From privatisation to commodification : tenure conversion and new zones of transition in the city

Tenure conversion through sitting tenant purchase of state dwellings has been one of the most significant housing policies in recent years in a variety of contexts. This paper distinguishes between an initial phase of privatization and a subsequent phase of commodification and argues that there has been a tendency to conflate the two. Drawing on a major national study of the resale of former state-owned dwellings in England the paper provides the first substantial and authoritative account of patterns of change in the commodification phase and discusses the implications for the social composition of residential areas which were formerly exclusively owned by local authorities. In view of the volume of completed sales and the continued flow of tenure transfers through this route, the neighbourhoods affected by privatization and commodification are undergoing substantial changes. There are new zones of transition in which the working out of competition for housing is set within a new market framework and results in different outcomes in terms of social composition. -from Authors