- Get your paperback, kindle, or PDF edition of Art of Coliving Book.
- Starting or operating coliving space? Level up and Join the Coliving Incubator Program.
- Are you building a coliving business? Get Free Coliving Advisory
- Launch, promote your product in the Artof.co ecosystem.
🔁📝Before today’s community-focused tips, revisit EC35 for the latest marketing trends and Q&A highlights below:
Coliving Innovators Podcast: How Enter Coliving Turnaround From 2.6(25) To 4.6(500) Customer Ratings & Reviews, Erwin, Co-Founder
In the latest episode of the Coliving Innovators Podcast by Artof.Co, I had an insightful conversation with Erwin Groenendijk, co-founder of Enter Coliving, a growing coliving operator managing 450 units in Barcelona! 🇪🇸
Erwin shared his entrepreneurial journey, starting with a single apartment, growing without external funding, and scaling his coliving venture with private investors’ help.
📌 He also shared key insights into:
- How Enter Coliving moved from a 2.6 to a 4.6 rating by focusing on customer experience.
- The importance of community and the impact of positive reviews in building a strong brand.
- How they used private loans to fund rapid growth while keeping full control of the business.
- Practical advice for anyone looking to start their own coliving venture and scaling it sustainably.
🎧 Tune in for actionable insights, some golden nuggets on coliving business models, and a peek into Erwin’s experience growing in one of the world’s best cities for coliving.🎙️ Listen now and learn from Erwin’s entrepreneurial journey
How Do You Build Great Coliving Communities?
Building great coliving communities goes beyond just sharing a living space. It’s about fostering a sense of belonging, creating connections, and designing an environment where individuals feel supported both personally and professionally. In today’s fast-paced urban landscape, coliving is emerging as an attractive solution to not only the housing crisis but also the isolation many young professionals face.
Here, we’ll explore how you can craft enriching coliving communities that promote meaningful relationships, collaboration, and mutual support. From smart space design to organizing engaging activities, every aspect contributes to a thriving shared living experience. So, let’s dive into the strategies that will help you build a truly great coliving community!
By the end, you’ll understand the fundamental principles and actionable steps that can transform any coliving environment into a hub of connection and growth, making it a place where residents don’t just live—they thrive.
- Defining the Purpose and Values of the Coliving Community
- Fostering Open Communication and Conflict Resolution
- Hosting Meaningful Community Events
- Balancing Privacy and Community
- Leveraging Technology for Coliving Community Engagement
- Fostering a Sense of Ownership and Responsibility
How Can Coliving Help Tackle The Housing Crisis?
Co-living may not solve the undersupply of rental accommodation, but it can contribute to and complement other housing options.
Earlier this year, CBRE published How to fix the broken housing market, highlighting the continued lack of housing supply across the UK. But we can see the same trend across the world. Let us look at the main points of the article:
- Housing Supply Crisis: A shortage in housing across the UK, particularly for single-person renters, is exacerbating rental market challenges.
- Declining Rental Properties: Studio and one-bedroom rentals in cities like London, Manchester, and Birmingham have fallen significantly since 2019.
- Landlord Exodus: More than 20% of properties for sale in London were once rental properties, with buy-to-let mortgages also in decline.
- Shrinking HMO Supply: Houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) have decreased sharply in major cities.
- Renter Demographics: A rising number of young professionals are living in rental hubs like London, driving demand for alternative housing options.
- Coliving as a Solution: Co-living is designed for single-person renters, particularly those aged 26-40 and earning £40,000 or more annually.
- Planning Policy & Coliving Growth: With clearer guidance from authorities like the Greater London Authority, co-living is gaining traction across cities in the UK.
- Benefits of Co-living: This housing model enhances community, placemaking, and offers a
solution to the demand-supply imbalance, particularly for single
renters. - Future Outlook: While not a complete solution, co-living can complement other housing
options and provide more choices in the UK’s strained rental market.
And all the regions worldwide can learn from it, we are in the worst housing crisis of all time.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned as a coliving founder is to trust the power of community. Whether it’s overcoming challenges or creating memorable experiences, the real value lies in building meaningful connections. Coliving is not just about shared spaces, it’s about shared experiences that make people feel at home, even in new cities. If you focus on delivering an exceptional customer experience, everything else—growth, success, and loyalty—follows naturally.. ~ Erwin, Enter Coliving on Coliving Innovators Podcast
Coliving Spaces in Spain, Barcelona
We started a series where we showcase "Top Coliving Spaces" in each city, we started from Lisbon, Portugal and now are onto Barcelona, Spain. Barcelona, a city renowned for its rich history, stunning architecture, and vibrant culture, has become a hotspot for digital nomads, entrepreneurs, students, and professionals from around the world. The rise of remote work and the desire for community-oriented living have given birth to a plethora of coliving spaces throughout the city. These spaces offer more than just a place to stay—they provide a community, networking opportunities, and a chance to immerse yourself in the local lifestyle.
The idea is to give credibility to the coliving brands and help them with better presence and, in the long term, help them to reduce the customer acquisition cost and hence improve the unit economics, thus making coliving businesses more sustainable.
If you are running a coliving space and want to be featured, please reach out on mayank@artof.co. The next cities I am covering are Madrid, Porto, etc.
Everything Else Coliving
- New Colivings Alert
- New coliving opens in central Malaga with studios from €1,000/month
- The pilot project “Dolce Vita Coliving” has started in Vallo di Nera , Umbria , offering an innovative hospitality experience aimed at digital nomads from all over the world and Italian smart workers. The charming medieval village of Valnerina , immersed in the Apennine landscape, has been chosen as the location for an initiative that will last until the end of 2024.
- Coliving Podcasts
- Check interviews with coliving founders to learn more from their journey if you are looking to start coliving space of your own.
- Urban Co-living Part 3: Reimagining the city with Damien Sharkey, MD of HUB.
- From Blueprint to Profit: New Builds for CoLiving with Dave Edward
- We need to stop 'co-living' becoming 'glorified student rooms' says council chief. Councillors are finally getting round to drawing up rules on the new residential phenomenon that's coming to Bristol - after three major developments of it were approved
- Watch Coliving Conference 2024 recap video here.
- Coliving is an increasingly attractive option for young professionals, students and digital nomads . For Ramírez, the growth of this model is due to the fact that the number of people per family has decreased from 3.36 to 2.78. “ In 2012, 13% of homes housed only one person, a figure that increased to 23% by 2023.”
- Germany: Flexible housing provider Habyt will open its debut project in Leipzig this December, taking the group’s European presence to 20 cities.
- Real Estate Investing: 5 strategies to earn big by investing in coliving residences. Read the full article here.
- Choosing the type of residence suited to your project
- Optimizing space to increase efficiency
- Outsource management to secure your income
- Diversify your portfolio with multiple locations
- Take advantage of tax incentives and government aid
- Mergers and Acquisition: Lyf Ginza Tokyo, the 140-room coliving property was acquired by Invictus Developments, the Singapore-based family office of the Karim family for JPY10.5 billion
- Tripalink has announced the launch of new coliving spaces in Los Angeles, redefining urban living by offering affordable, modern housing solutions. Designed to cater to the needs of students, professionals, and individuals seeking a community-driven living environment, these spaces combine affordability with functionality.
Dennis Isong: How Co-Living is Transforming Lagos’ Housing Experience. Housing has been a great challenge in Lagos. As the country’s economic stronghold, the city has long grappled with a severe shortage of affordable and accessible accommodation, particularly for its rapidly growing young professionals and entrepreneurs. However, the rise of co-living, or shared spaces, poises to reshape the urban housing landscape
We hope you enjoyed this edition and wish you a great weekend ahead. Reply us with your thoughts on what more you want to read and if you have any feedback.
If you want us to cover anything, please mail it to us on coliving@artof.co
Gui Perdrix & Mayank Pokharna
The Artof.Co team
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