Rental proptech platforms

Changing landlord and tenant power relations in the UK private rental sector

Bibliographic Data

ID4849641
AuthorsThomas Wainwright (0009-0003-5415-4558, School of Business and Management, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume55
Issue2
Pages339-358
Publication date2023-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Planning A Economy and Space (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0308-518X • E-ISSN: 1472-3409
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0308518x221126522
OpenAlexW4304845531
LanguageEN
Citations received30
References cited39

The structure of the UK's private rental sector (PRS) is being disrupted by a new series of rental proptech platforms (RPPs). These start-ups are adopting technologies including artificial intelligence and algorithms which draw upon ever broader datasets to automate and mediate the relationships between tenants and landlords. Only recently have researchers turned to examine new RPPs, which are challenging existing processes within the PRS, through their attempts to digitise all aspects of renting, from a tenant's initial search and application, to end-contract management. This paper seeks to provide two contributions: first, to uncover how platform entrepreneur views of 'ideal' tenants shape the algorithms and scripts that run within their start-ups, and how they shift to accommodate the demands of external venture capital funding. Second, it seeks to examine how landlords are falling under the gaze of technological surveillance and automated judgements, as well as tenants, to illustrate how fragmented and uneven data topologies create inequalities through automated ordering and judgements

Business · Economics · Industrial organization · Landlord · Political science · Renting · Computer Science · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Engineering · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Sharing Economy and Platforms

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