A few years ago, coliving was often presented as an imported trend. In 2025, reality proved otherwise (and it will be the same in 2026): the housing crisis worsened, professional mobility became structural, hybrid work became the norm, and loneliness came to be recognised as a social and public health problem. In this new context, coliving stopped being merely an alternative way of living and became part of a much broader debate about how we live, who we live with, and the role housing plays in our quality of life.
In large cities, the traditional market struggles to respond to those who need flexible, predictable and immediate solutions. At the same time, contemporary housing design has been criticised for reinforcing isolation, by prioritising increasingly small and enclosed units. This is where coliving intersects with concepts such as quality of life and emotional well-being. And this is where we move from housing as “just a place to live” to neuroarchitecture — or how space influences human behaviour, emotions and social relationships.
Coliving
Freepik
The essential question is whether coliving can be part of the solution to the overlapping problems faced by Portuguese cities: lack of affordable housing, urban loneliness and the inadequacy of homes to current ways of living and working. And also why coliving continues to advance so slowly and in such a fragmented way in Portugal.
So, what is coliving?
Loneliness: the invisible pandemic of contemporary cities
“No space is neutral”
Quality of life: no longer measured in square metres
Can it ease the housing crisis?
Why does coliving seem “stalled” in Portugal?
Confusing legal framework
Culture of “home ownership” and privacy
Gap between incomes and prices
Lack of scale
Public-Private Partnerships and vacant assets
Projects in Portugal
Seven international examples
So, what is coliving?
In theory, coliving is simple: you live in a private room or studio (often with a private bathroom) and share kitchens, living rooms, laundries, leisure areas and, in many cases, coworking space. It usually includes services such as internet, cleaning, maintenance and building management. The key point is that it is not improvised: it is professionalised shared housing, designed for medium-term stays, with more flexible contracts than traditional renting and more stability than short-term accommodation.
The most obvious advantages are:
  • Cost predictability: bills included, no surprises;
  • Contractual flexibility: no long-term ties;
  • Ready-made social network: useful for those arriving alone;
  • Infrastructure for online work: coworking, reliable internet and sometimes meeting rooms.
Coliving experts
Teresa Ribeiro, Head of the Portuguese Academy of Neuroarchitecture
idealista/news
Loneliness: the invisible pandemic of contemporary cities
Loneliness is now a social and public health problem, associated with increased mental and cardiovascular diseases and reduced life expectancy. In large cities, housing models reinforce isolation: closed homes, absence of common areas, lack of stimuli for social interaction, routines that never cross.
Architect Teresa Ribeiro, head of the Portuguese Academy of Neuroarchitecture, even calls it a pandemic. “At the moment, the global pandemic is loneliness. Loneliness is killing many people. And this is not an abstract thing, it is real. People live alone, work alone, age alone, and the spaces we design often reinforce that isolation.”
This is where coliving emerges as a possible response: by introducing spaces designed for informal encounters, shared routines and close relationships. But beware: coliving only combats loneliness if it creates a sense of belonging, not merely ‘people around’. A full building can be just as lonely as a 25-square-metre (m²) studio if design and management do not facilitate human connection.
“We were talking about loneliness and new solutions that bring people to live more in community and not in solitude, namely coliving solutions. Coliving can be one of the answers to a society where there are increasingly more people living alone,” reinforces Teresa Ribeiro, who has over 20 years of experience in residential, urban and rehabilitation architecture.
The ambition goes beyond the obvious “young people on the move”. Teresa Ribeiro opens a particularly relevant door for Portugal: coliving as a social response also for older people and for intergenerational living. “Coliving can be one of the responses to a society where people are single, or elderly, but where we can be closer to each other, with support, relationships and human proximity.”
“It is a model that can bring intergenerational living, the transmission of knowledge between generations, something that has largely been lost in the way we organise housing today.”
Teresa Ribeiro, Head of the Portuguese Academy of Neuroarchitecture
“No space is neutral”
Neuroarchitecture is an interdisciplinary field that combines architecture, neuroscience and environmental psychology, studying how physical spaces influence the brain, emotions, behaviour and well-being. Factors such as natural light, acoustics, circulation, contact with the outdoors, scale, materials and the presence (or absence) of social spaces are analysed. The objective is clear: to design spaces with a direct impact on well-being, mental health, social relationships and quality of life.
“We are always in a space, we always occupy a space. The question is: how does it impact our quality of life? Does it make us feel good, safe, comfortable, does it promote encounters or, on the contrary, isolate us?” warns Teresa Ribeiro.
Coliving experts
Margarida Caldeira, Lead Architect at the international studio Broadway Malyan
idealista/news
Quality of life: no longer measured in square metres
For a long time, quality housing was synonymous with area, location and finishes. Today, when we talk about quality of life in housing, “we talk about light, silence, the possibility of encounters, a sense of security, belonging and balance between privacy and social life”. Architect Teresa Ribeiro adds: “The home has also become a place of work, leisure and emotional recovery, which requires new spatial models.”
Here, coliving emerges as a laboratory: it accepts that private units can be more compact, as long as they are complemented by well-designed common spaces and services that reduce everyday friction. But it is also a delicate balance: having enough privacy to feel at home and enough social life to avoid living in an urban capsule.
Margarida Caldeira, lead architect at the international studio Broadway Malyan, sees housing as one of the country’s greatest challenges and believes in “new ways of living”. The logic is clear: more compact homes, complemented by integrated amenities that promote well-being, convenience and quality of life — coworking, gyms, lounges, outdoor areas and shared infrastructure that reduce individual costs and strengthen the sense of community.
Margarida Caldeira points to neuroarchitecture as a growing trend and the ‘next step’, deepening the relationship between space and human behaviour, emotional and cognitive well-being. Just as sustainability was once seen as an add-on and is now unavoidable, neuroarchitecture will also tend to gain relevance in how we design homes and cities.
Can it ease the housing crisis?
In Portugal, talking about housing means talking about the most sensitive issue of the moment. Coliving appears as a complementary solution. The CEO of the Portuguese Association of Real Estate Developers and Investors (APPII), Manuel Maria Gonçalves, argues that coliving can be an innovative response in cities such as Lisbon and Porto, where traditional renting is more expensive and supply is scarce. He highlights space optimisation, cost reduction and the offering of flexible contracts with services included, as well as the potential for urban regeneration and efficient use of existing stock.
In APPII’s view, the models with greatest potential in Portugal include:
  • Urban projects aimed at young professionals and international students;
  • Hybrid formats combining housing and coworking;
  • Sustainable initiatives in peripheral or tourist areas (for example, the Algarve), associated with demand for quality of life and community integration.
Coliving experts
Manuel Maria Gonçalves, CEO of the Portuguese Association of Real Estate Developers and Investors
idealista/news
But the sector itself recognises the dilemma: ‘all-inclusive’ rents are not always affordable for Portuguese salaries. Many projects target international audiences with greater purchasing power. Without clear public policies, coliving tends to appear where profitability is higher, not where social need is greatest.
Real estate consultancy JLL Portugal, through its Co-Head of Residential Maria Empis, frames coliving within the ‘flex living’ segment and highlights its contribution to mitigating the housing crisis by increasing the efficiency of use of existing urban stock: smaller private units, shared services and higher-density occupation. Maria Empis identifies three key trends: “Growth of the urban population, greater labour mobility and changes in lifestyles towards flexible solutions less centred on ownership.”
For Maria Empis, in Lisbon and Porto — pressured by foreign residents, international students and temporary professionals — coliving allows for immediate and flexible supply, reducing pressure on traditional renting, especially when it involves revitalising underused buildings in consolidated areas. She identifies the model with greatest potential as urban flex living/coliving, focused on professionals aged between 22 and 60, with short- to medium-term stays, in central areas or well served by transport.
Why does coliving seem “stalled” in Portugal?
Confusing legal framework
Most projects end up fitting into existing categories, often Local Accommodation (AL), because there is no specific legal framework for coliving. This generates licensing doubts, legal uncertainty and conflicts in residential buildings. Manuel Maria Gonçalves, from APPII, reinforces that the absence of a specific legal framework leads many projects to operate under the AL regime, designed for tourism rather than medium- or long-term stays, creating insecurity for residents and owners.
And there is a very concrete detail that weighs heavily: existing buildings and condominiums. Manuel Maria Gonçalves recalls the difficulties of compatibility with building structures and internal regulations: many buildings do not allow residential typologies of this nature because they foresee use for owner-occupation. “Consolidating coliving as a sustainable solution requires defining the rights and duties of residents and operators to avoid misuse, integrating the model into urban plans and promoting tax incentives and support for urban rehabilitation, while ensuring respect for condominium regulations and the safety and well-being of all residents/owners,” he summarises.
Coliving experts
Maria Empis, Co-Head of Residential at JLL Portugal
idealista/news
Culture of “home ownership” and privacy
Portugal has a strong historical relationship with owning one’s own home. Margarida Caldeira, lead architect at Broadway Malyan, and Maria Empis, from JLL Portugal, point to this cultural trait: in markets where renting dominates, temporary living is more naturalised; in Portugal, professionalised sharing gains traction more slowly.
Gap between incomes and prices
Even when supply exists, positioning tends to be mid- to high-end, suited to digital nomads paid in strong currencies, tech workers and international students. For young Portuguese people, it often remains out of reach.
The most sensitive — and perhaps most decisive — point is the social one. Teresa Ribeiro issues both a warning and an ambition. Coliving can be a response to loneliness and even open the door to intergenerational models, but “it will only be an interesting model if applied in a very accessible way”. “Otherwise, we risk creating just another real estate product, when the objective should be to improve people’s lives,” the architect reinforces.
Lack of scale
The market remains fragmented: small buildings, local operators, little large-scale supply. Less scale means less visibility, weaker negotiating power with municipalities and less room for competitive pricing. The COVIVIR fund, which announced €150 million to invest in coliving and student residences in Portugal and Spain, is often cited as a sign of institutional interest, but still lacks sufficient volume to translate intentions into market transformation.
Maria Empis is particularly incisive: the main risk factor is the slowness, complexity and unpredictability of urban planning licensing processes. This increases costs, makes timelines uncertain and reduces investor appetite. Without deep reform, the sector will not gain scale.
Architect Margarida Caldeira also points to operational complexity: these formats require continuous management and robust infrastructure, which depend on coordinated urban development between developers and municipalities — coordination that is still in its early stages.
Public-Private Partnerships and vacant assets
There is a structural gap: “There is a lack of institutional capacity to create and operationalise partnerships that use vacant or underused public buildings and land,” explains Maria Empis. These assets could be converted into coliving, affordable housing, intermediate housing and solutions for young professionals, but often remain without programmatic framing, delaying their transformation into supply.
Projects in Portugal
Although there has not been an explosion of supply, there are projects that help illustrate how coliving is positioning itself:
  • Co.Lisbon, in Lisbon: rehabilitated a building and transformed it into a coliving space with 28 rooms and studios, coworking areas and a garden, strongly focused on young professionals and students;
  • Outsite, with units in Lisbon and Porto: a hybrid model of hotel, coliving and coworking, designed for digital nomads and medium-term stays;
  • Gabba CoLiving, born in Porto and expanding to Gaia and Maia: an operator dedicated to coliving housing in an urban context.
Coliving
Freepik
Seven international examples
Looking at international examples, it becomes clear that coliving is not a single concept. There are hybrid hospitality models, high-tech projects, large-scale operators focused on affordability and intentional communities.
WeLive (New York and Washington DC)
Created by WeWork, it explores the ‘coliving + hotel’ fusion. Highlights include furnished and modular apartments (smart storage solutions), weekly events, a resident chef, a yoga room and a detail that perfectly illustrates the philosophy of the model: a laundry-bar — a bar inside the laundry room. The idea is to transform solitary routines into possible social moments. Innovation to note: absolute integration between design and community life.
lyf by Ascott (Singapore, Tokyo, Bangkok)
Probably the most high-tech coliving concept in Asia. Created for millennials and Gen Z, with minimalist yet functional rooms, huge shared kitchens with individual stations and app-based operations: check-in, bookings, maintenance and social programming.
Zoku (Amsterdam, with expansion to Paris, Vienna and Copenhagen)
A hybrid between coliving, coworking and boutique hotel, designed for digital nomads. Multi-purpose loft rooms, hidden bed, “serious” workspace, rooftop with urban greenhouse and community restaurant. A daily social programme that mixes guests and medium-term residents.
Common (several cities in the USA)
One of the largest coliving operators in the world. Why it is a reference: focus on affordability, prices lower than traditional renting, varied models (shared houses, studios, entire buildings), hotel-like services and active communities with weekly events.
K9 Coliving (Stockholm)
A community-driven and socially solid example: an intentional community with consensus-based decision-making, energy sustainability, studios, workshops, music rooms, library and greenhouses. It mixes generations (18 to 60+), challenging the idea that “coliving = young people”.
Urban Rigger (Copenhagen)
Floating coliving created by architect Bjarke Ingels, made from containers transformed into floating platforms. 100% sustainable (solar energy and water-source heat pump). Each “island” has 12 to 24 rooms with kitchen, rooftop and kayak dock. Focused on students, but with top-tier architecture.
The Millennials (Tokyo and Kyoto)
Japanese minimalism combined with high technology, ‘capsule loft’ rooms with high ceilings, integrated panels and functional, quiet social spaces — a reminder that coexistence does not have to mean noise.