So should co-living extend beyond millennials to include the older generation?
Very spot point, i think that there’s actually a well accepted concept of co-living for people until 40’s, while for 40-55 range there are uncovered niches prone to co-living that are suffering the same problem of affordability of younger ones (divorced, unmarried, relocated workers,etc). Most people do not choose to co-live because they feel alone (they could try others way to know people outside) but because they can’t afford a studio or don’t want to sign a long term contract for different reasons; community is a really important value add both as attraction point than as retention point. At the same time older people probably will be more selective in terms of shared bathrooms and probably will have more privacy needs. So co-living could be an open market for middle-aged if operated in a different way that for millennials. I doubt instead that actual 60’s and more could NOW accept co-living forms, we will cross the lines in the future with senior housing.
But in the future actual millennials and gen Z will become older and more seasoned to the concept of coliving for a longer part of their existence. I’m absolutely confident that new formats within co-living concept will be targeted to different niches. The winners will be who can match and manage different profiles in the micro-communities, acting sometimes as mediator, sometimes as entertainer, sometimes as “hiring” manager and so on.
Coliving is also being targeted to older ages, opening the market to senior citizens, look at this two examples:
There are huge variations to accommodate different communities in the same space or mixing in more directions: landlord and property manager will have to be more flexible to adapt and think strategically, that’s for sure.
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