Diving in at the ‘bottom end’: the risk awareness and risk management practices of sub £65K landlords

• Authors: Andrew Robert Watson
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Significant growth in Scotland’s private rented sector over the last 25 years has been led by a large number of individual lay investors/landlords who each own a smattering of properties. These characteristics, which are replicated in several countries where neoliberal housing policies prevail, have implications for the efficacy of PRS investments, but also for conditions and the stability of investment patterns within the sector. This study examines landlord investment risk awareness and behaviours via qualitative interviews with a small sample of Scottish landlords operating at the ‘bottom end’ of the market, which is disproportionately home to vulnerable groups and where some investment risks are believed to be more acute. The findings suggest that some landlords have relatively low levels of risk awareness, fail to adequately consider risk prior to investing in the PRS, have mixed success in selecting and implementing risk management and mitigation strategies, and incur significant risk-borne costs, which can limit returns.

Keywords

EN

private rented markets; housing economics; investment risk; financial resilience

Discipline

• SOCIOLOGY: SOCIOLOGY

• Publisher: Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Critical Housing Analysis
• Year: 2022
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 1-17
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Andrew Robert Watson

• Critical Housing Analysis, redakce,Sociologický ústav AV ČR, v. v. i. Jilská 1, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic