There is more than one way to inhabit a city,
say these authors.

As the future of work is changing, we now find ourselves at a stage where demand for quality, convenience and flexibility in urban living is not being met by traditional inner-city apartment complexes. Long-term ownership doesn’t provide the flexibility required nor do younger occupants have the high capital necessary to participate. At the same time, short-term UK leasing legislation and the current supply is inefficient in both space, operation and capital reward.

In today’s fast-moving digital economy, we’re seeing a crossflow of knowledge from different property sectors with increasing velocity and the problem posed above has a readily available solution already evolving in the commercial sector, namely ‘co’, so will co-living provide a solution, what is it, what are its evolving characteristics and how does it work? 

Co-living can be described as a way of living in cities that is focused on community, convenience and wellbeing. This manifests itself as a small apartment with kitchen facilities akin to a mini-studio apartment that is supported by larger communal areas that can include work areas, lounge areas, sundry services, storage and leisure facilities. More often than not, these communal areas are also curated such that events and activities are hosted for the residents. 

As we have seen from the changes occurring in the office sector driven by the co-working environment, there are the same evolving characteristics that act as enabling agents, namely:

the paradigm shift from landlord and tenant to customer and customer service provider;

tech-enabled property management and customer relationship systems;

multiple revenue streams from services rather than FRI rent;

a cash-flow approach to valuation with a drive to increased margin to compensate for potentially higher overall volatility.