The digitization of housing and home

Digital technologies and platforms are reconfiguring the practices and processes of housing and home. From property markets to life at home, digital technologies are ‘disrupting’ property transactions, household relationships and the way we live in our homes. While digitization promises to streamline perceived inefficiencies in the housing system, offering more flexibility and convenience, it should not be accepted uncritically. Technology is never neutral, and its effects are grounded in the politics and ideologies in which it is deployed. There is significant research that shows the ways in which property technology (proptech) perpetuates, accelerates and creates new experiences of housing discrimination, often benefiting landlords and companies at the expense of tenants. Conversely, we should be careful not to assume that the digitization of housing and home has only adverse effects. Digital technologies and platforms can also help mediate household relationships and household management in beneficial ways as well as be used as tools for housing activism and advocacy. This chapter addresses the digitization of housing and home, drawing out the complex relationship between technology and both its potentially pernicious and alternatively positive outcomes. Rather than eschew the digitization of home completely, we should critically interrogate the context in which technologies are being used and advocate for the application of technology in ways which can lead to better housing futures.