Luck and Leaps of Faith: The experience of lower income singles navigating the emergent shared informal economy for renting in Australia

The growth of the Australian private rental sector continues to outpace all other forms of tenure. As a sector it houses growing numbers of single lower income persons including domestic and international students, young home leavers, new settlers, as well as increasing numbers of persons falling out of or unable to afford home ownership. This paper presents findings from Australian research examining the practices of lower income single renters navigating a burgeoning shared economy and emergent forms of renting as adaptations to rapid growth in rents and prices. The proliferation of online search and matching IT platforms has provided a conduit for the conversion of private dwelling spaces to exchangeable commodities that disrupt yet coexist with traditional private rental practices. The housing security and capacity of single renters to negotiate rental housing solutions are increasingly marked by chance encounters, luck and leaps of faith rather than planned and linear housing strategies for the future. The living arrangements of those entering informal renting communities are moderated by emerging norms of practices that are unequally negotiated among those taking up or residing in the dwelling. Thoseon the outside of newly formalising ‘informal’ renting communities face depleting housing options and extreme hardship.