The affective economies of emergent private renting markets: understanding tenants and landlords in post-communist Romania

Project Information

AFFECTIVE-PRS

Grant agreement ID: 101059188

DOI

10.3030/101059188

Project closed

EC signature date 22 July 2022

Start date 1 December 2022

End date 30 November 2024

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 133 735,68

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITATEA DIN BUCURESTI
Romania

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AFFECTIVE-PRS (The affective economies of emergent private renting markets: understanding tenants and landlords in post-communist Romania)

Reporting period: 2022-12-01 to 2024-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The 2008 Global Financial Crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic have exposed rental housing as a mechanism that generates important inequalities of wealth, health and wellbeing in much of the world, failing to give many tenants a ‘home’. Academic interest in the Anglo-Saxon and the old EU member states has recently contributed perturbing insights (e.g. poor housing quality; insecurity, eviction), raising legitimate concerns about tenants’ wellbeing in more hidden, hence riskier private renting sectors (PRS) where informal transactions increase risks and hide vulnerability away from state regulatory gaze.

Sharing these important concerns, this project (AFFECTIVE-PRS) engages with the affective economies of emerging, ‘hidden’ PRS, taking as a case-study the post-communist space, specifically Romania. It aims to: Understand a hidden social world, by asking why tenants and landlords engage in the sector, whether their practices permit making a private tenancy home, and how they construct ideas of power, risk and trust; Advance theory by conceiving home as an assemblage of materials, money, relations and affects; Inform the national and international debate on PRS regulation.

Methodologically, this project has developed a synthesis of the international literature; has approached tenants and landlords in Romania through an online qualitative questionnaire, which allows them to freely and fully describe their experiences; photo-elicitation interviews to obtain deeper insights; and a co-production workshop with policy, practice and academia in order to imagine a sustainable and fair PRS in Romania and inform the national debate on its regulation.

As the PRS generates important inequalities of wealth and wellbeing, it is important to maximize the project impact. Academic impact has been and will continue to be attained through publications and dissemination through conferences, seminars and workshops. Findings have been and will continue to be communicated to the general public through briefing papers, blogs, media articles and a “Guide for Good Practice” as well as through interactive digital platforms. By helping construct a shared understanding of good practice in the PRS, the project could theoretically improve the lives of many private tenants, whether it be the officially registered 252,000 or the estimated number of over one million.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Work Package 1: The qualitative literature on tenants’ and landlords’ experiences in the global world was systematically searched in two major academic databases (SCOPUS and Web of Science) as well as manual searches in key academic journals and Google Scholar. The literature was then synthesized from a theoretical informed perspective and critically interpreted. This is the first systematic review on the topic and geography since 1992. One reviewer of the paper said “This is a fascinating paper which addresses an enormous gap in the literature. Despite a huge amount of research and discussion on the private rental sector over the last decade or so, there has been very little examination of the Global South. The paper sets out a tripartite conceptualization of 'structures of feeling’, which makes a useful contribution to our understanding of the social and political dynamics associated with the PRS”.

Work Package 2: A bespoke qualitative questionnaire, made open access, was designed to gather data of depth and breadth from tenants and landlords in Romania. It was intensely disseminated on 80 relevant Romanian Facebook groups and closed with 114 valid responses (out of 365 received). Data described the process of renting from advertising/finding a tenancy to contract termination exploring in-depth practices of home-making and ideas of risks and trust. Findings were unexpected: the depiction of a ‘tenant market’ in which tenants have power because the competition for tenants is higher than that for properties – and not because of legal protections, which are non-existent. This was an outstanding result, described by a reviewer “The subject matter is intriguing: a private rental sector in which tenants appear to enjoy substantial market power, and landlords appear to respect boundaries imposed by shared norms.”.

Work package 3: in total 40 interviews were conducted with tenants and landlords in Romania. Participants were asked to draw their ‘housing history’ and send photographs of their rented properties. ‘Housing history’ drawings constitute a method never used in housing studies, which held important results. While many studies develop an analysis of a single-point in time, the visual and elicitation of ‘housing histories’ unveiled the different meanings and life-planning encapsulated in pathways to renting. The photographs, a rarely used method in housing studies, evidenced the good quality of the sector and tenants’ power to feel at home in their rented properties.

Work package 4: the co-creation of a Guide for Good Practice aimed to promote the best practice in the sector.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

First, by bringing together several theoretical thoughts and synthesizing existing empirical research at the global scale, the project developed a new theory, framed as ‘the structures of feeling of the affective economies of renting’, which is described in two publications.

Second, by drawing on significant empirical data collected in Romania, the project has not only substantiated an unknown social world but one that encapsulates the theoretical concept of a ‘tenant market’, a policy desiderate which has not been validated in real life before. This unexpected finding is presented in two publications.

Third, through several blogs, media articles, videos as well as through a public/researcher co-created Guide for Good practice, the project strived to increase awareness about the tenant/landlord relationship as lived in Romania, and how it can be improved for the benefit of both parties.

Finally, the project helped strengthen the national and international profile of the researcher, through several invited presentations and presentations to international and national conferences and workshops.