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Urban Campus was featured as one of the first Coliving operators in Spain in “Expansión” newspaper.

You can read the full article in Spanish or keep reading in English.

This is what the first ‘coliving’ project looks like in Spain

Renting a room or studio with cleaning and maintenance included and access to common areas, gym, movie theaters, cafeteria or workspaces: ‘coliving’ takes off in Spain.

Coliving, a model that allows like-minded people to coexist within the same community, offering F&B, WIFI, cleaning or maintenance services, takes off in Spain and does so thanks to operators such as Urban Campus, DoveVivo, Habyt, Homiii, Starcity, The Student Hotel, and Inedit.

In between student residences, hotels, and rental apartments, coliving offers the possibility of renting a room, in most cases with a private bathroom and kitchen, but also the usage of the building’s common spaces.  These common spaces are shared with other tenants with similar lifestyles and include work areas, a gym, a library, terraces, or even a laundry room. This formula was born in Silicon Valley, United States, and has already spread to several European cities such as London, Paris, Amsterdam, Manchester, Dublin, or Berlin. In Spain, it is still a very incipient phenomenon. According to JLL estimations, Madrid and Barcelona add up to more than 1,200 operational beds under the coliving model. Although focused on these large cities, operators are looking to other Spanish locations to expand their portfolios such as Seville, Valencia, San Sebastián, or Malaga. “We are already seeing a growing investment appetite for this type of asset in the market, which is inspired by elements of the hotel, multi-family sector or as a link between the student residence and the habitual family home, but with a more professional approach ”, Explains Juan Manuel Pardo, director of Coliving at JLL Spain.

Evolution
  • Madrid and Barcelona now have more than 1,200 operational beds.
  • Urban Campus, Habyt, DoveVivo, Starcity, The Student Hotel, Inedit, and Homiii are some of the operators present in Spain.
  • Investors look for opportunities in this growing business.
Operators

Coliving in Spain Expansión

One of the most active operators in our country has been the French company Urban Campus. The group, founded by John van Oost and Maxime Armand, has five coliving and coworking spaces in Madrid and plans to open 30 residential spaces in the next five years, in the main European cities, ten of them in Spain. Specifically, they want to have more than 2,500 residential units in Spain by 2023.

The Italian group DoveVivo, for its part, landed in Spain last year after the purchase of Oh My Place! and now manages a coliving space on Calle San Lorenzo in Madrid with 44 rooms, although its objective is to continue growing in Spain.

Habyt, founded in Berlin in 2017, has spaces in Madrid and Barcelona, ​​while The Student Hotel, with 16 centers in Europe, has two hotels in Barcelona for students and professionals in the education sector and plans to open in Madrid in autumn 2021 and in San Sebastián in 2022, in addition to the third center in Barcelona also next year. Homiii, the commercial brand of the Excem “Socimi”, buy flats in the best areas of the cities, renovate them and equip them with WiFi and Netflix in Madrid, while Inèdit has managed several centers in Barcelona for a decade.

Starcity, with presence in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Silicon Valley, which arrived in Spain through Barcelona Homes in 2020 and other operators such as Sun and Co in Jávea, The Hug, in Fuerteventura or Nine Coliving in Tenerife.

JLL foresees an expansion of the offer of beds in the upcoming years throughout the country of Spain and state that more and more international operators see an opportunity in the Spanish market due to its potential for travel.

Opportunities

“The current situation of coliving in Spain is marked by a regulatory complexity that makes it difficult for public administrations to qualify land use appropriately,” explains Pardo. In this sense, the lack of clear regulations in Spain makes it difficult to start new projects and clashes with the specific coliving regulations that the US has or the progress in the regulatory environment of cities such as London or Amsterdam. Coliving has adapted to the Covid, like other sectors, with the development of wellness programs, stricter cleaning protocols, and social distancing. According to JLL, in the current situation, coliving offers an opportunity for new revenue streams for the hotel sector, heavily penalized by Covid, given the similarity between the services and operations that both businesses have.

Urban Campus is one of the most important ‘coliving’ operators in Spain. The company manages two spaces in Malasaña and Mellado, in the center of Madrid, with a total of 120 beds. They include studios or apartments with an en-suite bathroom, which can be rented from one month on, and access to ‘coworking’ spaces, a gym, terraces with barbecues, relaxation areas, and movie theaters.

Now that towns have sprawled into cities, distances have elongated and cars and traffic jams have become a setback to all of the advantages that megalopolis initially offered, it’s time for a change with a 50 step home.

A new vision of urban living is emerging, catapulted by the Covid19 pandemic and remote working trends. The “15minutes city” is based on bringing local and proximity needs into the global network of large cities, enabling inhabitants to economize their time, by reducing distances to their daily needs. The objective: to improve both living conditions and the environment.

Coliving is also exploring this vision. Here at Urban Campus, we have created the “50 steps rule”. 

What if your house expanded and transformed into an ecosystem of diverse common spaces, less than 50 steps from your bed?

We believe that a healthy environment is built upon human networks. Developing activities together with others not only strengthens links but helps us to overcome loneliness, one of the biggest threats of the 21st century. This is why our focus has always been on creating communities. 85% of our colivers have expressed feeling less lonely whilst living in our spaces.

Coliving fosters a different way of living by exchanging private space for the culture of sharing. Human-beings are social animals. Creating informal connections within our colivings and the surrounding neighborhood enables our residents to find comfort and build-up networks naturally. And it works! 88% of our colivers feel socially supported at Urban Campus.

15 minute city Urban Campus

 

We have also found that architecture that encourages networking makes people happier. How did we do this? We rethought the whole building to adapt to the changing needs of our users. The spaces are flexible and mold to the different rhythms and schedules of the members. Spaces that were once unused and obsolete were transformed into community spaces: working areas during the day (now that working from home is a must) that transform into event spaces in the evening and weekends, some even becoming gyms and/or gaming/cinema rooms.

We also reduced corridors and improved staircases. Once forgotten spaces are now the vertical spine of communication in buildings, linking the different spaces and promoting well-being and informal interaction between the colivers.

The studios connect to small community areas that facilitate close interaction. You enjoy your private space but at the same time, you can organize a dinner with your neighbors, in a larger fully furnished kitchen and living room.

In addition, residents benefit from special deals with their local shops, creating a strong connection with the neighborhood.

 

50 steps home

New urban living is built like a Matryoshka doll: different layers of interaction, creating a network that expands from our private spaces to the immediate community and then to the larger neighborhood. Thanks to colivings our homes have opened up to a new and shared way of understanding spaces. and have created a diverse community within buildings that bring closer all your needs.

 

 

 


 ARTICLE WRITEN BY ALICIA REGODÓN

Project Manager and space strategist at Urban Campus. 

A 50 Steps Home by Alicia Regodón

As PMO and Space Strategist, Alicia is responsible for analyzing future Urban Campus products, managing the transformation, and understanding the use and occupancy through data, enabling the best experience to the users of our different spaces. She has an international background in transformation and participatory projects in Spain, China, Australia, and Brazil.

 

Urban Campus, in collaboration with Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, launched  Challenge Coliving back in March, a competition aimed at the Creative Industries students (Integral Design, Architecture, Fine Arts and Fashion) of the Rey Juan Carlos University.

Today we are happy to announce the winners:

Davinia Franco, Laura González and Josemi Madrigal, all three studying Integral Design and Image Management, are the winners of the first Challenge Coliving competition! Congratulations to all of you 🎉!

Coliving challenge winners Urban Campus uRJC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Urban Campus, a company dedicated to the design of collaborative spaces for coliving and coworking, and the School of Creative Industries of Rey Juan Carlos University are the promoters of this contest, that took place between the months of March and December 2020. The objective was to get the students of the school to rethink the existing shared spaces of Urban Campus in Madrid, involving them in the design of new coliving spaces during the Covid-19 era, and encouraging them to take their ideas to the next level.

Is coliving the cure for loneliness during the confinement? El confidential investigates Coliving during the Covid 19 pandemic. They spoke to Urban Campus, and some other key players in the game, as well as our coliviers to get their opinion on living in one of our spaces during lockdown.

You can read the original article.

Or keep reading in English below:

Coliving has proven to be one of the most resilient sectors during the pandemic, and experts predict a ‘boom’ in this type of lifestyle in the next two years.

Coliving is a residential model based on renting a private space and sharing common areas between people with similar values ​​and interests. Some residents of these spaces define it as a ‘lifestyle’. It may seem that this set-up is incompatible with the pandemic, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, it has proven to be one of the most resilient Real Estate sectors in the face of COVID, triggering a rise in occupation after lockdowns. Experts agree that there will be a boom in coliving in the next two years.

Urban Campus has two coliving spaces in Madrid, one in Malasaña and the other in Chamberí. Marketing manager, Marta Torres, acknowledges that during the confinement around 20% of the residents left, however, currently, of the 120 units between the two spaces, capacity is now at 95%. “As of mid-June we saw an increase in demands,” explains Marta to El Confidencial.

Urban Campus Coliving in el Confidencial

The most surprising thing is that the majority of new ‘colivers’ are Spanish, whereas before there was a higher percentage of international residents. “The trend has been reversed, now we have 60% national and 40% international,” Marta details. To make residents feel safe, they have implemented a multitude of sanitary measures. As in any public place in Spain the use of masks is mandatory in common areas, where the capacity is also now reduced to 50%. They have also popularised ‘online’ activities, such as the weekly community dinners, which before the pandemic were held in person. In addition, potential residents are offered the possibility of visiting the rooms online and can even ‘check-in’ remotely.

One Urban Campus ‘coliver’ is Xacobo Agraso, a 32-year-old young man from Galicia. Since August 2019 he has lived in the space that the company has on Andrés Mellado street, in Chamberí, which is where he spent the lockdown. During those three months only the five other people he shared the apartment with were allowed in & out. “It was very different because we were used to a dynamic of sharing spaces and moments with all of the residents of the building,” he explains to us. 

He feels a much stronger sense of community has been created. “We feel protected and we protect each other,” he says. A WhatsApp group for all residents helped them to stay in touch and send words of encouragement, between the difficult months of April and June. Today they continue to use this means of communication to share the latest restrictions implemented by the Government, organize yoga classes,  distribute job offers, and so on. It even helps them lend a helping hand to those who have tested positive in the community, and can therefore not leave their homes. “There is a very strong community feeling that we all really appreciate”, Xacobo emphasizes.

Of course no space is totally free of the Coronavirus. For this reason Urban Campus have developed a protocol to isolate any infected person and persons with whom they have been in contact with. Thanks to this strict protocol, they have managed to have no more than four cases. One of those cases was that of Esteban Sánchez, a 41-year-old Venezuelan who overcame Covid 20 days ago, without suffering any serious symptoms. “It was strange to experience this situation with roommates. The first thing I did was notify all of them, and then stop using the common areas. We then put in place an agreement for when I could use the kitchen” explains the ‘coliver’.

Another reference in ‘coliving’ is the Italian company, DoveVivo, who operate in Spain under the Oh My Place brand. Its Director of Operations, Irene Trujillo, recalls the feeling of “uncertainty” that she had when the pandemic began. Luckily they have seen though that “the sector has been very resilient and has come out much stronger.” Their strength lies in the fact that they are not part of the tourism sector, so residents stay living on average 12 months in their spaces. In addition many people do not want to go back to living alone with the possibility of another lockdown always hanging in the air, so this model “is a very interesting alternative.” Of course they have also implemented the necessary sanitary measures to prevent infections. They have increased the levels of social distancing, limited face-to-face activities, reinforced cleaning and they carry out a regular control of air quality. Regarding the protocol in the event of a positive case, they follow the steps stipulated by the Minister of Health.

Arrival of international investors

Coliving in Spain is still in its young stage, with just 500 beds available. The growth opportunities within the sector are insightful and some international investors are already looking at potential properties. “We are seeing European, American and Asian investors who are already analyzing buildings”, points out Javier Caro, Director of Coliving at CBRE, a Real Estate consultancy group. He assures that some operations have already been finalised, and predicts that the offer will multiply by up to five by the end of 2022. This is also something  demonstrated by the main operators in the sector. For example, DoveVivo plans to open a new centre in Madrid of 1,600 square meters and 400 beds, in the incoming weeks. In addition, it is about to close on two other projects in the capital, one in Chamberí and the other in Moncloa. For their part, Urban Campus plans to open more than 2,300 beds by 2023, for which they have a team dedicated to finding new buildings in both Spain and the rest of Europe.

Caro clarifies that “the business model has a long history in Spain, with a more adjusted profitability, drawing more attention to it, compared to other more consolidated markets”. He adds that these spaces will be increasingly specialized, distinguishing between, for example, communities of divorced people, entrepreneurs, MBA students, young professionals, digital nomads etc. Other real estate sectors are also seeing the potential of ‘coliving’. “Residential areas where people have common interests are the future. We are beginning to move in that direction, something we are already seeing in some Anglo-Saxon countries”, indicates Rebeca Pérez, founder and CEO of Inviertis, a company specialising in buy-to-let property. Above all, he is struck by the coliving spaces on offer for the elderly, “a segment of the population that is very large in Spain and lacks modern proposals.” He points out that these new communities will have a 24-hour infirmary and a hot water pool so that the elderly can exercise. Despite the fact that the sector still does not have specific legislation in Spain, the Director of Living at JLL Spain, a Real Estate  Consultancy firm, Juan Manuel Pardo does not think that it will be an obstacle to the arrival of new international investors. “It comes under the sector of lodging, which perfectly covers the term ‘coliving’. Pardo also believes “that having specific regulation will encourage the arrival of even more investors”. He affirms that “more and more operators are deciding to enter the Spanish market and are actively looking for products.”