The Future is Shared Living — 10 Benefits of Living in a Community

In many major cities like London, you’ll find most young adults living with multiple housemates or flatmates. Are recessions and other financial realities solely to blame? They no doubt play a part, but what’s becoming clear is that many millennials are adopting shared living as a conscious lifestyle choice.

Can’t afford to rent out an entire flat for yourself? No worries — living in a connected community, large or small, is better all round:

1. The most obvious benefits of living with others are social. Whether you’re living with a handful of roommates, or within a community of over 500, it’s undeniably nice to have a friendly face to come home to at the end of a long day. Meals, films, exercising — they’re all a bit more fun with other people.

2. If you’re lucky, you’ll become fast friends with your housemates — but don’t forget, you’ll also become connected to their friends, and friends of friends. With an ever-growing social network, you’ll never have trouble meeting new people or forging useful business connections.

3. Not only is it more enjoyable, being part of a community — or simply living in a more social way — is proven to make you healthier and live longer.

4. Living in a group can be a big money-saver, allowing you to split costs for things like food, utilities, household items and utensils.

5. Sharing a home with others provides the opportunity to borrow what you don’t have — how many times have you found yourself desperate for a printer/stapler/hairdryer/Vitamix?

6. Shared living provides you with more space and amenities than you would be able to afford alone. In communities like The Collective Old Oak, the price of rent not only gets you an en suite room, but also access to facilities like a spa, gym, games room, secret garden, themed kitchens and more.

7. In many ways, shared living is a more sustainable way to live in terms of energy and resources. Living as a collective, we can cut down on how many appliances we need to run, or items we end up buying (and later throwing away).

8. Shared livings means more people to lighten the burden of the necessary evils of life, e.g. cleaning, arranging meter readings, taking the bins out. You might even win the jackpot and find a housemate who doesn’t mind removing the odd spider from your room.

9. With more people living in a home, it is much less likely to get broken into, providing an additional level of safety.

10. In larger co-living communities, your home becomes so much more than a place to rest your head at night. At The Collective Old Oak, member events are held every day of the week, including film nights, yoga classes, live music, guest speaker series and more.

Want to learn more about co-living? Get in touch to arrange a tour of The Collective Old Oak.

Written by Grace Waters, Digital Content Specialist at The Collective

Originally published at www.thecollective.co.uk.