What is Co-Living? Understanding the Concept and Its Benefits in the UK
Communes are not strange to the modern urban generation. Humankind from the stone-age evolved as social beings, sharing spaces, food, and a habitable living environment. The concept of space sharing by individuals may have come as an inevitable choice with living spaces becoming premium, while the term co living has only started to become more common in use until recently. In this article, let’s understand co living and what it means in the context of today’s urban-centric living.
Communes are not strange to the modern urban generation. Humankind from the stone-age evolved as social beings, sharing spaces, food, and a habitable living environment. The concept of space sharing by individuals may have come as an inevitable choice with living spaces becoming premium, while the term co living has only started to become more common in use until recently. In this article, let’s understand co living and what it means in the context of today’s urban-centric living.
What is Co-living? Understanding the Concept
In modern terms co-living is an arrangement made towards accommodating a group of individuals to an extent where they mutually share facilities of a residence. From living rooms, bedrooms, kitchen, and a bathroom (sometimes), people living under the same floor space share amenities and resources along with sharing interests, experiences, and emotions all voluntarily. In this way, co-living from the olden days has evolved as a practice and has now attained the idea of an increasing need.
The Rise of Co-living in the UK
In the UK, housing has been a major challenge in recent times. Though certain measures are being taken to tackle the housing crisis which has grown in severity, the result has been rather underwhelming. To give you an idea, if owner occupied households in the UK was about 71% in the year 2003; seven years later by 2010, the figure declined to about 65%. While the year 2016 hit a record low at 63.4 %, seven years later in 2023, there isn’t much improvement with owner occupied households in the UK standing at 64%.
The significance of the co-living sector in the UK needs no emphasis. In 2022, while the completed co-living beds amounted to 2000 units, the following year saw an increase of 500 units taking the total to approximately 2,500 units with about 25,000 beds in the pipeline.
The surge in the number is a testament to the increase in trend towards urban centric living characterised by cost and the idea of community driven living. The trend understandably is more towards urban cities and prime locations with London accounting for the majority standing at 74% of completed co-living units. Very recently the pandemic made people dissociate from society and choose isolated living scenarios, which also is one of the triggering factors that increased the need to co-exist.
Benefits of Co-Living: A Community-Cetric Lifestyle
Steph Fanizza, Architectural Design & Team Manager
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Steph Fanizza, Architectural Design & Team Manager
Arguably the most significant of all benefits from co-living is the opportunity to reestablish communities. In an era where relationships and socialising are receding in both quality and frequency and with online usurping the physical world, co-living can play a crucial role in bringing back in-person interactions.
Co-living presents the opportunity to share spaces. This inadvertently results in sharing of many material and immaterial needs including physical and emotional interactions, sharing of opinions and experiences which can best take the form of networks and communities for a better world in the making.
2. Sustainability
When you are co-living, it is only a step previous to making deep relationships as friends and partners. This can also make way for combined commuting and transportation, chalk out only the necessary amenities needed for a two- or three-member community, plan daily routines such that it cut downs wastage etc. Water, electricity and other daily needs can be shared instead of contributing to some amount of waste for only one individual.
Importantly, co-living also means that there is no need to deforest or exploit resourceful land to build another housing.
3. Saving Costs
One of the obvious benefits is cost savings. Imagine having to invest in some furniture, a fridge, washing machine and a television if required all by yourself that too at a time when there are job cuts, inflation, and recession. With co living one can share their expenses and save costs in great margins and thus opt for an efficient and trouble-free living from an economic perspective.
4. Seamless Occupancy
If you are a migrant to a new place or have arrived at a new city and pursuing a job, it will be daunting for you to change your tenancy frequently. Co-living is advantageous as it offers fully furnished spaces including furniture, washing machines, along with many bathing and kitchen amenities; which means you don’t have to move heftily.
The important takeaway of co living is besides easy transitions, most of the time, you don’t have to spend on expensive house elements either and thus is a great cost saver.
5. Improves your Personality
Co living makes you more sociable and increases the opportunity to interact and exchange with others. It also in a way can mold your personality and attitude towards life in a positive way. Exchange of unknowns and interesting aspects about life, politics, and access to knowledge sources all can positively impact in shaping your personality.
Conclusion:
There is a huge leverage on the co-living market, and the undercurrent is only evident. Over the past 3 years close to £1 billion has been spent on shaping the sector indicative of the fact that this is not just a temporary phenomenon or a swaying trend.
At Extension Architecture, we are closely monitoring this growing trend that will snowball into a gigantic investment opportunity in a few years. We command exceptional expertise in planning and designing co-living spaces from concepts to manifestations. Being based out of London places us at an advantage to design spaces conducive to the need and trend.
If you are an investor or looking to build co-living spaces for varied needs, contact us and leverage our expertise for a seamless and harmonious execution.
