scale;I’ve been thinking about this for a while.
Over the past 11 years in this industry as an operator, tech builder, advisor, and now running Everything Coliving, one thing has frustrated me more than anything: the coliving industry doesn’t have shared infrastructure.
Hotels have STR Global. SaaS has G2. Real estate has CoStar. Coliving? We have fragmented blogs, paywalled reports, and operators reinventing the wheel every time they need a financial model, a lease template, or a basic understanding of which PMS (property management system) to choose.
We publish the newsletter every week, covering what’s happening in coliving. But covering the industry isn’t enough. We need to build the infrastructure the industry is missing.
So over the past few months, we’ve been heads down building. And today, I’m opening all of it up. Six new initiatives. All free. All live right now on everythingcoliving.com.
Live Coliving Research: The Industry’s First Real-Time Dataset
Coliving Vendor & Technology Directory
Coliving Operators Directory
14 Free Interactive Tools for Coliving Operators
Free Templates & Resources Library
Let me walk you through each one.
1. Live Coliving Research: The Industry’s First Real-Time Dataset
This is the most ambitious initiative of the six, and the one I think could genuinely change how our industry makes decisions.
Here’s the problem: the coliving industry relies on annual reports that are 6–12 months out of date by the time they’re published, market analyses that cover macro trends but miss operational realities, and conference panels that share anecdotes rather than aggregated data.
We’ve built a living, breathing research platform. 25 carefully curated questions across 5 categories: Demographics & Profile, Living Preferences & Design, Operations & Business, Market Trends & Investment, and Community & Culture. Takes 3–5 minutes to complete. Results update in real time with every new response.
The vision is simple: a single source of truth for the coliving industry. Not what analysts think is happening but what the people actually building, investing in, and living in coliving know to be true.
We already have 27 responses and growing. The more people who take the survey, the more valuable the dataset becomes for everyone. Operators can benchmark their occupancy rates. Investors can gauge market sentiment by region. Developers can understand what residents actually want in terms of design and amenities.
Completely free, fully anonymous, and open access. No paywalls. No gating. No premium tiers.
Inspired by “One Shared House 2030” by Anton & Irene but built for the operational realities of coliving today, not aspirational questions about the future.
2. Coliving Vendor & Technology Directory
Every coliving operator I’ve worked with, from a 10-bed space in Lisbon to a 1,500-bed portfolio in Australia, hits the same wall: “Which PMS (property management system) should I use? What smart lock works? Who handles payments for shared housing? What community platform do other operators use?”
The answers are scattered across LinkedIn threads, conference hallway conversations, and whatever comes up first on Google. There’s no single place where operators can browse and compare the technology and services built for coliving.
Now there is.
The Vendor & Technology Directory organizes coliving technology and service providers across seven categories: Property Management Systems, Smart Locks & Access Control, Payment Processing, Community Platforms, Marketing & Growth, Furniture & Design, and Maintenance & Operations.
If you’re a vendor or service provider, listing is completely free. You get visibility in front of thousands of operators, an SEO backlink from a high-authority coliving platform, and direct exposure to the people who buy your product. Our team reviews every submission within 2–3 days to maintain quality.
3. Coliving Operators Directory
There is no comprehensive, filterable directory of coliving operators worldwide. I know this because every time an investor asks me, "Who operates coliving in Spain?” or a developer wants to find management partners in the UK, I end up manually compiling lists.
The Operator Directory fixes this. Browse coliving operators globally, filter by region and business model (master lease, owned, management agreement, revenue share, franchise, hybrid), and discover operators you didn’t know existed.
Whether you run 5 beds or 5,000; boutique spaces; purpose-built developments; digital nomad hubs; student coliving; senior coliving; affordable housing; luxury, suburban, or rural; there’s a category for you.
Listing is free. Submit your company details, and our team reviews and approves within 2–3 days. Once live, your listing is visible to investors, development partners, technology vendors, and potential residents who visit everythingcoliving.com every month.
4. 14 Free Interactive Tools for Coliving Operators
This one I’m particularly proud of. We’ve built 14 interactive tools that cover the most common operational questions coliving operators face. All free. No login required. No paywall. Here’s what’s live:
Planning & Financial: Coliving Readiness Index (assess your readiness across 11 factors), ROI Calculator (estimate returns for property conversion), Vacancy Cost Calculator (quantify the true cost of empty rooms), Operating Budget Template, Investor Pitch Generator, and Market Demand Estimator.
Operations: House Rules Generator (customizable rules tailored to your property), Tenant Screening Checklist, Property Conversion Assessment (is your property suitable for coliving?), Move-in Experience Designer, and Sustainability Scorecard.
Marketing & Growth: Marketing Audit Quiz (score your strategy, get recommendations), Pricing Optimizer (find optimal room pricing), and Lease Comparison Tool (master lease vs. management agreement vs. ownership; side by side).
The Readiness Index alone has already been used by hundreds of operators and aspiring founders. If you’re planning a coliving project and you haven’t taken it yet, that’s where I’d start.
5. Free Templates & Resources Library (WIP)
Ten free, downloadable templates built specifically for coliving operators. Not generic real estate templates repurposed with “coliving” in the title. These are purpose-built from our experience working with 60+ operators across 14+ countries. It's still a work in progress, and we are upgrading it.
Financial: Financial Model Excel Template (revenue projections, unit economics, investor-ready statements), Investor Pitch Deck Template, Business Plan Template, and Investor Report Template.
Operations: Standard Operating Procedures Bundle (check-in, maintenance, cleaning, conflict resolution, emergency response) and Resident Onboarding Checklist (pre-arrival through first month milestones).
Marketing: Marketing Plan Template (brand positioning, channel strategy, and content planning) and Social Media Content Calendar (90 days of content with post ideas, hashtag strategies, and platform-specific guidelines).
Legal: Lease Agreement Templates Bundle (master lease, individual room licenses, short-term stay agreements, and community guidelines addenda).
Community: Community Events Playbook (planning, execution, and measurement with event ideas, budgets, and engagement metrics).
Every file is unlocked and fully customisable. Download it, adapt it to your market and model, and use it. That’s it.
Why All Free?
I get this question a lot. Why give this away?
Because the coliving industry is at an inflection point. Capital is arriving at scale, we covered £25M+ in UK financing, $101M acquisitions, 833-room towers, and institutional JVs worth £350M in just the last few weeks. But the industry infrastructure hasn’t kept pace with the capital.
Operators are still Googling “coliving financial model template” and getting generic spreadsheets. Vendors are still cold-emailing operators one by one because there’s no directory. Investors are still asking me to manually compile operator lists. Researchers are still working off stale annual reports.
Everything Coliving’s mission is to positively impact the lives of 10 million people by helping them find better, more connected, and affordable places to live. That starts with empowering the operators and vendors who build these spaces with the tools, data, and connections they need to do it well.
The newsletter gives you the news. These initiatives give you the infrastructure.
Get Involved
Here’s what you can do right now:
Operators: List your coliving business in the directory. It’s free and takes 5 minutes.
Vendors: List your product or service in the vendor directory. Get in front of thousands of operators.
Everyone: Take the Live Research survey. 25 questions, 3–5 minutes. Help build the industry’s real-time dataset.
Founders: Download the free templates and try the free tools. Start with the Readiness Index.
Share this newsletter with someone building, operating, investing, or selling into the coliving industry. The more people who use these resources, the more valuable they become for everyone.
If you have questions, feedback, or ideas for what we should build next, hit reply or email me directly at mayank@everythingcoliving.com. I read every message.
Until next time, Mayank Pokharna Everything Coliving
