Making a home in the private rental sector

Abstract

With increasing proportions of households living in lightly regulated rental markets, long-term, there is an urgent need to examine the interconnections between tenancy regulation and private renters’ agency when making a home. Accordingly, this article asks: How do private renters, through their homemaking practices, exercise agency to overcome tenancy regulations that challenge the ways they make home? And how does tenancy regulation impact private renters’ agency? An analysis of interviews with 24 private renters living in Sydney, Australia, is used to answer these questions. For participants, meanings of home were informed by the belief that they were not homeowners and therefore, could not achieve a sense of ‘home’. Despite this, through their possessions, household relationships and their relationship with their landlord and/or property manager, participants created a sense of home within their rental property. This article argues that while the regulatory environment and structures of private rental tenure pose significant challenges and therefore change the meaning and importance of homemaking practices for private renters, renters strategically employ their (albeit limited) agency to challenge and resist these structural limitations to make a home.

Keywords:

• Private rental sector
• home
• security
• tenure
• tenancy regulation

Acknowledgements

My thanks go to my supervisors Dr Emma Power, Associate Professor Rae Dufty-Jones and Professor Andrew Gorman-Murray for their exceptional guidance and support in the preparation of this article. I would also like to thank the three anonymous reviewers whose constructive and valuable insights have greatly improved this article. Lastly, and most importantly, I am thankful to the renters who shared their stories of housing and home for this research. I hope that I have done justice to your experiences.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Countries such as Australia, the USA and the UK have similar rental markets that are referred to in this article and others as ‘lightly regulated’ (see Morris et al., 2017; Soaita et al., 2020). Lightly regulated rental markets are dominated by three tenure types: homeownership or owner-occupancy, private renting and social housing. While homeownership remains the dominant housing tenure, since 2000, there has been an increase in the proportion of households renting privately and a decrease in both owner-occupied and public housing tenures (Martin et al., 2018). Further, lightly regulated rental markets have a ‘dualist’ rental system (Kemeny et al., 2005). While uncapped market rents and minimal regulation are a feature of the private rental sector, the public rental sector is significantly more regulated, with below-market or income-adjustable rents and long-term or life-long tenancies. Small scale landlordism (more landlords renting fewer rental properties) in the private rental sector is also a feature of lightly regulated rental markets. Minimal regulation (which is difficult to enforce due to the number of landlords) and greater overall demand of rental properties has led to a power imbalance in lightly regulated rental markets which favours the rights of the landlord over the rights of the tenant (Soaita et al., 2020).

2 This is not to say that people do not feel ‘at home’ within other forms of housing. Particularly, there is rich literature that examines meanings of home among social housing tenants (see for example, Bate, 2018; Mee, 2007; Tester & Wingfield, 2013). This research suggests that unlike the private rental sector (with uncapped market rents and minimal regulation), social housing offers higher levels of security within lightly regulated rental markets. Specifically, below-market or income-adjustable rents and long-term or life-long tenancies are a feature of social housing. These increased levels of security allow tenants to establish a feeling of home within social housing. None of the participants in my study, however, mentioned their inability to access social housing as a barrier to establishing home. They did, however, mention lack of ownership as a barrier to establishing home.

3 Despite all the benefits a home can bring, it is important to remember that home is not always a positive experience. Feminists have written extensively about how home can feel like a job or even a ‘prison’ for some women (see for example, Blunt & Dowling, 2006; Gurney, 1997; Pink, 2004).

4 In Victoria, the removal of ‘no grounds’ evictions will come into effect 29 March 2021.

5 Around the time of the interviews, there was a shortage of private rental dwellings in Australia with the national vacancy rate at 2.3%. A vacancy rate of 3% is said to provide adequate balance between supply and demand (National Shelter, 2014, p. 10).

6 While other participants stated that they enjoyed the ‘nomadic’ lifestyle of renting given their current life stage, Tom was the only participant who stated he enjoyed the ‘nomadic’ lifestyle of renting and he anticipated that he would enjoy this lifestyle in the future. He has no desire to ever become a homeowner.

7 In this case, the curtains were built in and could not be easily changed. Sometimes renters can change the curtains in their rental property, without breaking their lease agreement, as long as the original curtains are put back when the they leave.