Co-living is a form of housing where residents share living space and a set of interests and values.
It is part of a modern, urban lifestyle that values openness and sharing, and aligns with the general shift toward ridesharing/carsharing and coworking. In particular, co-living can be seen as an extension of the co-working trend that see people share office space and common facilities in order to save costs and share ideas.
Co-living houses may offer short-term accommodation and host regular events for residents, many of which are students, startup founders or employees, young professionals, as well as artists and creatives.
In a sense, it is student accommodation for grown-ups.
China is a trail blazer in this space in Asia. YOU+ International Youth Community already offers rooms of between 22 to 50 sqm to young people in Guangzhou and Beijing (see Table 1). The trend is also catching on in other markets.
Campus Hong Kong operates a co-living facility after converting 48 one-bedroom apartments into four-bed dormitory rooms. In India, there are currently four startups that focus on co-living operating out of Gurgaon, and two based out of Bengaluru.
Singapore has been slightly lagging, but Ascott, CapitaLand’s wholly owned serviced residence arm, unveiled the lyf brand last year and partnered with the Singapore Management University to field test co-living concepts.
Why we are seeing more co-living space?
Co-living in ‘adult dorms’ appeals to the millennial generation, who are more open to the idea of social networking and the sharing economy. Not surprisingly, we see very strong interest in the co-living concept in cities with growing wave of millennial workers and travellers, and hubs that attract technopreneurs, startups and the creative…
