Reinventing renting? ESG investing and the new landlordism of build-to-rent housing financialization

This paper traces the social value and risk management strategies of a pension -backed build-to-rent (BtR) housing provider in the United Kingdom. Through these strategies, BtR is positioned as a ‘new’ socially and environmentally responsible model, appealing to institutional investors seeking to do ‘good’ while also filling fiduciary mandates to pay promised pensions. However, this paper reveals how the vision of a redefined rental market, advanced by a major BtR landlord, strengthens aspects of the existing landlord-tenant relationship while also introducing some limited innovations. The case shows that the BtR provider relies on conventional but problematic risk profiling techniques that hierarchically classify households according to ostensibly neutral credit, income, and employment criteria. The result masks the classed and racialised dynamics through which desirable tenants – implicitly cast as uniquely deserving of an elevated rental experience – are separated from those deemed too risky. Through a critical examination of constructions of ‘social value’ and ‘risk’, I show how household risk profiles are transformed into ethical risk for a range of investors. Furthermore, the sector specific investment risks identified by the firm define the limits of how and for whom renting can be reinvented. Therefore, while the risk assessments applied to tenants in BtR developments are not themselves new, their integration into the risk economies of ESG investing brings distinct challenges and opportunities for those interested in housing justice and housing rights.