Private landlords in Germany: Positions, attitudes and strategies in a privileged class

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Nicole Burzan
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 524963742

Private landlords and landladies are the largest group of housing providers in the German rental housing market. In no other western country housing is that often provided by private individuals. Nevertheless, very little is known about private landlords, even in times of heating public debates about rising rents and energy prices and their social consequences. The project addresses this research gap. The guiding principle is a Bourdieusian perspective: we understand landlords as members of privileged classes and ask about their objective situations and subjective positioning. Beyond clichés (e.g., landlords as ‚rent sharks‘), we are interested in: 1. How is the usually privileged economic capital of landlords related to their cultural and social capital in terms of class situation? 2) How is the social class and the genesis of the landlord's role related to habitual attitudes (e.g., social positioning) as well as told behaviors (e.g., towards tenants, investment behavior, participation in landlord associations)? Which constellations of conditions are characteristic? With that said, we fill a research gap on a main actor in the housing market. We explore, from a sociological perspective on inequality, habitual demarcations at the interface between middle and upper classes (fractions). In the sense of Bourdieu, we furthermore investigate the relationship between high-income groups and more privileged classes. With rentable real estate as an important component of wealth, we also aim to link the sociology of housing and the sociology of inequality. Empirically we shed light on the research topic using mixed methods. After a preparatory quantitative secondary data analysis, we conduct qualitative guided interviews based on grounded theory.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants