Young adults, either for higher education or for new jobs, eventually need to move out of their parent’s homes. It’s a whole new world for them henceforth and life doesn’t seem all that easy anymore. However, we are also a generation that is curious and ready for new experiences. Co living has become both a solution and a choice for young people. Living out with other like-minded people who eventually become friends for life is a whole new experience. Co-living allows people to share responsibilities and come up with a homely environment that is shared by one-time strangers. Just like co-work spaces, co-living is about sharing everything – from the rent to preparing the dinner for all members. It’s like adapting into a new family.
What Is Co Living?
Imaging living in a big flat that is shared by friends! Each one helps in the household by doing things they are good at – some cook, some wash, some do groceries, some clean. Everyone has a responsibility and this sharing optimizes everyone’s time. If you were to do everything alone, there would be little time left to work or rest! Co-living also breaks the barriers of loneliness, while fostering an environment that is friendly, supportive and happy. More importantly, all the residents share the rent and utility/maintenance bills and the burden on your shoulder is a lot less if you had your own private space.
Co-Living – The Future Of Residential Real Estate
We are a generation that believes in earning new experiences than wasting time and money on monotonous things. We carpool and promote businesses like Uber ride sharing. We take the opportunity of co-working spaces such that we won’t have to unnecessarily pay the rent for a business space for the whole month, even if we really needed it just for about a week. Co-living is a similar trend that believes in sharing living spaces. The demand for co-living spaces has risen over the past couple of years since more and more youngsters are leaving their homes in search of jobs, new opportunities, and higher education. For real estate service providers, the returns from co-living spaces are drastically higher than for privately rented flats.
At the end of the day, we spend about 1 hour of our time in the living room but pay for the whole day! Yet, the kitchen and living room comprises 60% of the rent we pay for our privately owned apartment. Sharing relieves the burden.
Myths Around Co-Living
You might already have heard about friends co-living in a different city but have you ever tried to understand what it is, save debunking the myths and wrong notions?
- Co-Living Is Living In Dorms – No, with dorms, you don’t have common rooms or kitchens. Also, with dorms, you don’t get you pick your rooms or even your bunk beds! In co-living environments, you sleep in privacy and a room of your choice at the end of the day.
- It’s A Hostel – Again, in co-living spaces, you share the space with a variety of professionals from different fields. Some are entrepreneurs, some travelers, some freelancers and so on. In a hostel, you only have your college mates and strict wardens.
- It’s Just For The Young– From startups to young professionals and even young couples; everyone today is favoring co-living spaces.
- Suitable For Nomads Only – The number of days a resident stays in a co-living space depends on his job but it can become a fairly permanent address.
- Not For Girls Or Families – As said, young couples together are looking for co-living spaces to be shared with friends. Regardless of gender, co-living spaces are for all and in several cases, even living together. We are a much more adaptive and understanding society today.
- Co-Living Is For Hippies – It’s not just traveler or hippies that share co-living spaces. In that case, it would have been called a traveler’s hostel!
- No Privacy – At the end of the day, you go to your own room and sleep on your own bed behind closed doors. Watched ‘Friends’? That’s the concept.
- It’s Living In A Dirty Place – A place is as clean as you keep it. Share the responsibility for maintenance and cleaning and co-living spaces will feel better than homes!
Co-living has become much more than a concept. While the primary aim is to save money by optimizing resources and sharing household responsibilities, co-living allows for the changing lifestyle we lead today. We are a generation that doesn’t believe sticking to the same job for the rest of our lives. We explore, we shift between jobs, live in new cities, and travel for months at a stretch while working over a laptop and this makes co-living a perfect solution. Even young couples are seeking co-living spaces to be shared with like-minded friends and this is not just restricted to developed economies like USA or UK. The concept is being effectively adopted in countries like India wherein real estate developers are offering co-living spaces for young adults.
Find out more about co-living at www.colive.in.
