Build-to-Rent (BTR) developments have expanded rapidly in the UK since 2013, often advertised as providing better quality rented accommodation for university-educated Millennials than available elsewhere in the private rental sector. However, the implications of this type of housing development, and especially its affordability, are poorly understood at the city scale, partly due to a lack of evidence of where these developments cluster and what they add to the housing stock in terms of property type, amenities and cost. This article draws on data relating to 373 BTR developments in London (representing over 40,000 housing units) to show that developments are clustered where transport-related infrastructural investments have opened ‘rent gaps’ that can be exploited by developers. Exploring how these BTR schemes are marketed, the article shows that this accommodation is typically provided through new short-term ‘subscription services’ which allow developers to rent property at a premium. Questioning whether BTRs really add affordable ‘local’ homes to the city, the article concludes that BTR provides ‘quick-fix’ rental accommodation which is doing little to solve London’s housing crisis. We focus on the London BTR market and how the expansion of this housing type is reshaping the sociospatial geographies of the city.

中文翻译：

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出租生活：伦敦不断发展的住宅基础设施和建房出租的兴起


自 2013 年以来，先建后租 (BTR) 开发项目在英国迅速扩张，通常宣传为受过大学教育的千禧一代提供比其他私人租赁行业更优质的租赁住宿。然而，人们对这种类型的住房开发的影响，特别是其可负担性，在城市范围内知之甚少，部分原因是缺乏证据表明这些开发集中在哪里以及它们在房产类型方面对住房存量的增加，便利设施和成本。本文利用了伦敦 373 个 BTR 开发项目（代表超过 40,000 个住房单元）的相关数据，表明开发项目集中在交通相关基础设施投资造成的“租金差距”上，可供开发商利用。文章探讨了这些 BTR 计划的营销方式，表明这种住宿通常是通过新的短期“订阅服务”提供的，该服务允许开发商以溢价出租房产。文章质疑 BTR 是否真的为城市增添了负担得起的“本地”住房，文章得出的结论是，BTR 提供了“快速解决”的租赁住宿，这对解决伦敦的住房危机无济于事。我们关注伦敦 BTR 市场以及这种住房类型的扩张如何重塑城市的社会空间地理。