Review published in sub\urban - Zeitschrift für kritische Stadtforschung

The rental housing crisis is not only widely debated but also increasingly researched. In recent years, housing research has diversified and now examines rental-related phenomena from multiple perspectives. The sociologist Michael Byrne reviews and systematizes this growing body of literature. Approaching private renting from a critical perspective, he seeks to raise awareness of power asymmetries between landlords and tenants in everyday housing practices at the actor level. Byrne connects literature on subjective housing experiences with research on structural conditions and demonstrates how deeply rental housing is embedded in the configuration of economic inequalities. His compelling and highly useful narrative review highlights the complexity of rental housing systems while identifying a number of research gaps, ranging from insufficient data and conceptual ambiguities to questions concerning the validity of broader diagnoses of the present. One thing is clear after reading: once one literature review is completed, another one begins.

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