What’s Next for Coliving?
Evolving Definitions, Customer Needs, and Community Living
Coliving is undergoing a transformation, as the market grows and the range of products and services offered continues to evolve. Today, the term spans everything from communal flat shares to purpose-built developments with full-service amenities. Our recent coliving roundtable explored these shifts, discussing the need to redefine coliving, better understand resident priorities, ensure affordability, reimagine amenity provision, and build real communities. This article reflects on the conversation we had and discusses the landscape for the future of coliving.
Defining Coliving
A notable gap in the coliving space remains the absence of a clear, consistent definition. From borough to borough and country to country, coliving is interpreted and regulated in vastly different ways. In the UK, coliving definitions are evolving within planning frameworks, creating an opportunity to shape more flexible, future-ready models.
Participants acknowledged a gap between planning policies and the pace of market evolution, with some hesitation from planners shaped by legacy frameworks and local concerns. Roundtable participants shared the view that including video submissions from residents, showcasing their lived experiences, alongside planning applications could help planning authorities gain a clearer and more tangible understanding of what coliving truly offers.
This could play a key role in building trust and shifting perceptions. Many agreed that a clearer, more unified definition of coliving, grounded in real-world benefits, could help the sector move forward with greater confidence and alignment across stakeholders.
What Do Customers Want?
But how does this all relate to the end user, and how are we ensuring that the definitions we agree, are viewed through a resident’s lens? What matters to occupiers is quality, flexibility, and connection. Customers are looking for places where they can live, work, and socialise. In other words, homes that reflect modern lifestyles.
A key insight from the roundtable was the importance of learning from the residents themselves and ensuring that the way we communicate the sector to planners and other stakeholders, is always grounded in the resident’s perspective.
Residents want:
Safe, comfortable environments where they can be themselves.
Functional living spaces that accommodate remote work and life transitions.
A sense of belonging, even if they aren’t always actively engaging with community events.
Coliving has the opportunity to meet these needs by designing spaces and services that prioritise practicality, convenience, and emotional comfort, creating lasting value beyond just strong branding.
Product Affordability
Introducing tiered coliving options, from affordable to mid-range and premium, would broaden the sector’s appeal and ensure it meets a wider range of housing needs, especially as traditional Build-to-Rent (BTR) fails to adequately fill the housing gap. With many HMO landlords exiting the market, there’s a growing need for coliving models that can genuinely compete on affordability and step in to fill the void in lower-cost urban rental supply.
To improve affordability:
Strip back unnecessary amenities (e.g. cinemas where there’s one across the road)
Focus on core services and shared essentials
Explore leaner operating models with selected third-party partnerships
Recognise that not every coliving product needs to be fully amenitised
Affordability is not just about cost. It’s about providing value for money that matches resident expectations and lifestyle choices.
Community
True community doesn’t happen by accident. We believe it must be intentionally designed, supported, and facilitated.
Key takeaways:
Events created by residents are 60% more likely to be attended
People benefit just by seeing community in action, which we call the “passive participation” effect
The majority of residents have claimed that a scheme has improved their wellbeing and this is a key reason residents stay.
Operators and developers must act as hosts and enablers, not just landlords. Embedding buildings into the surrounding neighbourhood, through partnerships, skill-sharing, or opening access, can further enrich both resident and local life.
Amenity Provisions
Building amenities can make or break a coliving experience. But the conversation must move beyond just offering gyms or lounges, rather, it’s about how those spaces are activated and used.
Emerging practices include:
Opening shared amenities to the wider community via membership models (e.g. coworking, gyms)
Creating multipurpose, resident-led spaces that evolve with the community
Rebalancing room sizes and amenities to align with resident behaviour
Designing spaces with the passive majority in mind - those who may not participate, but benefit from the atmosphere
There’s also a call for more human-centred operations. Front-of-house teams, community managers, and thoughtful programming all contribute to a sense of place and can significantly impact retention and resident satisfaction.
Data backed insights
To fuel the conversation, our hereSAY team released the latest version of our ‘From Lead-to-Lease: Mystery Shopping Benchmark Report’ but this time we focused on the stats from Coliving. Based on lead-to-lease data across coliving schemes, the report identified how prospective residents view this option compared to BTR.
Key findings include:
56% of mystery shoppers felt that the scheme portrayed a real sense of community, compared to 38% in BTR.
Only 53% of shoppers were informed about the landlord and the benefits of a coliving model. This shows a huge gap in communication about the concept of coliving and shows operators are assuming their prospective residents already ‘get it’.
71% of shoppers notes that the coliving scheme they visited was good value for money, over 63% of BTR shoppers.
In other words, coliving cannot simply be “BTR with a bigger lounge.” It requires its own playbook.
Summary: Coliving at a Crossroads
Coliving continues to evolve and there is no single right model. But the roundtable made clear that success will be defined by how well the sector responds to a few consistent challenges:
· Clarifying the product for planners, residents, and investors alike
· Listening to residents and adapting design and services accordingly
· Delivering affordability through innovation, not compromise
· Right-sizing amenity based on actual use and community value
· Embedding culture and connection into every layer of operations
There’s a strong sense that coliving will play a critical role in the UK housing mix — particularly as demand rises for flexible, well-managed urban living. But to reach its potential, the sector must continue to collaborate, share data, and foreground the resident experience in every decision.
Thank you once again to everyone who participated in the roundtable. We look forward to continuing this conversation with you.
are good!