Housing affordability is an enduring issue globally. Disproportionately affected by this trend are renters: those households who do not own their primary dwelling. Rather than being a transitionary phase – a stepping stone to homeownership – as in decades past; renting is becoming a permanent, and often financially draining, state for many households. Housing affordability is significant to the lives of renters, as renters overwhelmingly spend more of their income, as a proportion, on housing than homeowners do. In Canada, renters are not eligible for many wealth subsidies that homeowners enjoy (i.e., the exclusion of capital gains tax on the sale of primary residence), have less autonomy over their living space, and less security of tenure. These concerns, combined with aging multi-unit rental stock, disinvestment of governments from social housing funding, and a funneling of private funds towards condominium developments, has left those in the rental market with increasingly fewer housing options. This dissertation seeks to explore how households renting in the low-cost segment of the housing market gain access to housing and why they move. Special emphasis is placed on the nom-purpose built market, and a tool for better enumerating otherwise undocumented housing units is proposed. Findings suggest that previously undocumented, secondary units play a significant role in local housing markets, particularly within dense 19th century neighbourhoods with good access to amenities and transit. The dissertation also suggests that the social milieu of participants’ lives, including relationships with landlords and property managers, highly influences decisions to move. Lastly, the research finds that informal agreements, as well as units, characterizes entry and habitation of many units within the low-cost segment of the housing market. This dissertation contributes to the field of knowledge on residential mobility and housing geographies by exploring two primarily unexamined areas of local housing markets: informal units and informal agreements. / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy / This dissertation examines the role of the private sector in housing individuals living in the low-cost segment of the rental market. Emphasis is placed on non-purpose built rentals and how they contribute to the larger function of local housing provision. Hamilton, Ontario is used as a case-study in all three papers that comprise the thesis. Findings are largely derived from a novel field enumeration technique and qualitative interviews with tenants. Taken together, results from the three papers indicate that the non-purpose built market plays a non-negligible role in providing affordable housing options to tenant households. The presented findings also suggest that amateur landlords and informal rental arrangements highly influence the form and function of low-cost rental units. Lastly, the papers suggest that highly mobile tenant populations are considerably affected by social milieu in the selection of housing units and intra-urban mobility decisions.

A partir de l’évolution des écarts spatiaux des prix du logement et des prix fonciers entre sept secteurs de Bogota, entre 1970 et 2012, cette thèse analyse l’ampleur des recompositions socio-spatiales de la ville. En croisant l’analyse urbaine et l’étude de marchés immobiliers, cette recherche aborde l’évolution des secteurs déjà construits de la ville et les variations des prix des logements anciens. Contrairement aux recherches qui insistent sur la profondeur et la rapidité des transformations des villes latino-américaines sous l’effet de la globalisation, nos résultats montrent que les différences spatiales des prix du logement restent stables. Seuls les écarts spatiaux des prix fonciers augmentent pendant notre période d’étude. L’analyse statistique des facteurs explicatifs de l’inertie des écarts spatiaux des prix montre que la stabilité globale résulte de la conjonction de deux tendances ayant des effets opposés. La diffusion des commerces réduit les écarts spatiaux des prix, alors que la valeur symbolique du secteur de résidence explique le maintien des différences spatiales des prix. Quant aux prix fonciers, la densification des constructions explique une portion des écarts croissants entre secteurs de la ville, mais reste insuffisante pour comprendre l’ampleur des évolutions constatées / Following the evolution of the gaps in housing and land values between seven sectors of Bogotá between 1970 and 2012, this thesis analyzes the scale of urban socio-spatial transformations. By overlapping urban analysis with the study of real estate markets, this analysis deals with the evolution of already-built areas and their housing prices. In contrast with research that emphasizes the depth and rapidity of transformations in Latin American cities during globalization, our findings show that gaps in housing prices from one area to another remain stable. During the period studied, only in the realm of land value gaps in prices between one area and another did actually widen. The statistical analysis of factors explaining the stability of gaps between housing prices from one area to another reveals that overall stability results from the conjunction of two trends with opposite effects. The spatial diffusion of shopping outlets reduces the gaps in housing prices from one area to another, to the same extent as the symbolic or perceived value of each of these residential areas keeps these gaps in prices entrenched. As for land prices, the densification of buildings explains to some extent the widening gaps in prices between some sectors of the city, but this one factor is not enough to explain the extent of the observed evolutions