At home in the upper strata: Social positions of small-scale landlords in a European cross-country perspective

Although the private rental sector has registered growth in recent years, knowledge about small-scale landlords (SSL) as key actors in housing provision is still scant, especially when it comes to their social position. From an inequality perspective, the phenomenon of letting is characterised by two dimensions of asymmetries: an everyday asymmetry due to legal imbalances and an inequality in the resources that can be used to assert claims and interests, both in letting practice and at the level of housing policy. While previous research has focused on the former, this article examines the social positions of SSL and asks whether tenancies are characterised by a twofold inequality: legally and socially. This is based on the conflict-theoretical assumption that letting is not only an output of housing systems but that SSL, depending on their capital resources, can also be an input factor in the emergence of housing issues. This is the first cross-country study in landlord research portraying SSL and their social position on the basis of harmonised and representative data (Household Finance and Consumption Survey 2021). Despite country-specific housing regimes, SSL are mostly at home in the upper social strata regarding their economic and non-economic capital. The landlord-tenant relationship is marked by a twofold asymmetry because of legal and social advantages. The work provides fundamental insights into SSL and can serve as a basis for further research on the interrelationship between SSL and the constitution and development of housing systems.