Shared room housing and home: unpacking the home-making practices of shared room tenants in Sydney, Australia

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.