Becoming a landlord: strategies of property-based welfare in the private rental sector in Great Britain. Issue 5 (4th July 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Soaita, Adriana Mihaela; Searle, Beverley Ann; McKee, Kim; Moore, Tom
• Is Part Of: Housing studies. Volume 32:Issue 5(2017)
• Page Start: 613
• Page End: 637
• Publication Date: 2017-07-04
• Subjects: Private rental sector -- landlords -- asset-based welfare -- property -- inequality -- United Kingdom; Housing -- Periodicals; 307.336
• DOI: 10.1080/02673037.2016.1228855
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0267-3037

Abstract

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.