Co-living is the ever-growing housing movement offering a new perspective to those looking to live in busy cities and business hubs like London, New York and many more.  Not to be confused with a house or flat share, co-living offers a huge array of amenities and advantages to all its residents.

Although this concept has been around for some time, it’s recently been making the headlines more and more, and with good reason. Co-living in the UK and around the world is gaining major momentum among younger renters because of the unique opportunity it provides economically and in terms of lifestyle.

Co-Living for Young Professionals

Co-living offers young professionals who aren’t yet ready to own homes, great value accommodation in some of the world’s most expensive and appealing locations. Often working age people are simply priced out of expensive and over-priced rental options and the ever-elusive prospect of home ownership in large cities; co-living is providing an innovative and realistic solution to that problem.

With so many young people transitioning to a digital nomadic lifestyle or working in the ‘gig economy,’ co-living offers flexibility and superb value for money. Entering into a co-living lease can mean anything from paying a nightly rate for short stays up to long leases of a year or more.

Why is Co-Living in the UK Becoming so Popular?

Co-living is a popular form of communal living in which residents have their own private room and often private en-suite but share other amenities. Co-living will typically entail a communal workspace and encourages a sense of collaboration, community and entrepreneurship between its residents.

Shared amenities may include communal living spaces, gyms and fitness facilities, security, maintenance, laundry facilities, kitchenettes, bathrooms may be shared (or not). In some cases, developments also offer a much wider range of facilities, all designed to help residents connect with one another.

Developments may contain communal dining rooms, libraries, cinema rooms, games rooms, pools and even leisure facilities like a swimming pool. It is certainly not uncommon to find any of these things in a communal living space.

Generally, a co-living space will have been refurbished or even purpose built very high standards to fit the needs of its community. Because co-living spaces are increasingly in demand, many spaces will be brand new or freshly refurbished to a standard you won’t find in the private rental market. This means that often you’re paying relatively low rent for a very high-quality space.

Joining a Co-Living Community

Co-living in the UK will look different depending on a number of things. The co-living space that you choose will determine the type of community you end up in and the quality of the development. Although rents vary from development to development, generally speaking the rent is fairly low in comparison with other properties in the same area.

This is because so many people are living in the same space and sharing certain facilities.

The length of contract you sign may be dictated by the space you choose, as some co-living spaces will offer contractors short as a few days and others will require you to sign a year’s lease.

When you sign your lease and pay your rent, you are paying for your own private space inside the building. You will have a bedroom and/or living space of your own, and in some cases a bathroom. You are also paying for the facilities that are available to you in a co-living in space.

As well as the amenities we’ve already mentioned, co-living spaces are unique because the sense of community is carefully curated by the team working in the space. Depending on the facility you choose then may be game nights, film nights, or any other number of events.