Drawbacks of Shared Housing: Insight into the Growing Shared Accommodation Marketplace
Sharing Spaces: The Rise and Profit of Coliving
Remember the good old days of shared apartments, where students saved on rent and never felt lonely in a small place? Well, that's ancient history now. They've been replaced by the modern, lucrative concept of coliving. In a world dealing with a severe housing crisis, converting family apartments is all the rage in major cities.
Gone are the days when shared living was a makeshift arrangement between roommates. Today, it's big business, a smart investment in real estate.
Insight: Coliving's roots can be traced back to traditional housing forms like the "vataras" in Bangalore, India, which fostered community interaction. These evolved into modern independent apartments with minimal shared amenities but eventually grew to include communal spaces. With urbanization and population growth, shared living arrangements became more compact and community-oriented.
Originally, shared living shifted from large colonial bungalows to small, clustered houses with shared courtyards, signifying a move towards a more communal lifestyle. As time passed and cities became more densely populated, these compact housing units gave way to high-rise buildings with shared communal spaces. This transition brought together privacy and social interaction.
The 21st century witnessed the merging of shared living with the principles of the sharing economy. Instead of just sharing physical space, coliving offers shared amenities, community activities, and even joint consumption. This shift was influenced by factors such as urban growth, housing shortages, and changing lifestyles. Coliving spaces attract young professionals, digital nomads, and students in bustling urban centers.
Insight: As coliving evolved into a recognized real estate investment category, property developers and investors designed buildings with profitability in mind. They leveraged high-density living concepts, modular prefab construction, digital platforms for management, and regulatory reforms such as parking reform and zoning adjustments to foster the growth of coliving as a viable investment.
Coliving's appeal lies in its efficiency, affordability, and community focus. Its success stems from innovations in construction, technology, and urban policy reforms. It reflects a blend of heritage communal living principles with contemporary demands for sustainability, flexibility, and affordability, making it a thriving sector in real estate development and investment.
So, what started as a frugal student solution has transformed into a multi-billion-dollar industry. Coliving's journey mirrors the evolution of modern urban living — from sharing a fridge and some rent, to sharing space, resources, and experiences in cutting-edge, profit-driven coliving spaces.
Home-and-garden improvements, such as shared courtyards, played a significant role in the transition from separate living to compact coliving units as cities became denser. As coliving continues to evolve, modern spaces aim to blur the lines between personal and communal living, fostering a unique lifestyle within high-rise buildings.
