It’s often claimed that reforming tenancy laws to better protect tenants will drive landlords out of the market, leading to fewer rental properties. A new study finds no evidence to support the claim.
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Articles on Tenants
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Investing in housing means providing a home. National tenancy reforms are reshaping the role of landlords to reflect this responsibility.
Tenants are rarely allowed to make permanent changes to a house. And many landlords know little about the conditions tenants endure, but most who do retrofit homes do it to improve renters’ comfort.
Economists shape the world in many ways, but some of their conclusions are counter-intuitive to say the least.
While the idea of rent controls can seem attractive at first glance, the evidence suggests the government is right to be sceptical of their ability to help ease the housing crisis.
Studies show that tenants facing eviction who have a lawyer are a lot less likely to lose their home.
Millions of Americans with tens of billions in unpaid rent face eviction and loss of their home.
The CDC’s sweeping eviction moratorium leaves more questions than answers – as well as concerns that it merely pushes the problem into winter.
The COVID-19 crisis is stretching long strained relations between shopping centre landlords and tenants to breaking point.
Public housing renewal often aims for a 70:30 private-public mix of dwellings. Modelling shows applying this mix to Waterloo housing estate would cut the suburb’s social housing share from 30% to 17%.
Representatives of tenants and agents agree that leaving individuals to try to sort out rent reductions has created a mess. It calls for government to step in to look after both renters and landlords.
Even landlords think involving social housing tenants is critical to running properties, but too often it doesn’t happen.
In 2016, a Victorian court decided an Airbnb arrangement was a lease. ‘Guests’ could be protected by tenancy law, including against eviction. And in this case the host was evicted for subletting.
Stereotypes that paint landlords as “bad” and tenants as “good”, and pit the two groups against each other, are actually holding back progress.
New York City’s municipal budget relies heavily on the property taxes of extremely high-value real estate. That drives gentrification and distorts local policy in other ways that hurt residents.
Housing laws in England can still leave tenants without proper protection, but the latest reforms offer hope for the future.
Landlords could have a big impact on public health, if they help their tenants to feel at home.
New laws were supposed to protect people from living in unsafe conditions – but in the eyes of a judge, property guardians might not even count as ‘tenants’.
Previous laws gave tenants very little protection – but now landlords could face court if they don’t keep their properties in good repair.
The very short list of winners, and a growing list of losers, in Doug Ford’s Ontario does not bode well for the government’s political future – or the province.
Top contributors
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Senior Research Fellow, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney
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Research Associate, Centre for Urban Transitions, Swinburne University of Technology
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Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Medical-Legal Partnership Clinic, University of Memphis
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Emeritus Professor of Housing Studies, Centre for Urban Transitions, Swinburne University of Technology
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Head of Urbanism and Associate Professor of Urban Studies, School of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney
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Professor of Housing & Social Policy, Centre for Urban Transitions, Swinburne University of Technology
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Adjunct Professor, School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University
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Lecturer, Thomas More Law School, Australian Catholic University
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Research Associate, University of Sheffield
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Lecturer in Law, University of East Anglia
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Assistant Professor in Public Health, University of Michigan
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Lecturer, Retail History, Macquarie University
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Principal Lecturer in Law, University of Portsmouth
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Professor, Environmental and Urban Change, York University, Canada
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Research Fellow in Housing Studies, University of Stirling
