There are very few events in modern history that have smashed the certainties about ourselves and the world where we live as much as the coronavirus pandemic. The housing market was no exception to this “lockdown effect” and what was looking like a certainty yesterday is completely out of scope today. When we opened the first THE BABEL COMMUNITY residence in Marseille in 2017, there was still a lot of learning to be done in France about the concept of community-based ways of life and housing solutions such as coliving. Since then, coliving has been an innovative and rapidly growing model within the real estate sector. When isolation is the new black, will coliving prove wrong the current merchants of doom and gloom that say that COVID-19 has signed the death of this community-based way of life?

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In the era of large and dense metropolitan cities, space is the new luxury. A recent study from the United Nations shows that almost 70% of the total world population will live in urban areas by 2050. Hence, insufficient access to housing and the lack of appropriate solutions won’t disappear overnight. Living in a limited space is a fate we all have to accept if you want to live in an urban centre. Nevertheless, at THE BABEL COMMUNITY we have tried from the very beginning of our adventure in 2017, when coliving was only a vague concept in France, to tackle this issue. Our mission is to offer affordable luxury by proposing comfortable private spaces in buildings with exceptional common areas to young urbanites. This optimal balance between private and mutualised spaces is possible with the optimisation of unused private space. By giving back to the community 1 or 2 m2 from private living space, the overall community can benefit from a gym, a cinema room, a restaurant, sunny terraces, a coworking area, and more. Locked down at home, we realise how much space is important and we become more willing to share space with our community in order to have better living conditions.

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Coliving not only answers new ways of living but also new ways of working. THE BABEL COMMUNITY model is quite unique in France since we offer combined coliving and coworking spaces to our community.
We are what Stonup defines as a “work-oriented coliving model”. This kind of coliving solution could be particularly relevant in a post-COVID-19 world where remote work becomes the rule. Companies are urged to let their employees work from home in order to limit movement and contact amongst employees. Nevertheless, lockdown has shown that working from home is not always as easy as it sounds: lack of proper infrastructure to work in decent conditions, poor WiFi networks, difficulty separating private and professional life ... these all contribute to a very challenging work- life balance.

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Having a coworking space in your apartment building could definitely help to create a healthier and nicer way to work from home. In a recent study from BNP PARIBAS Real Estate, 47% of the respondents declared they were more productive working from home, but 41% claimed that what they missed the most from their “normal” work environment was the relationship with their colleagues. So even when it comes to remote work, being able to work from home in a community-based building could be the solution.

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As George Monbiot stated in a recent article from The Guardian: “The horror films got it wrong. Instead of turning us into flesh-eating zombies, the pandemic has turned millions of people into good neighbours.” Isolation has made us aware of what really matters, and many of us experienced feelings of despair and depression to be apart from our families and friends. Although we kept in touch thanks to digital tools during the lockdown, we all acknowledged that nothing can replace physical social interactions. That is what our coliving model stands for: comfortable and affordable apartments where a vibrant community can live, work and play. And most importantly taking care of each other. For us, coliving is not only about fancy living spaces, it is mainly about fostering a strong community.

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This often overstated word now makes so much more sense! During the lockdown, we have made every possible effort to keep our community alive and keep offering the same level and diversity of services as usual. For example, we launched an Instagram TV with online cooking classes from our chef Sandra, sports classes with our fitness coach, cocktail workshops run by a coliver and so many other inspiring stories. Our residents appreciated these initiatives so much that we will be continuing with them even when the lockdown is over.

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Moreover, our staff were always available by phone, day and night, for our residents to make sure they could help them if needed. A member of staff was even present a couple of hours a day in each of our residences. All these measures helped to keep the satisfaction level of our residents higher than usual. After the crisis, more than 92% of our residents are still satisfied with their experience at THE BABEL COMMUNITY and would highly recommend it to others. Although all these measures helped our community to cope throughout the pandemic, everybody was extremely happy to meet ‘IRL’ again at the end of May, and we organised a little drink at our restaurant in order to celebrate. We are starting our regular events again as the situation allows it: including Babel Meet-up, Babel Breakfast, sports classes, networking events and more. Events are a key pillar of our strategy to keep our community engaged. Overall I would say the past few months have proved that community is vital, it allows you to stand steadily with both feet on the ground and to look at the overall situation from a perspective to stay close to reality when the external environment becomes hectic.

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Overall, we are confident in the fact that coliving is very resilient to the crisis. As the first actor in the French coliving market, we are able to look back and evaluate the relevance of our model, especially with the crisis period we have just experienced. Our coliving occupancy rate at THE BABEL COMMUNITY has been consistently over 95% since we opened our first residence in Marseille in 2017 and demand has never been so high. So even in these times of physical distancing, community is more relevant than ever and we believe coliving has fine days ahead.