To shed light on  an emerging private rental housing market, the project titled “Understanding tenants and landlords in Romania”, ethically approved by the University of Bucharest, invited the public to contemplate the notion of the ‘Ideal Rented Property.’ Although ideals exist solely in the realm of imagination, they still influence our expectations and actions. I deeply thank the 18 contributors (homeowners, tenants, and landlords) for their courageous willingness to speak openly.

To note, I asked my contributors about a rented property, a question aimed at property quality rather than home, because on the one hand, “home” is a slippery, subjective, complicated concept and on the other hand, the word does not translate well into the Romanian language. In Romanian, “home” is not a noun but an adverb, hence one could go home or feel at home; the home cannot be neither owned nor rented but only sensed. However, the material rented property should accommodate the emotional, subjective construct of “home”:

For me, the ideal rented property must be associated with the word “home”. To feel at home.

One of the basis from which one could create that sense of home is the physical quality of the rented property. For my video contributors, the first and foremost quality of the ideal rented property was to be well provided with all needed appliances:

where you have, I don’t know, at least the necessary objects, so to speak, a television, an air conditioner. Or in the bathroom: a washing machine, a cupboard where you can leave your necessities. Or in the kitchen: a hob and oven, a refrigerator, of course spacious enough to fit the food.

“Good”, “up-to-date” appliances “make life easy, not to waste too much time with kitchen chores, so to speak”. Furnishing also mattered. My collaborators emphasised the need to have enough furniture to store one’s personal objects, after all tenants are not just visiting but inhabiting the place:

To have enough furniture, I collect many things and if there’s not enough furniture, at least to have the owner’s approval to put some shelves or what I think I would need.

Collaborators argued that the ideal rented property should be overall of “decent”, “habitable” (one even said “modest”) quality rather than “luxurious”, but these subjective standards clearly mean different things to different people:

I want the rented property to be as decent as possible, that is, not to be furnished with grandma’s furniture, but I also don’t want it to be a very expensive or new furniture. It should still be decent and clean.

While diversity in quality standards is appreciated for fitting diverse needs/pockets, it is extremely important for rent values to vary accordingly if we are to speak of a ‘fair’ market:

The quality-price ratio must be felt: it’s not normal for a flat that looks outdated, has old furniture to have about the same rent as a modernised one, it is not fair. Also, the way the owner presents the property is important. If I say 2 rooms, it has 2 rooms; it doesn’t have a sofa in the kitchen and suddenly it’s “open-space” even though it’s not. It is important to pay for what is offered.

Safety was emphasised by a few collaborators, the property should be sound and free of health hazards:

The construction should be durable, without visible defects. And the absence of certain factors that could negatively influence the health of the tenants, namely mould or leaks. Absence of any rodents or other uninvited creatures.

Location is critical: the ideal rented property should offer spatial proximity to one’s main interest (work, school) while the neighbourhood should have local amenities (corners shops, public transport, greenery).

The video presents additional specific ideas (e.g., about energy efficiency, layout, light, balcony, parking), reflecting personal taste, needs or experiences. What I would like to emphasise is the fact the ideal rented property is always in the act of making by landlords (maintaining it in good conditions) and tenants (adapting it to their requirements):

It would be maintained regularly and would be in good condition when it is presented to the tenants. It would offer the possibility of adaptation and personalisation within the limits permitted by the rental contract.

It is for the above reasons that one collaborator concluded:

Of course, the ideal rented property must also have an ideal landlord and an ideal tenant.

By definition, ideals are horizons towards which we are heading but which remain theoretically unattainable. And yet, what my collaborators have described as the ideal rental property is more of a realistic depiction of what the private rental sector should offer: a space where you can feel at home. It is already significant, in my view, the fact that approximately 80% of the 88 tenants who participated in our research either through a questionnaire or through an interview, felt fully or almost at home in their rented accommodation (in stark contrast to their Anglo-Saxon counterparts; of course it would be desirable for all of them to feel this way). I’ll leave some of my participants “home” photos to end this blog.

Dr Adriana Mihaela Soaita

University of Bucharest and University of Glasgow

The research was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101059188. The views expressed in this video reflect solely the opinions of each contributor and not those of the Principle Investigator, the University of Bucharest or the Funder.

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