Disrupting Housing: digitalisation and innovations in housing

Presenting author: Pranita Shrestha (University of Sydney)

Other authors: Professor Nicole Gurran (University of Sydney), Dr Zahra Nasreen (University of Sydney)

The rise of platform capitalism has been instrumental in facilitating capital accumulation at scale through the commodification of previously untradable services and spaces. While 'home-sharing' platform Airbnb has become synonymous with 'peers' offering residential accommodation online, more traditional forms of house sharing between 'flat mates' have also been digitised by global platforms. In Australia, the platform 'Flatmates.com.au' has been used to 'list, search and connect' shared accommodation since 1990 but its prominence has risen significantly in recent years.

This paper examines implications of this transformation to investigate how platform capitalism is impacting the lowest end of the housing market - where people save costs by sharing. Reaching beyond the conventional young adult market for share housing we explore how Flatmates.com.au enables and (profits from) an informal housing network for those unable to afford/access the formal rental housing market. We also trace the relationship of this platform to the wider 'proptech' sector, asking what is the 'platform logic' (Fields and Rogers, 2020) of Flatmates.com.au and how it is operationalized. To explore these themes, the paper uses a historical analysis of the platform since its origin in 1990 to its present place within REA Groups, a global online real estate company.

Presenting author: Tim White (London School of Economics)

The past five years have seen growing numbers of 'co-living' developments popping up in large expensive cities all over the world. This emergent form of real estate - for-profit, privately managed and delivered shared housing aimed at young professionals - represents a new attempt to commercialise and monopolise group renting. It's a phenomenon attracting considerable interest from both institutional and venture capital. Proponents suggest that co-living will turn 'space into a service' through digital platforms that mediate both access to, and day-to-day life within the spaces - 'disrupting' housing systems to offer a universal, networked, frictionless residential environment.

Building upon interviews with co-living providers and investors, this paper will discuss the technologies being employed across the sector. In particular, it will reflect on the role they play in rendering the use of residential space more efficient and therefore profitable, as well as documenting emerging techniques for data extraction and enclosure among companies. Through these devices and strategies, I will argue that co-living can be seen to represent a unique meeting point between neoclassical conceptions of rent-seeking via landlordism and new forms of rent extraction via platforms.

Presenting author: Caitlin Buckle (University of Sydney)

Other author: Yuan Wei (University of Sydney)

Short-term rentals offered through the sharing economy, particularly those mediated through sites such as Airbnb and Vrbo, have been suggested as a potential accommodation solution during emergencies. Digital platforms are seen as increasing efficiency, ease, and flexibility in meeting demand, supposedly ideal for adapting to rapidly changing housing needs brought by major disruptive events. However, whether digital sharing economies are effective solutions in times of crisis has not been properly investigated. This paper presents findings from two research projects that explored the use of short-term rentals as emergency accommodation, and how this was mediated through sharing platforms.

Through interviews with crisis, health and short-term rental accommodation providers in NSW, Australia, the role and effectiveness of the sharing economy in providing emergency accommodation during the 2019-2020 bushfires and global COVID-19 pandemic was explored. In most cases, traditional accommodation types and local networks were utilised for rapid access to accommodation, rather than mediated through communication channels and dedicated emergency accommodation programs offered by digital share platforms. The paper concludes with an investigation into why this might be, with an overview of the identified risks and opportunities of using the digital sharing economy to aid the provision of emergency and crisis accommodation.

Presenting author: Colin McLeay (University of Waikato)

Recent New Zealand governments have sought to increase the provision of affordable housing by increasing the supply of land for housing and encouraging builders to include affordable housing in their developments. Despite claims to the contrary, affordable housing policies introduced by both centre-right and centre-left governments are expressive of neoliberal capture of the political process.

This paper explores tension between public endorsements of affordable housing policies and acceptance of market mechanisms in the provision of affordable housing. Thus, while Members of Parliament from both National-led and Labour-led Governments have identified the distinctiveness of their respective housing policies, recent legislative provisions draw on shared acceptance of post-political conceptions of state and society.