This edition:
Investec Future Living 4 reports say 40% of UK Living-sector investors plan to raise coliving allocation
Connecticut’s “Golden Girls” bill clears the Senate then dies in the House
Vonder opens two Dubai coliving properties
Wee Hur acquires $50M Wollstonecraft coliving site in Sydney
Stanza Living’s $32M India down round at $320M valuation
GMP launches Truliving with a 724-unit Madrid pipeline
East London coliving clears UK Gateway 2 in a record 13 weeks
Common, quietly, ceases trading
and everything else coliving
Everything Coliving is the world’s only full-stack coliving agency and knowledge platform, offering growth marketing, custom software, advisory, media & PR, and global research for 65+ coliving operators across 15+ countries.
In Case You Missed It
Habyt Exits APAC, Patron Tests €400M Exit, Argis Opens Madrid Metro HQ (May 19) In the last edition, we walked through the biggest APAC coliving deal of 2026, the first European coliving exit test, and Madrid’s office-to-coliving thesis going live. Read →
PadSplit, Shawnee, and 4.1 Million Australians (Apr 13) PadSplit’s ORIX financing, the federal appeals court upholding Shawnee’s coliving ban, and Australia’s affordability crisis pushing 4.1 million people into shared homes. Read →
Inside Spain’s Flex Living Boom (Podcast S2 Ep2) — Why €17B is chasing Madrid, not Barcelona. Listen →
The Investec Signal: 40% of Investors Are About to Buy More Coliving
Every year or two, a single report comes out that defines how institutional capital talks about coliving for the next 18 months. This year, it’s Investec’s Future Living 4.
The headline: 40% of UK Living-sector investors plan to increase their capital allocation to coliving over the next 12 months. 36% are optimistic about the sector. The UK now has over 9,000 operational coliving units. (The Intermediary · Property Week · Green Street News)
I have been pitching coliving to investors since 2017. I cannot overstate how different this conversation feels now. The questions have shifted from “is this a real asset class?” to “what’s a defensible exit multiple?” That is the difference between a category being born and a category being underwritten.
Two days later, on May 12-15, the UK’s National Housing Bank committed £100M as a cornerstone investor in Starlight’s UK BTR Fund II, supporting a 6,000-home pipeline. (Alternatives Watch) The same NHB had already put £100M into an Aviva BTR JV earlier in the spring. (Gov.uk)
Public-sector anchor capital is now actively underwriting living-sector funds. That has never been true at this scale in the UK before.
The wall of capital coming at coliving over the next 18-24 months will not be looking for promising decks. It will be looking for operating businesses with clean unit economics, defensible occupancy, and a real exit story.
If your financial reporting still looks like a personal-finance spreadsheet, fix that this quarter. Fund-of-fund investors and pension capital will not look twice.
If you’re not sure what good looks like, our Financial Model Templates and Pricing Optimizer are built around exactly the metrics institutional underwriters ask for.
Connecticut’s “Golden Girls” Bill Just Died in the House
I told you in the last edition that the Connecticut Senate had passed the Golden Girls bill (SB 339) on April 17, allowing owner-occupants to rent up to three bedrooms by right with no local zoning approval. The vote was 29-7. There was real momentum. (CT Public)
Three weeks later, on May 7, the bill failed to gain a House vote. It is, for this session, dead. (CT Public)
Even more telling: in the same window, the Connecticut Senate advanced another housing bill restricting how utility costs can be allocated among tenants. (Yankee Institute) So Connecticut’s legislature simultaneously pushed forward one bill that would help shared living and another that would hurt its unit economics. The two bills working at cross-purposes is the cleanest summary of where US shared-housing policy actually is right now.
This was the strongest “right-to-coliving” Senate vote any US state has produced in 2026. If a 29-7 Senate margin couldn’t translate into a House vote, the political bar for the next state attempting it just went up considerably.
The Institute for Justice’s ROOM Act model legislation (IJ) is now circulating in multiple state legislatures. Connecticut’s outcome will weigh on every one of them.
Meanwhile, NYC’s Council is debating Intro 1475 and Intro 66, the “Co-Living 2.0” laws that would legalise shared-housing units in new construction after January 2027. (Brick Underground · 6sqft) New York may be where the next real political test happens.
The pattern: the demand for shared housing is going up everywhere; the political response is wildly uneven. Operators who underwrite city-by-city will win. Operators who underwrite country-by-country will get burned.
Three Continents, Three Institutional Bets
In the last week alone, three deals dropped that tell you exactly where institutional coliving capital is moving.
Dubai, Vonder: Vonder launched two coliving properties in Dubai, Vonder City Walk (150 units) and Vonder Bluewaters inside Caesars Palace Dubai. A third 300-apartment property in Dubai Marina is due this summer. (Urban Living MEA · Sleeper Magazine) This is the first serious Middle East coliving deployment by a European operator at scale. Watch the lease-up curve carefully; if Vonder hits stabilisation in 6 months, Dubai opens up as a meaningful global coliving market overnight.
Sydney, Wee Hur: Singapore-listed PBSA specialist Wee Hur acquired a $50M+ Wollstonecraft coliving site — its first dedicated coliving site anywhere. 170 meters from the new Crows Nest Metro station. The site benefited directly from NSW’s transport-oriented development rezoning. (BTR News Australia · Commercial Real Estate) Wee Hur is a PBSA operator, when a student-housing specialist makes its first-ever dedicated coliving land buy, that is a signal everyone in the Asia-Pacific living world should be reading.
Pune & Bengaluru, Stanza Living: India’s largest managed-accommodation player raised $32M Series E from Accel and Motilal Oswal at a $320M valuation, a 28% down round from its previous mark. (Inc42 · RPRealtyPlus) The down round is the headline, but the more important fact is this: Stanza now operates 70,000+ beds across 450+ residences in 24 Indian cities. Even at a haircut valuation, Stanza is a real coliving business at real scale.
The three biggest coliving moves of the past week happened on three different continents, from three different capital sources, and in three completely different operating models. Hospitality-leaning operator entering Dubai. PBSA specialist entering Sydney. Down-round growth funding scaling India. There is no longer a single playbook. There is a playbook per region.
For operators thinking about international expansion, our Coliving Readiness Index and Cost Index by City are precisely the kind of city-level comparison tools you need.
Spain Keeps Adding Supply: GMP Launches Truliving, 724 Units in Madrid
If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, you know my view: Spain is the most interesting institutional coliving market in Europe right now, and Madrid is the most interesting city in Spain.
This week added one more data point. Madrid office heavyweight GMP launched a coliving brand called Truliving and began work on a 724-unit pipeline across Sanchinarro and Valdebebas, with additional sites in Alcobendas and Vallecas. (EjePrime)
The story here is who, not what. GMP is a pure office landlord. Office landlords rotating into coliving at scale is the strongest signal yet of Spanish institutional commitment to the asset class.
Stack this on top of last edition’s stories: - Argis opened 179 studios in the former Metro Madrid HQ - Vita Group + Metrovacesa signed their second JV (519 rooms at Oria) - Patron Capital put Vandor (1,400 beds) on the block for €400M.
That is one Iberian city, four institutional players, four directions, all moving in 60 days. The Madrid playbook is being written in real time
Everything Else Coliving
The deals, projects, regulatory moves, and ecosystem shifts that didn’t get a deep dive but absolutely belong on your radar this fortnight.
The Other Quietly-Big Story: Common Ceases Trading
Common, one of the original US coliving brands has ceased trading. (Urban Living News) After Outpost + June Homes merged into OJH Holdings late last year to form the largest US coliving operator (~4,000 units), the post-Common consolidation is now nearly complete.
UK: The 13-Week Gateway 2 Miracle
A 150-unit East London coliving scheme cleared Gateway 2 in just 13 weeks — believed to be a UK record. (Urban Living News) Gateway 2 has been the single biggest delivery bottleneck for high-rise coliving in the UK. A 13-week clearance changes the timeline calculus for sponsors across London.
Cardiff: 244-unit Principality House coliving consultation closes in mid-May. (Nation.Cymru) Wales is now the third UK coliving city after London and Manchester.
Bristol to draw up a coliving design guide. (Urban Living News) Bristol joins Leeds and Brighton as UK cities producing dedicated coliving planning guidance.
UPP wins Bristol University 890-bed Temple Island PBSA deal. (Estates Gazette) University nominations remain the safest underwriting in PBSA.
Prescient & Urbanite closed £44.3M PBSA refinancing with Secure Trust Bank on April 22 across Sheffield, Leeds, and Glasgow assets. (Place Yorkshire)
Tokyo’s Coliving Moment
Dash Living acquired ~$400M of Tokyo multifamily: 8 assets, 550 keys, lifting the Rava Partners / Hillhouse-backed platform to 42 assets across APAC. (Mingtiandi) Combine this with the Habyt → Mitsubishi Estate deal and Hmlet’s APAC return: Tokyo is becoming the primary APAC capital destination for institutional coliving.
US Affordability Backdrop
NYC Rent Guidelines Board considers a freeze for rent-stabilised units on May 7. (NY1) Market-rate rents keep rising; coliving stays one of the only sub-$2K options in the city.
Hawai’i Housing Factbook 2026 dropped May 7. Modest affordability improvement, mounting risks. (University of Hawai’i) Hawai’i has long been one of the most under-served candidate markets for institutional shared housing.
PadSplit reputation watch. A 1-star Medium review from a PadSplit tenant landed in May and started circulating across coliving Twitter/X. (Medium) Worth reading if you operate a high-volume affordability-segment model. Reputation is the moat institutional capital cannot quickly buy.
Tech / Proptech
Propurti Geeks officially launched its AI-powered property management platform at MacEwan University on May 9. (GlobeNewswire)
Everything Coliving × Noseberry Digitals strategic partnership, bringing AI/ML, smart tenant matching, predictive occupancy, and dynamic pricing to operators. (Everything Coliving)
Everything Coliving, The Agency Stack
I’ve had a few emails recently asking what “Everything Coliving” actually does beyond the newsletter. So here it is, in plain language.
We are the world’s only full-stack coliving agency and knowledge platform. We work with 60+ operators across 14+ countries. What we actually deliver:
Growth Marketing, SEO, paid, content, and lead-gen funnels built specifically for coliving’s lead-to-tour-to-tenant cycle.
Custom Software & Tech, From BookMyColiving (free forever listing) to bespoke property tech for operators who need more than a generic PMS.
Advisory, market entry, business plan, financial modeling, exit prep. Whether you’re a single-asset operator or a fund building a portfolio.
Media & PR, The newsletter you’re reading is part of it. So is the podcast, the Global Coliving Report, and the Live Research dataset.
If any of that sounds like what you need
The first one is genuinely no-strings. Worst case, you walk away with a clearer picture of your market.
BookMyColiving, Free Forever. Seriously.
If you missed it last time: BookMyColiving is the world’s first free-forever discovery platform for shared-living operators.
Why we built it: Customer acquisition costs in coliving are brutal. If we can reduce them, operators reach profitability faster. That helps us hit our goal at Everything Coliving — to positively impact 10 million lives by 2030.
What it gives you:
Direct tenant connections: no broker, no commission
A live listing in 200+ cities and 70+ countries
Integration roadmap with major coliving PMS vendors (in build now)
Forever free. No tiers. No upsells.
45-day numbers since launch: 75 operators signed up, 27 with active properties, 100 tenants registered, 2,000+ tenant searches, and 18,000+ visitors.
The numbers will grow. But the only way they grow is if more operators list. If you operate even one property and haven’t listed yet.
If you’re at scale and want a direct API integration, hit reply. We are actively building those right now.
Coming Up: Events
SIMA 2026, Madrid, May 20-23. Europe’s largest dedicated living conference. First-time dedicated Flex Living Space. 21,000 visitors, 350 exhibitors, 200 speakers. We have free SIMA passes for podcast subscribers; listen and grab one here.
National Co-Living Conference, Denver, June 5-6. The premier US gathering. Details →
Coliving Conference 2026: 4th edition of the global flagship. Details →
Urban Living Festival — London, September 14-15. UK industry’s cross-format event covering coliving, BTR, PBSA, and serviced apartments. (Details →)
Women’s Coliving Summit — Atlanta, October 16-17. (Details →)
What I’m Thinking About This Week
I want to share something I have been wrestling with.
In the last edition I wrote that institutional acceptance is the milestone we always said we wanted and that not everyone who built this industry will survive its institutionalization. A few readers wrote back and pushed me on that. The pushback was something like, aren’t you part of the institutionalization?” You run an agency that serves 60+ operators. You sell the financial models, the pitch decks, and the M&A marketplace. Who are you really speaking for?
Fair question. Honest answer: I am speaking for the small and mid-sized operator who wants to thrive in this next phase and institutionalization. for the institutional buyer who wants real operators to thrive because the buyer needs supply.
Those interests align more often than they look. Common collapsed because it tried to do everything at once without operating discipline. Habyt is exiting APAC because operating in Tokyo at a distance is genuinely hard. The Connecticut bill failed because the political economy of shared housing is still being written. Each of these failures is a wake-up call for operators and a missed opportunity for capital.
The operators who survive the next 24 months will have three things in common:
Real numbers. Not vibes-based unit economics. Real cost of customer acquisition, real occupancy, real margin per resident.
Real distribution. Owned audience. Direct lead pipes. A reason your residents come back to you (or refer their friend) without paying anyone a commission.
Real regulation literacy. City-by-city, not country-by-country. The Madrid-Barcelona divergence is the new normal everywhere.
If you have one of those three, you are ahead of most. If you have all three, you will be on the buy-side of the next consolidation cycle. That is the part nobody is talking about loudly enough yet.
Question for you: what do you think? Is institutionalization good news or bad news for the soul of coliving? Reply and tell me your honest take. I am compiling responses (anonymized) for a feature piece in the next edition.
Onwards and upwards.
Mayank Pokharna
Everything Coliving · BookMyColiving · LinkedIn · Podcast
