University towns and cities face the need to accommodate sizeable student populations. Consequently, they are fertile grounds for housing financialisation and densification, and their neighbourhoods experience studentification. In this article, we consider the nexus of these three phenomena by investigating the production of ‘rooming flats’ in Lodz, Poland. Rooming flats are accommodations delivered usually through a profit-seeking conversion of conventional spacious flats in historic inner-city buildings into shared housing with multiple single-occupancy bedrooms for student rentals. We empirically illustrate the rooming flats in Lodz: their materialities, geographies, labelling and impacts on the inner city, as well as the rooming-flat business itself. In this way, we demonstrate the interplay of financialisation, densification and studentification and show how it contributes to the multifaceted change of the inner city in Lodz.
AalbersMB (2019) Financial geography II: Financial geographies of housing and real estate. Progress in Human Geography43(2): 376–387.
2.
Antczak-StępniakA (2022) The role of real estate development activity in the re-urbanization of cities – A case study of Łódź, Poland. Environmental & Socio-economic Studies10(4): 59–70.
3.
BouwmeesterJGerberJ-DHartmannT, et al. (2023) Non-compliance and non-enforcement: An unexpected outcome of flexible soft densification policy in the Netherlands. Land Use Policy125: 106525.
4.
BraunVClarkeV (2013) Successful Qualitative Research. A Practical Guide for Beginners. London: SAGE.
5.
CasierC (2024) The coliving market as an emergent financialized niche real estate sector: A view from Brussels. Housing Studies39(9): 2355–2376.
6.
CenereSMangioneESantangeloM, et al. (2023) Setting up a university city. Geographies of exclusion in North Turin. Tijdschrift Voor Economische en Sociale Geografie114(5): 400–414.
7.
CesarskiM (2017) Niektóre sprzeczności neoliberalnej polityki mieszkaniowej – mechanizmy globalne i Polska [Some contradictions of neoliberal housing policy – global mechanisms and Poland]. UR Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences3(4): 90–113.
8.
DebrunnerGKaufmannD (2023) Land valuation in densifying cities: The negotiation process between institutional landowners and municipal planning authorities. Land Use Policy132: 106813.
9.
DebrunnerGHengstermannAGerberJ-D (2020) The business of densification: Distribution of power, wealth and inequality in Swiss policy making. Town Planning Review91(3): 259–281.
10.
DrozdaŁ (2023) Dziury w Ziemi. Patodeweloperka w Polsce [Holes in the Earth. Patodeweloperka in Poland]. Wołowiec: Wydawnictwo Czarne.
11.
DziałekJMurzyn-KupiszM (2015) Zachowania i preferencje przestrzenne młodych artystów w mieście na przykładzie Krakowa i Katowic [The behavior and spatial preferences of young artists in the city on the example of Crackow and Katowice]. In: TrzepaczPWięcław-MichniewskaJBrzosko-SermakA, et al. (eds.) Miasto w Badaniach Geografów. Kraków: Instytut Geografii i Gospodarki Przestrzennej Uniwersytetu Jaggielońskiego, pp. 91–120.
12.
Eurostat (2023) Housing in Europe – 2023 interactive edition. In: Interactive Publications. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2785/279048 (accessed 7 February 2024).
13.
FabulaSBorosLKovácsZ, et al. (2017) Studentification, diversity and social cohesion in post-socialist Budapest. Hungarian Geographical Bulletin66(2): 157–173.
14.
FiorentinoSLivingstoneNShortM (2020) Financialisation and urban densification: London and Manchester’s niche student housing markets. Regions7. DOI: 10.1080/13673882.2020.00001079.
15.
Gadowska-dos SantosD (2018) Istota i skala finansjalizacji rynku nieruchomości mieszkaniowych w Polsce w latach 2000–2015 [Significance and Scale of Financialisation of the Housing Market in Poland in the Period 2000–2015]. Studia i Prace Kolegium Zarządzania i Finansów165: 111–140.
16.
GarmendiaMCoronadoJMUreñaJM (2012) University students sharing flats: When studentification becomes vertical. Urban Studies49(12): 2651–2668.
17.
GrabkowskaMFrankowskiJ (2016) ‘Close to the city centre, close to the university’. Are there symptoms of studentification in Gdańsk, Poland?Bulletin of Geography. Socio-Economic Series32: 78–83.
18.
GrantJLLeeUDerksenJ, et al. (2018) Neighbourhood change and the fate of rooming houses. Tijdschrift Voor Economische en Sociale Geografie110(1): 54–69.
19.
HaaseAGrossmannKSteinführerA (2012) Transitory urbanites: New actors of residential change in Polish and Czech inner cities. Cities29(5): 318–326.
20.
HochstenbachCWindBArundelR (2021) Resurgent landlordism in a student city: Urban dynamics of private rental growth. Urban Geography42(6): 769–791.
21.
HoltonMMouatCM (2021) The rise (and rise) of vertical studentification: Exploring the drivers of studentification in Australia. Urban Studies58(9): 1866–1884.
22.
HubbardP (2025) Small is beautiful? Making sense of ‘shrinking’ homes. Urban Studies62(1): 187–203.
23.
Jakóbczyk-GryszkiewiczJMarcińczakSWolaniukA (2014) Gentrification processes in the city. In: MarszałT (ed.) Society and space in contemporary Poland in Łódź University Geographical Research. Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, pp. 83–111.
24.
JolivetVReiserCBaumannY, et al. (2023) Before displacement: Studentification, campus-led gentrification and rental market transformation in a multiethnic neighborhood (Parc-Extension, Montréal). Urban Geography44(5): 983–1002.
25.
KennaTMurphyA (2021) Constructing exclusive student communities: The rise of ‘superior’ student accommodation and new geographies of exclusion. The Geographical Journal187(2): 138–154.
26.
KintonCSmithDPHarrisonJ (2016) De-studentification: Emptying housing and neighbourhoods of student populations. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space48(8): 1617–1635.
27.
KintonCSmithDPHarrisonJ, et al. (2018) New frontiers of studentification: The commodification of student housing as a driver of urban change. The Geographical Journal184(3): 242–254.
28.
KotusJRzeszewskiMBajerskiA (2018) Visitors in Urban Structures. Students and Tourists in the City. Poznań: OpenGeoHum.
29.
KubešJKovácsZ (2020) The kaleidoscope of gentrification in post-socialist cities. Urban Studies57(13): 2591–2611.
30.
Kucharska-StasiakEZałęcznaMŻelazowskiK (2014) Prywatyzacja komunalnego zasobu jako element lokalnej polityki mieszkaniowej na przykładzie gminy Łódź [Privatisation of Municipal Housing Stock as an Element of Local Housing Policy. The Case Study of the City of Lodz]. Studia Komitetu Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania Kraju PAN157: 123–139.
31.
KurowskaZSochaJGabryszewskaK (2024) How housing problems affect students: Analysis of in-depth interviews with Polish student occupation strike participants. Society Register8(3): 7–36.
32.
MarcińczakSSaganI (2011) The socio-spatial restructuring of Łódź, Poland. Urban Studies48(9): 1789–1809.
33.
MarcińczakSMusterdSStępniakM (2012) Where the grass is greener: Social segregation in three major Polish cities at the beginning of the 21st century. European Urban and Regional Studies19(4): 383–403.
34.
MiessnerM (2021) Studentification in Germany: How investors generate profits from student tenants in Goettingen and the impacts on urban segregation. European Urban and Regional Studies28(2): 133–154.
35.
MoosMRevingtonNWilkinT, et al. (2019) The knowledge economy city: Gentrification, studentification and youthification, and their connections to universities. Urban Studies56(6): 1075–1092.
36.
MulhearnCFrancoM (2018) If you build it will they come? The boom in purpose-built student accommodation in central Liverpool: Destudentification, studentification and the future of the city. Local Economy33(5): 477–495.
37.
Murzyn-KupiszMSzmytkowskaM (2015) Studentification in the post-socialist context: The case of Cracow and the Tri-City (Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot). Geografie120(2): 188–209.
38.
NakazawaT (2017) Expanding the scope of studentification studies. Geography Compass11(1): e12300.
39.
OgrodowczykA (2024) ‘Inner-city is not the place for social housing’– State-led gentrification in Łódź. Cities145: 104684.
40.
PaccoudA (2017) Buy-to-let gentrification: Extending social change through tenure shifts. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space49(4): 839–856.
41.
RevingtonNAugustM (2020) Making a market for itself: The emergent financialization of student housing in Canada. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space52(5): 856–877.
42.
RevingtonNMoosMHenryJ, et al. (2020) The urban dormitory: Planning, studentification, and the construction of an off-campus student housing market. International Planning Studies25(2): 189–205.
43.
RolnikR (2013) Late neoliberalism: The financialization of homeownership and housing rights. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research37(3): 1058–1066.
44.
RuggJRhodesDJonesA (2002) Studying a niche market: UK students and the private rented sector. Housing Studies17(2): 289–303.
45.
SmithDP (2005) ‘Studentification: The gentrification factory? In: AtkinsonRBridgeG (eds) Gentrification in a Global Context: The New Urban Colonialism. London: Routledge, pp. 83–100.
46.
SmithDP (2019) Studentification. In: OrumAM (ed.) The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, pp. 2069–2070.
47.
SmithDPHoltL (2007) Studentification and ‘apprentice’ gentrifiers within Britain’s provincial towns and cities: Extending the meaning of gentrification. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space39(1): 142–161.
48.
SmithN (1979) Toward a theory of gentrification. A back to the city movement by capital, not people. Journal of the American Planning Association45(4): 538–548.
49.
SokołowiczME (2019) Student cities or cities of graduates? The case of Lodz and its students’ declared preferences. Population, Space and Place25(2): e2177.
50.
SotomayorLTarhanDVietaM, et al. (2022) When students are house-poor: Urban universities, student marginality, and the hidden curriculum of student housing. Cities124: 103572.
51.
SzafrańskaECoudroy de LilleLKazimierczakJ (2019) Urban shrinkage and housing in a post-socialist city: Relationship between the demographic evolution and housing development in Łódź, Poland. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment34(2): 441–464.
52.
TellerJ (2021) Regulating urban densification: What factors should be used?Buildings & Cities2(1): 302–317.
53.
UyttebrouckCvan BuerenETellerJ (2020) Shared housing for students and young professionals: Evolution of a market in need of regulation. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment35: 1017–1035.
54.
WhiteT (2024) Beds for rent. Economy and Society53(1): 67–91.
55.
ZasinaJ (2020) Miasta studentów – miasta konsumentów. Zachowania konsumenckie studentów w rozwoju Łodzi i Turynu [Student cities – Consumer cities. Students’ consumption and the development of Lodz and Turin]. Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego.
56.
ZasinaJ (2021) The student urban leisure sector: Towards commercial studentification?Local Economy36(5): 374–390.
57.
ZasinaJAntczakE (2023) The ‘gown’ unconcerned with the town? Residential satisfaction of university students living in off-campus private accommodation. Housing Studies38(8): 1536–1559.
58.
ZasinaJJakubiakW (2024) Studentification, youthification, and gentrification, all at once? New-builds, newcomers, and near-campus change in a post- industrial city. Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series64: 87–101.
