Digital Rental Proptech And The Affective Economy of Platforms in The Netherlands

On December 17, the HKU Urban Systems Institute, through its Land and Housing Systems Cluster, jointly organised with the Real Estate Lab, hosted a research seminar titled “Digital Rental PropTech and the Affective Economy of Platforms in the Netherlands.” The seminar featured Prof. Daan Bossuyt, Assistant Professor of Spatial Planning at Utrecht University, as the keynote speaker. Prof. Jin Zhu served as the chair of the event.

At the beginning of the seminar, Prof. Zhu warmly welcomed all participants and introduced Prof. Bossuyt, whose research bridges digital innovation, governance, and urban housing systems. The presentation drew strong interest from the audience.

Prof. Bossuyt delivered an engaging talk investigating how digital rental platforms mediate landlord-tenant relations and enable the systematic non-enforcement of rental regulations in the Netherlands. His analysis revealed how PropTech design features influence power relations between landlords and tenants, normalising exploitative practices through platform visibility and interface architecture.

Following the presentation, the discussion moved into a lively Q&A session. Prof. Kelvin Wong from the Department of Real Estate and Construction engaged in an in‑depth exchange with Prof. Bossuyt on the broader implications of platform technologies for housing regulation and market governance. Many audience members, including students engaging in research in various areas, also participated actively, raising questions about algorithmic transparency and the future of rental regulation, to which Prof. Bossuyt responded with precision and insight.

The seminar concluded successfully, fostering rich discussion on the intersections of PropTech, housing governance, and urban systems research.

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Absrtact: The Dutch housing system is sometimes regarded as a bastion of strong rental controls and secure tenancies, a marked contrast to highly liberalized markets like Australia's. Yet beneath this veneer of protection the growing Dutch private rental sector knows a systematic non-enforcement of rental regulations. This paper explores how this pervasive non-enforcement is made possible. It specifically considers how robust tenant protections are being actively mediated and rendered inert by PropTech. The paper analyzes theoretically how landlord power is mediated through platform design itself to obscure and normalize practices of exploitation, including discrimination and the charging of excessive rents.

The paper’s analytical foundation rests on a post structuralist understanding of digital technologies, leveraging the concept of the 'politics of appearance' (Ash, 2013). This framework reveals platform architecture as an agent that actively governs what is visible or concealed from users, exploiting structural non-enforcement, and misguiding the liberal conception of contractual freedom and tenant action. This paper is based on a mixed-methods investigation. It integrates secondary quantitative data on rental listings from major platforms in Rotterdam (2016-2022) with a UX walkthrough of the two largest interfaces (Pararius, Huurwoningen.nl). The quantitative data shows that non-compliance is concentrated not in marginalized areas, but rather in more competitive neighborhoods. It is driven primarily by small-portfolio private landlords. The subsequent walkthrough exposes how specific design features, including liability disclaimers, the omission of required regulatory information, and 'Scarcity Indicators', actively manufacture an atmosphere of market urgency and diffuse regulatory accountability.

About the Speaker

Daan Bossuyt (he/him) is an Assistant Professor of Spatial Planning at Utrecht University's Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning. His work investigates the governance, institutions, and politics shaping urban development, focusing primarily on how planning systems address the critical challenges of sustainable and affordable urban housing. His research explores two core themes. The first is the politics of urban property, analyzing how competing values (degrowth, commons) may become selectively institutionalized into property regimes, planning systems, or land policy. The second concerns the transformation of housing systems through digital and data-driven systems, and the potential of alternative housing models (like cooperatives or modular housing) to foster urban sustainability. He serves as an editor for disP: The Planning Review.