My home is no longer my castle. Collaborative housing as an element of sharing economy

Abstract

Collaborative housing is considered a long-term housing option based on the idea of sharing space in a community-boosting manner. Residents share areas like laundry, utility or leisure rooms. On this basis the authors argue that housing may be treated as a commodity that could be shared just like sharing economy goods are. Thus the aim of this study is to evaluate the potential of collaborative housing from the sharing economy perspective. To achieve the aim, concepts of Curtis and Lehner (2019) and Curtis (2021) were applied to check what collaborative housing lacks to become a fully-fledged sharing economy entity. Apart from the nature of housing, which is by no means a fast moving consumer good, the lack of a digital platform that is the basis of most sharing economy entities, is the most visible difference between collaborative housing and sharing economy entities. Moreover, a questionnaire survey was conducted among prospective housing market users in Poland to check their awareness and readiness for this housing option. The research findings confirmed that they are still very low among housing market participants and private property is still considered considerably better than shared property. However, a tighter connection between collaborative housing and the sharing economy may provide the impetus for the young generation to enter this form of housing. The study is a contribution to the debate on collective housing options in Europe and may be considered novel as it attempts to conceptualize and position collaborative housing within the sharing economy context.