Coliving is the new home-owning

It is millennials and Generation Z who are leading the charge of the coliving movement around the world.

After graduating from tertiary education and entering the workforce, millennials have come up against barriers to creating a happy living life for themselves. With high student debts and earning incomes much lower than their parents, it is nigh impossible to buy a house and rental prices are soaring. In what rooms are available, the wider living situations lack a sense of community.

Coliving has arisen to address these problems.

Alongside this, coliving is different from traditional home buying or room renting. It has more flexibility in leases, and is more relaxed when it comes to security deposits. Coliving spaces are built intentionally, with the thought of forming communities for residential transplants around your city, country and the world. It has been found that 25% of all Americans have lived with someone they haven’t had a previous relationship with — thus this trend of diving in, breaking barriers and forming new connections and friendships from people who start out as strangers, is an increasingly exciting concept.

An innovative coliving space in the United States of America is called Venn. It’s beginnings are as a startup, and it has gone on to lease and renovate properties before renting them out with shared and communal spaces. A positive aspect of Venn’s business plan, is that they invest revenue back into the local neighbourhood communities, through funding local businesses and programs to help the area thrive. Venn currently has 100 residents in New York City.

Venn is a shining example of the variety of coliving spaces. You can share a room and split the rent that way, or have your own private room. Both of these options are still linked to communal living, eating, and playing areas. Utilities are also included in the rent price, alongside the opportunity to take part in local events, shared co-working spaces and taught yoga sessions. The appeal to coliving helps, when almost half of Generation Zers would happily live with four or more people in a two-bedroom apartment.

Many living arrangements of coliving spaces, also give residents access to areas, once only reserved for the rich and elite, such as gym spaces, rooftop decks with gardens and open access pools. Moving in with a roommate in urban areas is not only making rent more affordable, but there are clearly numerous other living benefits. Furthermore, there are never any conflicts with a chore and cleaning schedule, as coliving companies themselves handle these everyday tasks.

Coliving spaces make sure their residents feel safe and secure. Loneliness is fought off, with every day offered as an opportunity to grow your social circle through forming relationships with different people who have different perspectives and worldviews, or with people who share similar interests or professions. Residents are encouraged to interact with each other and work with one another, forming a strong and authentic community of where they live and work.

The mindset of millennials is helping push the growth of coliving. They’re willing to get creative and be flexible on how they live. With the idea in mind of where they want to live — in which particular, city, country or area — they then figure out how they’re able to make that happen.

But coliving spaces aren’t just for university graduates. The median age in most coliving spaces is 33. Millenials are just a shining example, of how we can choose where we want to live. It is about getting creative and pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zones. 

Where’s your dream city? Are there any coliving spaces active there whom you could become a part of?