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Fakultät Sozialwissenschaften
Project funded by DFG

Private landlords in Germany: Social situations, positioning, and courses of action

As the largest group of providers on the German rental housing market, very little is known about private landlords and landladies – even in times of heated public debates on rising rents and their social consequences including inequality dynamics.

Brief description

In our research, we investigate which motives, pattern of action and attitudes landlords have under which conditions, and how they asses their role as housing providers. In this way, we broaden our view beyond clichés such as the greedy “rent shark” or the rented apartment as a poverty-avoiding old-age provision. With a perspective on theories of social inequality, we focus on the conflict potential of tenancy relationships as well as on real estate as a component of wealth. Empirically, we are addressing the questions with a mixture of preliminary quantitative secondary data analyses and qualitative guides interviews.

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Publications
  • 2023 / Kadelke, Philipp: Private Vermieter*innen in Deutschland: Ein Sozialprofil der größten Anbietergruppe auf dem deutschen Wohnungsmarkt. Easy Social Sciences, Mixed 2. Link
  • 2023 / Kadelke, Philipp: Landlords vs Tenants = Top vs Bottom? Class Positions in Rental Housing in Germany. Critical Housing Analysis, 10 (1), pp. 66 – 76. Link
  • 2023 / Kadelke, Philipp: Private Vermieter*innen in Deutschland: Kleine Gruppe mit großer Wirkung, in: Villa Braslavsky, I.-P. (Ed.): Polarisierte Welten: Verhandlungen des 41. Kongresses der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie 2022. Link

Responsible employee: Philipp Kadelke