With reference to Co-living goes mainstream, but this is not roommate roulette by Diana Olick

A new housing trend called ‘co-living’ is an upgraded version of low cost living geared for young professionals. The concept of co-living works like a college dorm, complete strangers living in an apartment together with shared living spaces. The catch is every roommate has to sign their own lease so there is liability for their roommates.

The idea came from an increase of housing costs in Chicago and there was no place for two guys, Ryan Shear and Noah Gottlieb, to live so they created this new style targeted for the young professional. It gives another option for people moving to a new city who don’t want the liability of sharing a lease with a stranger but wants to meet new people. It comes with a bedroom and bathroom to yourself and a shared-furnished common area. There is also cleaning services that come and clean the common area.

Gottlieb found the demand to be stronger than expected in Chicago with average age of renters of co-living being over the regular unit average age, the average credit score is higher than the regular units, with a more broad range of reasons people are living there than he could have imagined. Gottlieb said, “They want to live in the social community. They want to make new friends. They want to save a few bucks while they do so.”

With Chicago being such a successful starting point of co-living, plans for 3,500 more units of co-living in New York City and Miami are coming within the next five years. Shear and Gottlieb believe the new co-living style gives them a massive competitive advantage to the apartment market as a whole.

This new style of living is gaining popularity amongst a popular city and is soon to be in two more large American cities. To see if this trend takes off and spreads throughout the world is something to keep an eye on. This new style of living could change the apartment market and giving more people a chance to meet a wide range of people in a city. If it spreads to Dublin, it can help the relatively young population save money on living expenses so they could save towards a down payment for a mortgage in their future.