What is coliving?

When we talk about coliving, what are we really talking about?

Since the beginning of human evolution, people have colived. That’s a fact. Since several people, family members or friends lived in the same dwelling, we may say that our ancient form of living has been some form of coliving.

So, coliving is not new. It’s not an innovation of modern times. An example of where extended families living together is common is within many African and South American countries. Living together, these families pass on their traditional histories, cultures, behaviours, and specific ways of working and living. There’s an old proverb that says: “When an old man dies, it’s a burned library.” The passing of these skills and traditions is key for the preservation of our evolutionary history and understanding of self. Without these exchanges, we are lost.

How does Senior Housing fit in?

Older people living in the same big common house or same building, doing daily tasks together, enjoying, playing and living together with the same generation is another way of coliving that has existed for more than a century too.

In such residences, elders can have access to personal assistance, care, cleaning services, laundry, medical support, leisure activities, cognitive stimulation, a gym, beauty centre, in-house and dedicated music concerts, religious services, and many other activities. To sum the experience up, aging populations have a space to celebrate life every single day.

I can share that this kind of living has been successful because it’s the experience that we created and lived by in our own senior residences. Because of COVID-19, our staff of more than 35 people lived 64 days in total confinement inside of our Lisbon (Alvalade) senior residence alongside residents. It was our decision to protect not only the staff, but especially the elderly that were at high risk, and have them live together.

And surprise - they loved it. This amazing experience gave us some ideas that already provoked some changes in our new and future senior residences projects. Our new projects, for instance, will have more space in corridors, larger private rooms, more individual rooms than double ones, more common areas where people may stay in small groups, larger exterior areas such as gardens, places to stretch and to do yoga, to name but a few. And more importantly, we are going to have apartments / studios dedicated to the staff, giving them a place to live.

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At the same time, people can save money living like this. How come? Because they don’t need to spend any money on their house and on their daily and monthly costs (taxes, utilities, maintenance, condominium fees, etc.). And if they haven’t yet sold their house, they can always rent it, covering their expenses of their senior residence. Isn't that what we all would like to do?

So, if it’s so good, why are there just a few cases of this kind of coliving dedicated to middle age and aging populations? Imagine independent workers and families living and getting the same services as elderly people do in senior residences.

This new way of living for independent living people is on us, the real estate industry and the developers creating it. It’s a new way of thinking with new kinds of business strategies and metrics. But more than that, it is a question of culture shift that we have to work on as individuals, investors, decision makers, media, consultants, public authorities and regulatory entities.

In recent years, many people of different economies, activity sectors and geographies are studying, talking, discussing and pointing out that coliving is the new way of living and the future for society. Is that so? Are they correct in thinking this? Is society walking in a different direction than the one we have been? Has the pandemic changed the way we have been living, working and playing for decades? Will we in the near future live in a very different way and return to communal living?

My answer is 100% yes. In my opinion, coliving was always with us but in recent times it has been going through a structural evolution that is crossing different activity sectors and economic agents, from individuals to families, friends, students, workers, brands, independent elders, technology providers, etc. Society is changing. That’s a fact. The pandemic crisis is leveraging this change. It’s called evolution. Companies are changing their business models, their recruitment processes and their ways of staff and task management. Shared values among staff are evolving. Families are also spending more time together. Schools are teaching in a whole new way. Online shopping is growing faster than ever. All of these changes may not have been during a pandemic, but some will stay with us and change the way we live. This will all have an impact on the evolution of office buildings, business centres, commercial real estate, urban development, transportation networks, architecture and so on.

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So, what's new in coliving?

Let’s take a few minutes to think about the most common way of living for a family. They live in an apartment with 20 or 30 or 40 other families in the same building. Most of them don’t know each other. Most of them just meet their neighbours once in a while on the elevator to say good morning or good night to one another. All families have kids that they take to school every working day. Some may have individual house keepers. They all have to organise their own cable TV, electricity, water, gas and other essentials. They all have to do their own shopping. Most families have to take care of cleaning, laundry, and eating at almost the same time in 20, 30, 40 separate kitchens with 20, 30, 40 separate fridges, ovens, washing machines and so on. Almost all of them have a small office inside the house.

Do you get the point I’m trying to make? Why can we not do this in a centralised way? Why do we have to do almost exactly what our neighbours do at almost the same time and place? Can we not create synergies to do these things collectively?

Yes, we can... It’s what hotels do, for example. That’s what we have when we live, even if it’s just for a few nights, in a hotel during vacations or business stay.

Is it possible to work and live this way for a lifetime? Yes, it is. That’s the new coliving for multi or single families. That’s the future of coliving. And yes, this form of living is coming and yes, I truly believe the future is harnessing these synergies together.

As an investor and shareholder of several companies, this is what I started doing with Momentus Senior and Memoville, two Portuguese senior living projects in the Lisbon region and in the Algarve. We are balancing real estate, hospitality, health with working and living amenities. This is the challenge we’d like to present to the industry. Let’s “rock the boat” and make some history in the Portuguese real estate market.

Will you join us in this amazing journey? Let’s go for it and enjoy living and working in a place like if it were a permanent vacation. Let’s move to a resort where we can live, work and play. Because living, working and playing in the same place with some other families or friends will be the new way. Carpe Diem!

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