Coliving Research & Trends

Publications, Market Reports & Insights

This page offers an overview of coliving research, reports, trends and insights. Below you will find a curated list exploring social value, sustainability, community engagement, business models, policy, regulations, technology and more.

Research into coliving, a nascent residential typology, is important. This is given its growth trajectory and potential for helping solve some of the key global challenges we face today.

So let’s dive right in!

Table of Contents: Coliving Research

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The Coliving Industry: Growth, Trends & Data

Coliving research across different geographies

For a focus on the European market, see ULI and JLL’s European Coliving Best Practice Guide. Their Best Practice Guide has been formulated to provide greater insight into the rapidly evolving coliving sector across Europe – and to provide an expert view on market-leading examples of best practice in the sector. It also aims to raise awareness of the benefits and opportunities coliving offers. You can also take a look at CBRE’s Europe Co-living Report, which highlights key European cities where a high demand for coliving has been identified.

For UK-based information on the shared living sector, consult The Co-Living Report by Knight Frank. You can also take a look at Savills’ Spotlight: UK Coliving, and CBRE’s Co-living in London 2022 report. These reports show that there is a huge demand for coliving in the UK, and that there has been significant investment in the sector in London and other UK cities. For insights into operations, customers and investment, see Harris Associates’ and VervLife’s 2023 Co-living Report.

For research of the Indian coliving market, see The HouseMonk’s Global Coliving Report 2022. Also, Co-Living: Reshaping Rental Housing in India, a 2019 report by JLL and Knight Frank’s report Co-Living: Rent a Lifestyle.

For a look at the US market, see Cushman & Wakefield’s Coliving During COVID-19 report. In addition, Diana Lind’s 2019 book Brave New Home tells the story of the rise of suburban housing in the US. The book explores how housing options such as coliving may provide answers to changing lifestyles.

Research on Coliving's Social & Environmental Value

Our Head of Research & Sustainability, Dr. Penny Clark’s 2021 PhD thesis is called Practices of shared living: Exploring environmental sustainability in UK cohousing, community living, and coliving. It is a detailed exploration of how shared living models (including coliving) can lower environmental impacts in comparison to single-family households.

Some coliving operators have led the way in showing their social value through impact reporting. Hospitality/PBSA/coliving hybrid The Social Hub (formerly The Student Hotel), for instance, focuses on both their ecological footprint and social footprint. The Social Hub have aligned their impact with some of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. You can read The Social Hub’s 2020/2021 impact report here.

Coliving Insight’s third edition, Impact & Sustainability in Coliving, has over 20 articles on the topics of social value, public policies, social impact and technological innovation. Two articles featured in this edition can also be found in the Conscious Coliving blog. One of them is Matt Lesniak’s cover story on embedding social, environmental and economic value into coliving. The second is Penny Clark’s article on creating environmentally sustainable cultures.

The Flexible Living Trend Report 2023, Vol 1, created by the World Coliving Membership, explores topics including social connection and sustainability, as well as information on amenity use and consumer demographics.

Conductor’s Rental Series piece on Coliving explores resident motivations and preferences for coliving.

COP26, and how coliving can help mitigate the climate crisis by Dr. Penny Clark. Learn more about environmental sustainability and coliving.

The 2018 collection of essays on Coliving and the Common Good, commissioned by the RSA, explores how coliving might solve modern living challenges, with a focus on urban spaces.

Research on Coliving and Wellbeing

Venn have focussed on resident and neighbourhood engagement, and on creating a sense of belonging and urban wellbeing. You can download Venn’s 2021 report into US renters and their sense of belonging here.

Wellness Coliving – health and happiness through design: this article shares the story behind wellness coliving brand, B-Hive Living, who is on a mission to empower society to live a more connected, purposeful, and fulfilling life.

The Happy by Design Toolkit: With easy-to-understand tips, real-world examples and over 100 hand-drawn illustrations, this book helps you to create happier places – from individual homes and workplaces to landscaping and urban design. It explores how factors, such as lighting, comfort, control over our environments and access to nature, exercise and social interaction, can impact how we feel. We also suggest you read Ben Channon’s first book Happy By Design.
Official findings from the IKEA’s Life at Home Report, reveals how home shapes people’s lives and wellbeing around the world. One statistic shows that 67% of people living in coliving experienced a positive impact on their mental wellbeing thanks to strong community connections.

Our co-founder Matt Lesniak wrote a series for Frame on ‘How the wellness economy is raising the bar for co-living and co-working retreats‘. You can also read part 2, on ‘How co-living and co-working hubs can turn into regenerative and sustainable hubs‘.

Conscious Coliving also provides blog post articles relating to fostering wellbeing in community. For instance, see the article on Challenges and Strategies to Enable Wellbeing in Coliving, and on Designing for Wellbeing in Coliving.

Community Facilitation & Engagement

The Community Facilitation Handbook offers strategies, tools and practices to help make communities flourish. This resource, which was a winner of the 2021 Coliving Awards for best thought leadership piece, is available to download for free here.

Technology also plays a key role in facilitating community and creating a great resident experience. Explore the Coliving Apps, Software & Tech Guide to learn about tech best practices and key tech players in coliving.

Coliving Insights’ sixth edition, Fostering Thriving Communities in Shared Living brings together coliving research from: operators, experience designers, consultancies, tech platforms, community builders and more. Its focus is an exploration of how best to foster authentic communities in coliving.

Running and Scaling Thriving Residential Communities: this guide from Obeyo identifies the 50 most burning questions from residential operators on community building, with insights from 50 operators and thought leaders from within and outside the real estate industry.

The Community Building Report 2021 report from Co-Liv reveals the top five challenges facing community managers, and insights from 20+ interviewees about the role of the community manager.

Responding to the Rise of Solo Living, an article by Anwyn Hocking based on her master’s thesis research, looks at the experience of community in large, purpose-built shared living. Hocking’s explores the nuances of community life, depicting its positives and negatives.

Coliving Architecture & Design

Coliving Insights’ seventh edition, Spatial Design & Architecture for Coliving, explores innovative coliving design principles and best practice.
This feasibility study from The Pew Charitable Trusts and Gensler argues for the viability of office-to-coliving conversions, as an affordable form of housing which enables the retrofit and use of underused office buildings
Naomi Cleaver and Amy Frearson’s book, All Together Now: The co-working and co-living revolution, takes a broader look at different shared living typology case studies, including a section on purpose-built coliving, and a best practice design toolkit.
For understanding how the built environment shapes behaviour, check out architect Tom Manwell’s blog post on Designing for Social Interaction.
Academic research by Emad Alyedreessy which explores the relationship between co-presence, social interaction and shared spaces.

The Rise of Co-Living: Designing for Communal Life – this article from ArchDaily dives into shared living designs and inspirations from around the world.

Coliving R&D has also spurred innovations in creating adaptable and thoughtfully-designed spaces. For examples of this, see the Polyroom, developed by Cutwork, Dandi’s ‘magic studios‘, Zoku lofts, and Mason & Fifth studios.

Coliving Research on Business Models

For an overview of coliving business models, common challenges and best practices, check out the Conscious Coliving Coliving Business Model resource.

Industry magazine Coliving Insights’ fourth publication, Invest, Develop, Operate and Scale, explores and showcases best business practice through the voices of those in the sector.

See a breakdown of the numbers: this City(;ifer blog shows a developer’s case study of coliving vs. traditional apartments.

Coliving Policy & Regulations

Coliving Insights’ fourth edition has a chapter on Developing Coliving With/Out Government Regulations.
The New Kid on the Block: Co-Living Report, from the British Property Federation, explores UK coliving planning challenges, and offers recommendations to create a more enabling environment for coliving.

Citizens Housing & Planning Council (CHPC) is a non-profit organization focused on housing and planning policy in New York City. Their simple guide, Making Shared Housing Work, pulls out core themes. According to shared housing practitioners, these themes should be considered by operators and regulators.

Zoning for Co-Living in Alexandria: A Case Study Examination of Denver and Salt Lake City. This coliving research looks at how zoning ordinances can be modified to accommodate coliving as more affordable housing solution. It describes the policy and development context for coliving and case studies of coliving in the USA.

Explanation of Intended Effect for a new Housing Diversity SEPP. A research by The New South Wales Department of Planning, Industry & Environment. This report focuses on updating policies to facilitate the delivery of diverse housing types that meet the needs of its population.

The Large-scale Purpose-built Shared Living (LSPBSL) guidance developed by the Greater London Authority provides information on how to apply London Plan Policy H16 to ensure the development of these spaces in a way that is of good quality, well-managed and integrated into their surroundings.

Coliving Technology, Software & Apps

The Coliving Mobile Apps Survey is a collaborative research project to understand how operators are using mobile apps to optimise resident user and community experience. You can fill out the survey here.

The fifth edition of Coliving Insights, Co-Tech: Innovating Coliving with Technology, focuses on innovative technology solutions within the real estate sector.

The open-source Coliving Apps, Software & Tech Guide offers an overview of key tech players and the role of technology in creating communities that thrive.

Publications & Media

Coliving Insights: industry publications that explore innovative initiatives throughout the coliving sector.

The Art of Coliving: Gui Perdrix, director of Co-Liv and founder of Art of Co., carried out extensive coliving research for years. Recently, Gui released a fantastic workbook, guide and companion. This wonderful book helps understand, think and create life-enhancing coliving spaces at scale.

Many established media platforms have dedicated pages of their websites to coliving, including Dezeen, Frame, Arch Daily and The Real Deal, amongst many others. Conscious Coliving has been featured in the Frame #131 – How Co-living Can Expand its Appeal issue, as well as on platforms like The Centre for Conscious Design.

Remote Work & Stay: Modern Living Solutions Beyond Urban Spaces: This SPX Lab whitepaper explores the growth of remote working and the impact this has on living solutions.

The One Shared House 2030 survey, by Anton & Irene and Space10. It is a playful coliving research project in which users are asked to imagine what they are willing to share with imaginary housemates. Results of the survey are open-source, and can be segmented by: nationality, age, gender and life situation.

Podcasts

Running from 2018 to 2021, The Coliving Code podcast by coliving tech entrepreneur, Christine McDannell, has interviews from over 120 coliving industry leaders, founders and investors.
Art of Co runs a weekly coliving podcast, called Coliving Innovaters, where Mayank Pokharna interviews coliving founders.

Non-profit coliving organisation, Co-Liv, began turning their numerous online meet-ups into podcasts. Co-Liv’s meetup are a great way for you to deepen your coliving research. You can listen to The Co-Liv Podcast here.

The Go Out and Talk to Strangers, School of LYFE, The Humans Inside the Pods, WiFi Tribe, and CoCity podcasts have also hosted many players from around the coliving and real estate scene.

Conscious Coliving’s podcast, Coliving Conversations, shines a light on projects, people and places that are pioneering the coliving movement. The show will highlight common challenges and innovative solutions regarding: community, wellbeing, sustainability, technology, and business models of coliving.

Looking for Support on Coliving Research & Reports?

We specialize in carrying out, summarizing and presenting top-notch research for events, conferences, studies and reports.

We can provide you with specific research for your shared living endeavors and/or work with members of your team to offer additional research capabilities and expertise.

In addition, we also offer research based speaking and writing engagements.

Further Coliving Research

Feel free to share with us any latest research developments you find relevant. This page will evolve over time.

Finally, if you want to stay up to date on the latest coliving research subscribe to Conscious Coliving’s emails ✉️ !

We hope you found this overview of coliving related research useful!

This guide has been co-authored for you by:

Dr Penny Clark

Head of Research & Sustainability

Penny is Director of Research & Sustainability at Conscious Coliving. She has an MSc in Social Research Methods, and her PhD explores how shared living may enable lowered environmental impacts. She has consulted on numerous shared living projects, specialising in impact strategy, concept, and community. Penny has presented at conferences including the Co-Liv Summit, the Urban Living Festival, BTR360 and more. She has also authored publications in The Developer, Coliving Insights Magazine, the book Urban Communal Living in Britain, as well as being interviewed by the BBC and the Guardian about shared living.

Naima Ritter Figueres

Head of Community & Wellbeing

Transformational Coach and facilitator. Trainer in mindfulness, sharing circles, and how to live and lead more consciously. Co-author of the Community Facilitation Handbook and the Coliving Apps & Tech Guide. Facilitates community engagement strategies.

Matt Lesniak

Head of Impact & Innovation

Matt is responsible for designing community experience and impact strategies and measuring the social value of coliving communities. Matt is also a founding member and current Head of Community of Co-Liv and has worked for The Collective on their Impact Team.