Gaming the system through temporary housing: Real estate intermediaries and the law in short-term rental markets

This article contributes empirical and conceptual insights to emerging debates on the regulation of short-term rentals (STRs) by delving into the socio-legal foundations of this housing market segment. Drawing on a qualitative study conducted between September 2022 and June 2023 focused on the governance of for-profit temporary housing (i.e., serviced, furnished, interim housing) in Zurich, it examines how real estate intermediaries in the temporary housing business interact with regulations and carve out niches in tight rental markets. Through an approach that understands temporary housing as a socio-legally constructed asset and a profit-maximising rental strategy within deregulated housing markets, the analysis reveals regulatory blind spots through which intermediaries exploit existing legal tools to circumvent or substitute laws governing rent relations and transactions in the housing market. In doing so, they promote tenure flexibilisation, shaping new pathways to rent extraction. The article foregrounds the concept of gaming to understand intermediaries' interactions and use of legal tools to serve their business interests, suggesting that opportunities for gaming the system of rental regulation are central to creating these assets, making temporary housing itself a strategy for driving housing deregulation and semi-formality. To bring the corruption of rent relations into sharper focus, it is necessary to expand and move beyond debates focused on regulating land use categories towards an understanding of the nexus between market and legal practices and their influence on restructuring rent relations.