ABSTRACT
The growth of rental housing was a consequence of developments which occurred at varying rates and times in the six countries from the early nineteenth century onwards. With the move to an urban based, capitalist economy housing was increasingly provided, like other essentials, as a market commodity. The inability of the unassisted private market to provide adequate housing at a bearable cost for a large proportion of the population is one of the root causes of the eventual decline of private renting. The elderly small scale and frequently low income landlords who owned much of the older property seemed likely to gradually disappear. In 1976 a new policy to regulate freehold conversion was agreed between the major political parties. The topic was intensely political with the left and the tenants’ movement wanting to encourage co-operatives and the conservatives and the landlords’ association wanting to promote freehold conversion.
