Coliving is becoming a popular branch of the real estate market. Unlike cohabitation, where several owners live together in the same building, this is the case of users who rent housing. It can be a studio room or an apartment that includes common areas for spending time with neighbors, from a cinema or a meeting place with a shared kitchen to an office and a work area.
This type of housing has become extremely popular with young workers who have recently arrived in the city. According to Ana Martinez, director of operations at Urban Campus, the age of users ranges from 25 to 45 years, and 60% of them are foreigners.
International companies often send their employees abroad, and it is very important that they can live in comfortable conditions. Urban Campus, a residential construction company, will open a new complex in Atocha, Madrid, in September. It provides 57 residential units. Another property was also presented at the meeting with journalists. This is a complex located on Calle de los Reyes 5 in Malasaya, Madrid. It includes small rooms priced from 700 euros per month and small apartments for 1,500 euros.
All rooms have a private bathroom, toilet and kitchen, either in the studio or shared for two people. Most users choose coliving for easy amenities, convenient location and affordable prices.
At the European level, the housing sector has a total of 23,150 beds in all types of housing (including shared and common apartments). London leads the market with 16% of the total volume, followed by Amsterdam with 12% and Manchester with 10%. More and more European banks and funds decide to invest in projects of this type, for example, Nexit or Batipart, which are the main investors of the new building that Urban Campus is building in Valencia.
In Spain, the residential real estate segment (which includes coliving) registered 1,135 million euros of investment in the first quarter of 2022. In 2021, its total amount was almost 3,000 million euros, which is 13% more than in 2020. The coliving share was 3%. Growth in this sector is accelerating, and more than 5,000 new jobs are expected to be created by the end of the year, mainly in the cities of Madrid and Barcelona.
"At Urban Campus alone, we registered a 154% increase in the number of applications in one year," says Ana Martinez.