 Rental proptech platforms: Changing landlord and tenant power relations in the UK private rental sector?Thomas Wainwright Environment and Planning A, 2023, vol. 55, issue 2, 339-358 Abstract: 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. Keywords: Private rental sector; algorithms; artificial intelligence; platforms; proptech (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:55:y:2023:i:2:p:339-358 DOI: 10.1177/0308518X221126522 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Environment and Planning A |
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