Would you share your home?: Shared housing choice and its multifaceted determinants

Abstract

Young people are often exposed to the barriers of finding affordable housing due to their economic constraints. Young adults have less time to earn and save money because they are mostly in a transition phase of employment, living arrangements, marriage status, and work experience. Given their financial constraints, provision of affordable housing for young adults has been the longstanding concern for planners and policymakers. However, there is a growing interest of share housing as one of the solutions for housing difficulties of young adults in Korea. Such a phenomenon may be read as the trade-off between individual privacy and housing affordability. Some also address that the growing interests on share housing among young singles stem from the increasing appeal of sharing lifestyles, especially to improve social relationships and activities. While a few studies report share housing as a housing solution for young generations, we have limited understanding as to how socioeconomic characteristics of young singles empirically affect their share housing choice. This study addresses this gap by examining how socioeconomic, individual, and living characteristics of young single person households determine their share housing choice in Seoul, Korea. Based on the survey for young singles, we employ a binary logistic regression to investigate various determinants of share housing choices. Furthermore, we explore the determinants of share housing choices citywide and in neighborhoods stratified by income. We find various significant determinants, such as gender, income, housing satisfaction and affordability, community experience and participation, etc. Additionally, we find that socioeconomic determinants of share housing choice may vary across neighborhoods in Seoul. These findings may inform planners and policymakers on which specific characteristics of young singles affect share housing choice and how to provide better share housing across different neighborhoods.