I’m Associate Professor in Planning and Housing in the Department of Land Economy at the University of Cambridge. Prior to joining Cambridge, I held positions at the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), the Bauhaus-Universitaet Weimar (Germany), and TU Wien (Austria), where I initiated and led the Housing Research Group in the Department of Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy between 2017 and 2023. My research and teaching interests are in the areas of housing policy, urban geography, socio-spatial inequality, gentrification, financialisation, and the political economy of housing.  I’m Associate Editor of the International Journal of Housing Policy, was a member of the editorial collective of suburban. Zeitschrift für kritische Stadtforschung (2016-2023), as well as Editor in Chief of the multi-disciplinary journal The Public Sector (2017-2023). I’m joint coordinator of the working group Homeownership and Globalization in the European Network for Housing Research (ENHR). At the University of Cambridge, I’m also a member of the Lab of Interdisciplinary Spatial Analysis.

Most recent publication
The unlawful rent gap: How landlords close rent gaps despite rent regulation. Environment and Planning A.
A common view in the literature is that rent regulation inhibits the operation of the rent gap. This paper argues for a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between rent regulation and the rent gap. I contend that, under specific circumstances, landlords may not comply with rent regulation and close rent gaps nonetheless. This unlawful rent gap closure, whereby landlords charge higher rents than legally permitted, is facilitated by complex and opaque rent regulation, limited sanctions for landlords, as well as demographic and economic conditions that stimulate housing demand and attract capital into the property market. I demonstrate the relevance of the unlawful rent gap for current rent gap dynamics based on a case study of Vienna, Austria. Drawing on a unique data set of more than 2900 court decisions against landlords, I provide a fine-grained analysis of its scale and geography. I examine which social groups are most affected, estimate the size of the gap, and calculate a spatially-differentiated risk index for future exploitation. I argue that, in contrast to the classic rent gap, the unlawful rent gap is inherently unstable, as tenants can challenge high rents in court. This gives the legal system a central role in shaping rent gap dynamics. I end by specifying the wider relevance of my argument for rent gap scholarship beyond the case considered. Read paper