ABSTRACT
The tenement house in the nineteenth century was associated with a number of problematic social and economic circumstances in the large growing cities. The pejorative term 'rental barrack' came to signify a complex of perceived social evils in the housing industry, such as unsanitary conditions, overcrowding and rising rents. As early as the mid nineteenth century, it was becoming frequent for the construction of housing to serve more than simply the owner's housing needs, and to function also as a capital investment, a source of interest income and as the property owner's pension and old age assurance. The markedly increased need of capital for investments in urban properties was intimately connected with the creation of large tenement houses in the 1860s and 1870s. The credit problem was one of the main reasons behind the formation of both Berlin and Stockholm property owners' organisations.
