Clever Odysseus: narratives and strategies of rental property investor subjectivity in Australia

This paper is about property investment discourse in Australia, and how it constructs ‘property investor subjectivity’. Using the conceptual frameworks of financialization and governmentality studies, the paper examines current policy settings, media, books and, in particular, property investment seminars. Property investment discourse often takes the narrative form of the ‘property investment journey’, invoking Campbell’s ‘monomyth’ of the ‘hero’s journey’. It also presents a range of strategies of investment, underpinned by a common commitment to strategic thinking, and a rethinking of debt, such that an individual comes to know themselves through property investment. The paper shows how property investor subjectivity obtains purchase in contemporary subjectivity formation, and presents both challenges and opportunities for a counter discourse that advances the prospect of policies for more affordable, accessible housing and financial security.