Is housing policy uni-dimensional? Has the focus on encouraging home ownership and the simplistic depiction of landlords as exploitative accumulators of capital obscured the need to encourage the rental housing market? What can be done to ensure the availability of a healthy mix of tenures while preventing monopolistic forms of landlordism and guaranteeing rental housing standards?

Studies from the London School of Economics look at the role that rental housing plays in the livelihood responses and strategies of low-income tenants and landlords in the Indian cities of Bangalore and Surat. It makes a strong case that rental housing is integral to well functioning cities and that urban housing policies which do not recognise the multiple role of rental housing and provide support for it are inherently anti-poor.

Empirical evidence dispels myths. In both cities large-scale landlordism is an exception. Many landlords are as poor or even poorer than their tenants. Rental housing contributes to poverty reduction by reducing the vulnerability of landlords as well as tenants. For older and women-headed households it provides not only income but also a source of psychosocial security. Access to affordable rental housing determines the extent to which new migrants are able to secure an economic foothold, consolidate their urban status and meet economic and social obligations. The fact that a majority of landlords were themselves once tenants is testament to the ‘waiting-room’ function that rental housing plays.

The studies report that:

• Due to misguided policies, rental housing markets are shrouded by insecurity. Fearful of authority, many landlords do not disclose that they are involved in the letting of accommodation.
• Anti-rental policies provide fertile ground for corruption, bribing of officials and clientelist opportunities for local politicians.
• When urban resettlement projects set out to prevent the construction of rooms for rent it is the better-off who benefit. Predatory forms of landlordism are encouraged.
• Local councillors and un-elected leaders may try to control residents of squatter settlements from renting out accommodation for fear that they will lose political control.
• As religious and ethnic tensions rise, ownership of housing can be a liability rather than an asset as it provides a fixed target for violence and vandalism.
• A tenure neutral housing market is inclusive in nature by providing the opportunity for landlords and tenants to pursue livelihoods.

How can policymakers in India and elsewhere enhance the operation of rental markets without destroying the core of its success? The report recommends:

• greater openness and debate on the role and significance of tenure diversity
• moving from preoccupation with ownership based rights to the institutionalisation of locally responsive mechanisms which ensure security of tenure
• recognising the exclusionary tendency of rental housing markets – e.g. women have difficulty persuading landlords that they will be able to pay the rent
• abolishing inequitable property tax regimes which treat all landlords as an undifferentiated category
• treating landlords and tenants equitably and making them aware of their respective rights and responsibilities
• that UNCHS-Habitat and bilateral and multilateral agencies keen to support rental housing and change official attitudes must start talking with appropriate levels of local, and not exclusively central, government.

Source(s):
‘Social relations, rental housing markets and the poor in urban India’, Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics, by Sunil Kumar, September 2001 Full document.
‘In recognition of landlordism in low-income settlements in Third World cities: a critical review of the literature’, Urban Studies, 33 (4-5), 753-782, by Sunil Kumar, 1996 Full document.
‘Subsistence and petty capitalist landlords: A theoretical framework for the analysis of landlordism in Third World urban low-income settlements’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 20 (2), 317-329, by Sunil Kumar, 1996 Full document.

Funded by: DFID (IUDD)

id21 Research Highlight: 26 February 2002

Further Information:
Sunil Kumar
Department of Social Policy
London School of Economics
Houghton Street
London WC2 2AE
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7955 6195
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7955 7415
Contact the contributor: s.kumar@lse.ac.uk

Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics, UK

Other related links:
'Urban rental housing and inclusive cities', presentation to the 4th International Conference on Urban Poverty, Marrakech by Sunil Kumar, October 2001

One World reports on issues of shelter and housing

UN-HABITAT promotes sustainable human settlements and adequate shelter for all

ESCAP focuses on Asia-Pacific human settlements projects

Cities Alliance is committed to the vision of Cities Without Slums