Speaker
Description
Housing has become marketized and to a variegated extent financialized even within traditional welfare states in Northern Europe. Within the Finnish housing landscape private landlordism is on the rise and state support also emphasizes the changing stance towards market responsibility to provide housing. Private landlords are subsidized both through tax benefits as well as indirectly through housing allowances paid to tenants. Within this contexts, private renting is often represented as a rational choice both from the perspective of the landlord and the tenant. At the same time small flats as a new buy-to-let type has also been introduced by Finnish developers. Within this context we study and interpret the perceptions of private landlords on their investment. To which extent are private landlords driven by incentives from the state to invest in the housing market? How do they choose the homes they invest in terms of quality of living? How do they set the rents? In the light of these questions, how can we understand the relationship of the landlord towards the tenant? More precisely are flats merely an investment, or are there also emotional work done in relations to the property, and the tenant? We analyze on the one hand policy and commercial narratives around the production of the private landlord, and on the other, interviews with landlords within the Helsinki metropolitan region.
| Keywords | landlords; investment; emotional work; welfare state; Finland |
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