2016
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor and Francis Group
• First Published: First published in Housing Studies 32(5): 613-637
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy