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The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed complex connections between housing and health vulnerabilities. By investigating the share housing market in Sydney, Australia during the COVID-19 period, this paper examines these connections, highlighting health risks associated with shared facilities, overcrowding, and rental insecurity. Using data from Flatmates.com.au, Australia's dominant share housing platform, the paper analyses advertisements offering or seeking share housing in April and August 2020. The analysis highlights health risks, vulnerabilities and risk management strategies employed by those looking for share accommodation or new household members during the pandemic period as well as wider implications for housing and health policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia faces a chronic shortage of affordable rental housing, as do many other nations in the Global North. Unable to access the formal rental sector, lower-income earners are increasingly resorting to share housing and other informal arrangements, sometimes occupying makeshift accommodation or illegal dwellings. This article examines informality in Sydney's housing market, an important case because of the explicit policy efforts geared towards supporting diverse and higher density housing supply. It draws on analysis of the regulatory planning framework and primary data derived from interviews and focus groups with housing advocates, support workers and building compliance officers from across the metropolitan region. It seeks to understand the drivers of supply and demand within the informal housing market and constructs a typology of informal tenures and dwelling provision. The article contributes new empirical data on the outcomes of planning policies designed to enable flexible housing responses which legitimise some informal practices, and the wider dimensions of informal housing provision within formal urban systems of the Global North. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shared housing emerges as an important housing choice for low-to-middle income tenants experiencing difficulties accessing housing in competitive and unaffordable formal rental markets. Shared room housing – where two or more non-related tenants share sleeping spaces, such as bedrooms or partitioned living rooms – is a growing subcategory of shared housing in cities of the Global North. Shared room tenancies are arranged under multi-layered sub-letting rental arrangements that often lack written tenancy agreements and formal protection. Despite evidence that more people are living in shared room housing, there is limited research that explores the experiences of those living in these informal arrangements and the relationship with policy/regulatory frameworks that seek to govern shared housing practices. This paper addresses this gap by investigating tenants' motivations for living, and the challenges they face, in informal shared room housing in Sydney. The study finds that shared room housing offers flexibility and rental affordability for tenants marginalised from the formal rental market; however, it also raises a series of issues, such as tenure insecurity, exploitation, health and safety risks, and lack of access to formal dispute resolution services. The paper identifies regulatory and enforcement challenges in informal shared room housing and calls for policy reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shared room housing is a growing private rental submarket, which offers flexible and affordable rental sub-lettings for sharing a bedroom or living room with non-related tenants. However, research exploring the living experiences and home-making practices of shared room tenants is sparse. Drawing on an empirical base of shared room housing experiences in Sydney (online survey n = 103, in-depth interviews n = 35), this paper provides insights on how these residents strive to achieve the material, social and emotional elements of home while dealing with insecure occupancies and maintaining multiplex relations with non-related roommates and housemates. In response to shifting spatial, material and social configurations, home in shared room housing emerges as an ever-changing process of (re)making and unmaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the wider affordability crisis affecting major cities throughout the world, share housing has become increasingly important, potentially expanding capacity in the private rental sector. But share housing is difficult to monitor and research, embedded in various forms of tenancy and household arrangements within the wider housing system. Online rental platforms which increasingly enable and facilitate the share housing sector may also offer a critical window into its operation. This paper examines this possibility with reference to Sydney, Australia, drawing on listings scraped from share housing platform "Flatmates.com.au" to determine the scale and distribution of shared housing vacancies relative to the city's wider housing market. Our findings demonstrate rising dependence on share housing as a source of lower-cost rental supply near employment and education but raise questions about share accommodation as a long-term housing solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Commentary is an attempt to understand the recent, rapid rise of short‐term property rentals in some of the world's most popular neighbourhoods, and what it means for communities, whether urban or rural. The literature to date has tackled the issue from a number of different perspectives, but there is no clear consensus on what the key issues are within this sector of the so‐called "sharing economy." Despite claims to the contrary, I argue that there is something new about this phenomenon, in relation to its growth, intensity and spatial concentration. I also argue that it represents a kind of double disruption, and that home sharing can usefully be conceptualised as neighbourhood sharing if we want to arrive at a better understanding of local reactions to it, and how we might best respond to it from a regulatory point of view. This Commentary argues that the rapid rise of the short‐term rental in cities across the world has led to the creation of a set of super‐popular "globalhoods," where many residents feel overwhelmed by tourists. From Edinburgh and Barcelona to New York and Sydney, it is clear that something new and different is afoot. I make three propositions relating to the growth, intensity and spatial concentration of this global phenomenon and argue that home sharing should be understood as neighbourhood sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Share housing is changing. Once considered a form of short-term housing and a lifestyle choice for young adults fresh out of the family home, share housing is increasingly playing a broader role into advanced adulthood. Recent work has claimed the emergence of Generation Rent; however, the reconfiguration of housing experiences is illustrated not only by renting but also by an increase in house sharing and the emergence of 'Generation Share' within the renting cohort. We know surprisingly little about share housing and its increasingly important role in housing. This paper draws upon exploratory research conducted on share housing in Sydney, Australia, and argues that share housing as traditionally understood is changing. Share housing has a widening demographic and it is driven primarily by economic factors. Despite this, the social affordances offered by share housing are highly valued. Share housing therefore offers us a unique lens into changing housing pathways and values and provokes us to think of ways to produce more socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shared housing sector is a growing private rental submarket. Researchers have sought to analyse the drivers of this growth, the benefits of shared housing for tenants, landlords and wider urban systems, as well as risks for tenants and local planning systems. Yet, there is limited research exploring the diversity of the shared housing sector. In particular, analysis of room or space sharing with non-related adults is lacking. This paper explores the characteristics, geography and impact of room sharing across Sydney. By analysing online accommodation listings this paper provides insights for policymakers seeking to monitor and regulate shared room accommodation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]