Landlords are rebranded as 'house hackers' – and capitalism is sanitised once again | Arwa Mahdawi

On TikTok, live-in landlords are described in a way that sounds less elitist and exploitative, more tech-driven and cool. And don't get me started on yimbys'

Allow me to introduce you to one of the most annoying phrases in the modern English language: house hacking. What's that when it's at home? It's when you rent out a room in your house - or a unit in your multi-unit building - so that your mortgage is covered by your tenants. Hang on, you might say, isn't there already a perfectly good way to describe this? Isn't that called being a live-in landlord?

Yes, precisely, but don't tell the house hackers that. They think they have discovered something new. And not only do they think they are property pioneers, they can't stop boasting about their financial prowess online. TikTok is full of viral videos in which house hackers explain how you too can get other people to pay your living expenses. Not all these videos, you will be amazed to hear, have been well received. There's something about people crowing about raking in rents during a cost-of-living crisis in which rents have rocketed that doesn't go down particularly well.