Home alone? Singles and Sydney's share housing market

Housing affordability pressures and demographic changes have meant that a growing proportion of Australian adults are renters, often in shared accommodation. This trend appears to be rising even amongst older cohorts, with... [ view full abstract ]

Housing affordability pressures and demographic changes have meant that a growing proportion of Australian adults are renters, often in shared accommodation. This trend appears to be rising even amongst older cohorts, with single people over forty (often following a break-up or divorce) also seeking to share most likely because they cannot afford to rent or buy a suitable home on their own. This raises questions about the housing choices available for singles, particularly in the shared rental sector which remains largely “hidden” from view, with limited data on the types of accommodation available, rental costs, or the ways in which share households form. This paper uses data scraped from online share advertisements to unveil some of the informal networks and arrangements pertaining to share homes in Sydney, Australia. It outlines the range of accommodation types available to rent (rooms, share rooms, accessory dwellings), average occupancy rates and rental arrangements, and indicators of potential discrimination which may make it more difficult for some singles to find appropriate housemates with which to share. It also canvases some of the existing and emerging forms of purpose built housing designed specifically to meet the needs of single renters, which range from low cost studio apartments through to cooperative housing developments designed to support communal living while allocating residents their own customised apartment space. In conclusion the paper asks what policy frameworks and regulation could exist to improve standards and security of choices at the bottom of the housing market, and enable new forms of self containment within a community setting across different stages of life.