Housing opacity in North America and beyond: a feasibility study

Abstract

The availability and access to rental ownership data have become a growing topic of interest among academics, housing organisations, policy makers, and advocacy groups. It is increasingly obvious that data infrastructures play a big role in facilitating the access, workability, and legibility of ownership information. Ownership data infrastructures are highly dependent on local and state governments, and are inevitably charged by political questions of ownership, information transparency, and housing priorities. In light of this, our paper aims to provide an overview of the state of housing ownership opacity through two lenses: First, we review housing data access in the 25 largest North American cities and six select European cities. We rate the access to housing ownership data by qualifying data in each city as either unavailable, fragmented, or incomplete. We argue that the multi-level governance infrastructure, where ownership data is handled and provided by different levels of government, increases information asymmetries between tenants and landlords in most cities, and, hampers, more broadly, housing justice efforts. Second, we use a case study in Montreal to highlight the range of questions in housing justice that could be explored, if data was more available. We conclude by discussing the wider implications of data availability in housing.