Regulatory gentrification: Documents, displacement and the loss of low-income housing

Within the vast literature on gentrification, law is not often discussed. Where it is mentioned, law tends to be discussed as a contributor to wider processes of displacement and dispossession. This article takes a different approach, examining law itself as a site of gentrification. My focus is the regulatory framework for the development of boarding houses in Sydney, Australia, contained within the State Environmental Planning Policy (Affordable Rental Housing) 2009 (ARH SEPP). In the midst of a growing housing crisis, the ARH SEPP introduced provisions to stem the loss of older boarding houses and to incentivise new construction. While intended for low-income accommodation, these provisions have increasingly been used for other purposes. The ARH SEPP has enabled new forms of housing for a far more affluent population, sometimes directly displacing low-income residents. Like other laws noted in other studies, the ARH SEPP can be understood as a contributor to the gentrification of various parts of Sydney. Yet there is more at play. Like so many physical spaces in which gentrification takes place, the ARH SEPP has itself changed in character, becoming a space for more privileged users.