Disruption and the matching market for new multifamily housing in Melbourne, Australia

Abstract

A key area of system impact of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) is the radical improvement in the functioning of matching markets. Matching markets are markets in which agents seek to be paired with someone or something with the criteria for matching often highly specific. Traditionally, the cost and difficulty in matching means many of these markets have not functioned well. Uber and Airbnb are examples of new matching market matchmakers that have been ‘turbo-charged’ by new digital technologies, resulting in what Parker et al. describe as a ‘platform revolution’. In this article, we examine the traditional, but poorly functioning, matching market for new multifamily housing development in Melbourne, Australia, and the potential for disruption offered by a new platform, Nightingale Housing Ltd. (NHL). Improved matching has been critical to the model and the Internet has been central to this. The NHL model has the potential for systems impact as outlined by Schwab in his conception of 4IR.