New research highlights how Silicon Valley-style investment strategies are reshaping housing - and why this matters for renters.
Venture capital-backed housing start-ups are exposing tenants to serious risks as they race to scale globally, according to a new study. It calls for closer scrutiny of who is financing housing innovation - and the implications for affordability and security.
Author Dr Tim White says the rise of real estate start-ups targeting residential markets are putting renters at risk of poor living conditions, inflated rents and even eviction.
Venture capitalists have sought to reinvent housing in their own image - but it is tenants who pay the price
Dr Tim White
The research focuses particularly on 'co-living' start-ups: shared rental housing marketed towards young professionals. It shows how these firms were pushed by investors to prioritise rapid expansion over stability, acquiring rivals and entering multiple markets at once.
This "hypergrowth" logic, borrowed from the tech sector, sits uneasily with housing's complex and costly realities.
As losses mounted, companies cut costs, leaving tenants to bear the consequences. Reports include neglected maintenance, withheld deposits and sudden evictions when firms collapsed.
In some cases, residents were locked out for months or faced unsafe living conditions. Others were hit with unexpected fees as start-ups scrambled for revenue.
White argues these problems are structural, not incidental. "Housing is an essential need for us all. When it is treated as another avenue for Silicon Valley experimentation, the human cost is hard to ignore."
The list of potential risks includes:
- Housing insecurity - tenants can face sudden eviction when start-ups collapse or withdraw from properties.
- Neglect and poor living conditions - rapid expansion often leads to under-maintenance, unresolved safety issues, and inadequate staffing.
- Financial exploitation - withheld deposits, unexpected fees, and inflated rents (sometimes several times higher than local norms).
- Legal vulnerability - reliance on short-term contracts and loopholes means tenants have fewer protections under tenancy law.
- Emotional and physical risk - unsafe co-living arrangements, including cases where residents were exposed to threatening behaviour without company intervention.
The study calls for closer scrutiny of who is financing housing innovation - and the implications for affordability and security.
