Cade Lucas
Like many parents, Williams Landing’s Ludwina Dautovic was left with empty bedrooms once the last of her children moved out of home.
But rather than wondering how to fill them, the mother of two had a different reaction to her extra space.
“When my eldest son left home and his spare bedroom was empty I saw that as a cost centre,” she said.
After a few years offering the rooms to family and friends, it wasn’t long before the businesswoman with 30 years’ experience behind her sensed an opportunity.
“Not until my friends started asking me where they could find someone for their room that my entrepreneurial instinct kicked in.”
It was this light-bulb moment in 2017 that resulted in Ms Dautovic founding The Room Xchange, Australia’s first and only verified house sharing platform with nearly 6000 users nationwide.
The Room Xchange differs from normal sharehousing and rental websites by allowing tenants to live with the actual homeowner rather than other renters and to do so in exchange for work done around the house or rental off-sets rather than just paying the full amount.
“Our technology verifies all users through the digital ID which is integrated in our system. Our profiles make it easy to be matched based on personality, values and lifestyle so you feel like you’re coming home to a friend,” said Ms Dautovic of the platform, which recently won the Innovation and Technology category at the Wyndham Business Awards.
Ms Dautovic said filling Australia’s estimated 13 million empty rooms could help to ease the housing crisis.
“If we can utilise those spare bedrooms that’s less housing we have to build” she said
“We’re utilising resources that already exist and we’re solving problems on both sides of the marketplace,” Ms Dautovic said, pointing out that there had been a spike in homeowners joining the platform since interest rates began to rise.
While acknowledging house sharing could provide a short term solution, Maiy Azize from affordable housing campaign group Everybody’s Home said it was evidence of systemic failure.
“More and more people are turning to housing sharing not out of preference, but out of necessity because there isn’t enough affordable homes.”
Community Housing Industry Association Victoria Acting CEO Jess Pomeroy said there was only one long term solution.
“Victoria needs much more social and affordable housing to fix this housing crisis.“
