Where to build co-living for over 40s

Some months ago we started thinking about how to help local planners and more socially- minded developers meet the needs of over 40s private renters.

Things have obviously got a lot more accute recently, so we dug-out some analysis to look at where co-living for older independent people might be located.

Co-living offers huge financial advantages due to sharing of household expenses such as gas, electricty, rates, as well as households goods such as washing machines being shared.

Co-living as a chance to upgrade your living

When thinking about where we would like to see new co-living (or co-housing) properties built, we also considered the surrounding environment. The neighbourhood around a property is important, as much as the actual personal space and shared space within.

So we developed a rough model and included these factors – some might be surprising, but they speak to the desire to reduce cost and at teh same time up-scale your lifestyle:

1. Cities over 20,000 population becasue they have better public transport infrastructure
2. Cities with a cathedral – as an indicator of wider cultural and historical interest
3. Prevailing property purchase prices (based on Zoopla 3 and 4-bed houses
4. Prevailing house share room rents (based on Cohabitas’ own listings data)
5. Last but not least, the presence of a Waitrose. Not to shop there necessarily, but more as another marker of affluence and good neighbourhood nearby.

The conclusion was that only areas outside London would be suitable to start to build such property; in locations that are desireable, but not over-priced like London, Manchester or Bristol, where international money and business has driven prices well beyond affordable.

Commercial propoerty repurposed in these areas could also be a possibility. However, rather than in an industrial setting (as The Collective was), we beleive that town centres and more suburban areas are a better bet.

For further information pease contact Nick at Cohabitas via the contact form.