Choosing Your Flatmate Sustainability Information and Preferences in Shared Housing

This research project aims to investigate how sustainability information about potential flatmates influences shared housing decisions. Shared housing is increasingly common among students and young professionals due to rising housing costs, urbanization, and changing lifestyle preferences. While a growing body of research and policy focuses on sustainable buildings and individual consumption behavior, relatively little is known about how sustainability considerations shape social decisions within households, such as the choice of who to live with. Living with flatmates involves repeated interaction and shared use of resources, including energy, water, and food. As a result, a flatmate’s everyday behaviors can have financial, environmental, and social consequences for others in the household. For example, resource-intensive practices may increase utility costs, while highly sustainable practices may signal compatibility for some individuals but potential lifestyle conflicts or social pressure for others. Despite these implications, sustainability-related information about potential flatmates is rarely available in housing advertisements, leaving individuals to rely on indirect cues or assumptions. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether individuals value information about a flatmate’s sustainability behavior, whether they are willing to pay to access such information, and how this information affects their housing choices. In particular, the project focuses on three main questions: (1) whether individuals actively seek sustainability information about potential flatmates, (2) how disclosed sustainability information influences housing decisions, and (3) how preferences for sustainability information and sustainable flatmates vary across individuals. To address these questions, the study uses a stated choice experiment implemented as an online survey. Participants are presented with a series of hypothetical shared housing choices. In each task, they first select between room options based on basic attributes such as rental price, building energy rating, and the age profile of the potential flatmate. After making an initial selection, participants are offered the opportunity to unlock additional information about the flatmate’s sustainability behavior, specifically regarding diet and resource use, for free or at a (hypothetical) small monetary cost. Participants who choose to access this information then make a final decision to either confirm or withdraw from the selected housing option. This sequential design allows the study to separately identify: (i) baseline housing preferences, (ii) willingness to pay for sustainability-related information, and (iii) preferences for sustainable flatmates once information is disclosed. The experiment also collects data on participants’ environmental attitudes, housing experience, and socio-demographic characteristics to examine preference heterogeneity. The expected outcomes of the project are empirical estimates of (a) the demand for sustainability-related information in a shared living context, (b) the effect of sustainability ratings on flatmate selection, and (c) the extent of heterogeneity in these preferences across individuals. The results will contribute to the literature on environmental behavior, information acquisition, and social dynamics in sustainable consumption. They may also provide insights for housing platforms, policymakers, and designers of sustainability disclosure systems regarding how social sustainability signals influence residential choices.