Thesis-2018-Culora.pdf (12.6 MB)
Geographies of housing in multiple occupation
thesis
posted on 2022-02-03, 09:59 authored by Andreas CuloraDespite the proliferation of Housing in Multiple Occupation (HMO) having a
transformative effect on a range of local housing markets during the last three decades,
empirically-grounded investigations of geographies of HMO at various spatial scales
are lacking. This thesis provides an original contribution to ongoing debates within
geographic and housing studies by deepening understandings of the diversity of
geographies of HMO, using the case study of Loughborough, in the East Midlands of
England. First, a novel temporal examination of the HMO market is presented, via
mapping and spatial analyses of the national geographies of HMO between 2011/2012
and 2016/2017. It is revealed that the HMO market grew by 30.8% between 2007 and
2017. Second, it is shown that concentrations of HMO have unfolded in diverse rural,
suburban, peri-urban and other non-metropolitan locations. Importantly, this finding
extends pre-existing understandings of HMO that tend to be tied to university and
coastal towns/cities. Third, the relationships between geographies of HMO and
broader demographic, socio-economic and cultural patterns are analysed. It is
contended that the production of HMO is linked to broader processes including
internal/international migration, socio-economic deprivation and processes of family
formation and breakdown. By exploring student and non-student geographies of HMO
in Loughborough at fine-grained geographical resolutions, the thesis thus identifies a
broader range of geographies of HMO, which extend beyond university towns, largely
understood as a product of studentification. A widespread non-student HMO market
with distinct geographical patterns is exposed in the town. Furthermore, a mixed HMO
market shared by students and non-students is shown to exist in Loughborough. Non?students are constituted by a diverse group including professionals, international
migrant workers, low-skilled workers, benefit recipients and divorcees. It is argued that
cross-cutting processes produce this demand for HMOs including housing affordability,
and the demand for a mobile workforce in the town. Finally, the thesis provides
valuable insights into the regulation of HMO. Overall, it is asserted that the changing
geographies of HMO identified in this thesis are pertinent for furthering debates on
housing markets, population change and cultural shifts in perceptions of shared living
arrangements, particularly within the discursive context of a ‘broken housing market’.
Funding
Loughborough University. Charnwood Borough Council (Leicestershire, England).
History
School
- Social Sciences and Humanities
Department
- Geography and Environment
Publisher
Loughborough UniversityRights holder
© Andreas CuloraPublisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Publication date
2018Notes
A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University.Language
- en