Not everyone is ready for close, cozy living, but many are and the idea—although not brand-spanking-new—is becoming a hot item for many metropolitan areas.
The concept, dubbed coliving, is a marriage between micro-apartments and dormitory living. In large cities where rents are sometimes beyond what many people can afford, this idea offers an alternative.
Buildings are being designed whereby many bedrooms share communal living spaces. Each renter has a bedroom and private bathroom and shares the kitchen, living room, and so on. The sweet add-on is that many of these coliving spaces come with a gym, restaurants, libraries, large club room areas, even cinemas and cleaning service.
Coliving is believed to have started in New York by brothers Andrew and Chris Bledsoe, quite by accident. While living in New York’s financial district, Andrew reconfigured his one-bedroom apartment to allow for two more units and advertised for roommates. Within two days he received 90 responses. From there he spent time researching building codes and zoning requirements. Then, he and Chris moved ahead with this radical idea and all-inclusive coliving took a breath and burst onto the real estate scene with Ollie, which is what Andrew and Chris named their company.
Other locations soon followed as did other companies. Any investor interested in multi-residential housing should be sitting up taking notice as global fundraising for coliving increased 182% in 2018, according to research from JLL. In 2019 hundreds of millions have been raised for funding.
It comes as no surprise that these buildings (some are built new; others are renovations) appeal to students, graduate students and young professionals. In some cases, even empty-nesters and baby-boomers are moving in. The appeal is multi-fold: no upkeep, shared vitality, a ready-mix of friends, “come as you are” type of move-in readiness, walking distance to work (or not!), big-city living with convenience and budget in mind.
The top 10 most expensive cities to live include Denver, which is one of the fastest-growing cities right now; San Diego; Phoenix; New York City; Seattle; San Francisco; Boston; Washington, DC; Oakland; and Los Angeles. In these places, one-bedroom apartments will have about 600-700 square feet and cost on average $2,000 per month on up to over $3,000.
QUARTERS Coliving Chicago
If you mix fastest-growing cities with most expensive rental markets, the overlap is very interesting. Take Denver, for instance. According to the US Census bureau, it is one of the top 10 fastest growing cities in the US. It’s also inching up the ladder to one of the more expensive places to rent where a one-bedroom, 687 sq. ft apartment will cost about $1,500. Let’s let that sit in your mind for a minute. What do you come up with, almost right away? “Good place for coliving,” right?
We thought so, too. Which is why Paradyme is on the lookout for coliving styled developments in cities like Denver, or San Francisco, or Boston, to add to our platform for investing. Do you have an interest in coliving investments? If you do, then maybe we should talk.
