Coliving Communitythe open directory for short/mid-term
purposeful [co]workations and stays

living spaces 🏡
giving convenience and connection 🙌
as a regular part of our daily lives
amongst others sharing purpose ⚡️

Coliving takes many forms, from commercial serviced microstudios with restaurants to grassroots collaborative houses sharing potluck dinners. Coliving spaces each have their own character, yet share fundamental principles…

purpose ⬄ proximity ⬄ collectivity ⬄ convenience

  • ⭐️ improving our quality of life with better facilities collectively
  • ⭐️ facilitating exchanges amongst us through comfortable proximity

The use of coliving spaces goes beyond being a mere house, welcoming us as a home, to include work, learning, wellbeing and impact. You'll find that spaces are either or both:

⭐️We encourage use of the coliving community phrase or marque to identify spaces having purposeful connections amongst their members, not simply being an offer.

The term 'coliving' (or a 'colive') is quite mis-used to mean almost any kind of shared accommodation where one (hopefully) lives together. This misses fundamental benefits that the coliving movement brings to improve living…

Coliving is…

Coliving is not…

Since its conception in the 2000's coliving has stood for community–living. But with many new landlords and developers seeing benefits in using layouts that reduce unit size to improve revenues, this need and reward of community and common spaces can be missed.

In true communities the little details and their member's involvement make the distinction obvious. You can test this simply by asking members «why are you here?» If most only answer because it's nice/in budget/well located, then it is safe to say they are not sharing any purpose together and the community may not be cohesive or even functional.

What are different types of coliving?

coliving homes and complexes
Most often houses within metro and commuter belts providing longer-term housing with like-minded housemates, and of course frequently using common spaces for interaction. Complexes are larger buildings having hundreds of units and diverse facilities. Also known as residential coliving.
For operators, rates are slightly above market rentals given an enhanced offering, for a small investment into facilitation and facilities; occupancy is lower churn than typical rentals as members gain a stronger sense of belonging. Ideal with atypical properties and avoids duplicated space from apartment divisions.
coliving [co]workations
Mainly in holiday and escape destinations, emphasising community alongside activities and interesting locations. Favoured by digital nomads, and professionals working remotely to escape the city for a few weeks or months. Also known as destinational coliving, and sometimes for just a few weeks or months as popups / themed retreats / chapters.
Rates are higher corresponding fluctuating occupancy risks, yet high occupancy is achievable with well-operated properties and a strong community. Positioning and investment into facilities need not be high as may draw on facilitation and the willingness of guests to lower-specs with shorter stays. A resilient model when also offering long stays.
coliving hubs
Combining aspects of both homes and workations, multiplying collaboration and camaraderie by opening up some facilities to the public or external community groups, such as through an open coworking or events space. This mixed-use live+work format is also known as blended coliving but is not a hub if residents-only.
A highly differentiated proposition having greater resilience with integrated facilities and enhanced experiences, especially for professionals, whilst combining models for maximum utilisation.
hybrid coliving
Properties such as hotels and resorts, having extended the usual offerings to include some multi-function communal spaces so their guests may make the most of longer than typical stays, in a serviced setting at a better rate than nightly. Rarely having facilitated community, and sometimes seasonal such as in student residences and off-season hotels.
This approach allows testing the coliving market with modest change to existing facilities and further repurposing as demand befits, or to enter the market with a more diversified offering trading some high risk occupancy for lower return yet reliable occupancy.

Learn more about differences between the types of coliving in this article by Peter Fabor. For a more general backgrounder as a guest or member we recommend this article by Outsite, and as an operator or manager this post by Jacob Jay†.

How does routine and proximity work in coliving?

Coliving brings people closer together by virtue of proximity across many aspects of life. Living under the same roof engenders more collaboration, than simply by virtue of being neighbours, or even friends.

An example of purpose, proximity and routine in action is that in a coliving space everyone will have established expectations for sharing their purpose, such as sitting down to meals together, whether planned or impromptu, and activities such as cooking will be participatory more often simply because the kitchen has to be used by all (and is designed for this), thus encouraging interaction around it. The same for all other common spaces.

Obviously the larger a space is, the less proximity there is with others, thus social groups may organise around floors or apartments, rather than the whole community, yet still gather and bump into each other. Such spaces tend however to be neither even though they still offer some of the benefits.

What's convenient about coliving?

The most obvious convenience is that a space is already setup, equipped and ready to welcome us with few to no hassles. Usually with linens and housekeeping, offered as a fully-inclusive service (sometimes referred to a Housing-as-a-Service).

Transparency improves convenience too. Not all houses and communities are the same, and often with other types of accommodation you don't find out until after moving in. Transparency on values and the kind of people in a space, not to mention pricing and what's included, avoids wasting effort.

We can also say that finding people amongst whom to live a fun and interesting life is hard, thus coliving spaces bring together likeminded people by making them easier to find.

What's a purposeful or intentional community?

All coliving communities comprise members having at least some nominal common purpose, as without such commonality you simply have a house or flat share with essentially random people. Some spaces make extra effort to align members and live together…

  • ⚛️with purpose a commonality of why we want to share and participate together is prevalent, amongst diverse approaches to life
  • ☮️with intention, members are attracted to and follow closely related approaches to life based around what we seek to do or believe

We most often see a why simply being a wish to avoid isolation, to have good friends to work amongst (e.g. with a coworking space) and loosely sharing experiences amongst independent lifestyles. Therefore all coliving spaces have at least some shared purpose. This contrasts intentional communities in which we more tightly focus around a shared lifestyle.

An effect of differentiation, is that intentional communities tend to have long-term involvements and membership criterion to ensure community consistency, whilst purposeful communities and coliving is generally more flexible and open, yet this cannot be assumed.

Neither approach is exclusive and both may be enacted, such as a home which intentionally curates its members, yet supports a purposeful community amongst them, or a space that pursues sustainability requiring that all members follow rules yet is otherwise purposeful. Every community should be considered unique, and we each may suit one more than another.

In a purposeful space there is more diversity and thus opportunity for connections and ideas so they tend to be oriented around professional activities, whilst in an intentional space there is more immersion and potential for deeper learning, such as in pursuing permaculture or bonding over a shared belief.

Do colivings have different approaches?

grassroots / informal
The DIY approach, with a bunch of similarly minded folks managing to collaborate together to take on a property! What one looses with service-oriented convenience, one gains with stronger relationships, which may even be considered as convenient in such contexts. Arranged using member's own networks, groups online, or platforms. Usually having strictly curated membership.
lifestyle business
The hands-on founders enjoy sharing the journey, as they are often using the space themselves, involve volunteers, yet operating it as a business to cover its costs and provide some reward. Usually for workations.
managed
These properties are operated by a management company, albeit one that has invested in community by either having a live-in manager, or someone who frequently drops around to facilitate and encourage! Typically residential homes or complexes.
popup
Spaces functioning only for a short time. Can be self-organised ad-hoc amongst a group all sharing the desire to benefit from spending some time together (as a community!), or by a business offering it as a retreat or workation.
dispersed
A format variation in which rather than utilising a single building, an operator has multiple individual facilities which they link together, such as through a coworking space or events at each building for all the members. These communities tend to be much looser as the principle of proximity doesn't always apply, or only with subgroups.
promoted
Where existing properties such as resorts and aparthotels are offered under arrangement, yet is subject to the fortunes of that property or per seasonality with reduced services. As with other hybrid spaces they may lack dedicated coliving facilities though the promoting operator will generally coordinate community around coworking and events, else have required the host property to provide this. Capacity is highly flexible off-season and thus excellent for teams.
For an operator with good marketing reach this is an easy and flexible way into the market having low-commitment as can be trialled for a single season.
subscription
A monthly fee gives access to multiple locations, suiting location independent professionals. A complex business model, as supplemental payments at some properties or notice periods may be required.
itinerant
Combining popup/dispersed and a subscription to make it easy to explore the world, changing location every month or so as a group sharing the experiences, often also with a programme and coworking to help get work done. However not all use coliving properties and may instead place members in multiple apartments… (eg: Remote Year, WiFi Tribe)
mutualised
As with housing co-operatives, they are owned by or operated for the benefit of their members. They may be organised around rental members and/or owners with varied equity ownership. Ownership in this manner is equitable, reducing living costs.

Cohousing versus coliving — how are they different?

cohousing / grouped
community of neighbours (distance)
few shared facilities used by discretion
independent units (apartments/houses)
high commitment purchase / contract
coliving / collectivised
community of housemates (proximity)
common spaces integral to routines
smaller private rooms / dorms
low commitment flexible rental

These attributes are not exclusive as there are always exceptions, indeed microstudios can increasingly be found in 'coliving' developments (but thus decreasing routine interaction and proximity), and mixed models using ownership alongside rentals could emerge (increasing cohesion) — all blurring definitions, yet increasing our options for better living.

What's this site, eh?

The first steps towards a platform co-op, promoting and supporting both operators of coliving spaces and their residents/members. A platform co-op can be owned and run by its stakeholders and thus represents their real needs — we'll be working towards this over time.

We focus on building a directory of destinational/workation and hybrid coliving spaces‡.

‡We include longer-term if having a couple of beds for shorter durations, and complexes/hybrid if they have good common spaces or public coworking.

Unlike other directory and booking sites we don't lock operators into using our booking systems, preventing potential members from visiting an operator's own site — we promote all spaces so that you can find out the most about them. We'll be developing innovative new systems to support operators.

Commercial sites are driven by business imperitives, thus you'll find that coliving.com mostly lists house shares and even just shared 2-bed apaartments which have nothing in common with community let alone coliving, and MapMelon whilst better aligned tends towards spaces more like guesthouses as there's more of them than colivings to generate some revenue.

Launching or running your own space?

In the spirit of openness and connection there's a community of operators ready to guide you in the right direction! Two associations organise regular meetings and knowledge shares: Co-Liv (oriented towards residential and scale) and Coliving Hub (oriented towards destinational), both have their own online communities, but there's also some groups on Facebook: Coliving (users and operators; mostly homes), and Coliving Space Founders (mostly destinational), not to mention various country specific ones. You can also follow and join in discussions with thought leaders such as Carlos from Startup Embassy.

If your space's community is connected amongst itself and facilitated by you and your team, then why not announce yourself as a coliving community using our marque!

Styleguide for editors

The correct use of the term coliving is without a hyphen, the same as for coworking and endorsed by publishers. Gui Perdrix wrote about some reasoning, however whilst the English language generally hyphenates compound words during their early use, as time passes the hyphens are dropped and the concept thus transitions from being compound to discrete. Notably for the words coworking and coliving, their hyphenated use can imply different meanings across generations, thus use without a hyphen avoids ambiguity.


†This page is written and maintained by Jacob Jay.