The coliving market as an emergent financialized niche real estate sector: a view from Brussels

Abstract

This paper addresses coliving as a product shaped to attract both young professionals in a student-style accommodation and investors of various scales, while integrating new geographies and housing types into capital accumulation. Taking Brussels as case-study, it answers the question ‘how are new residential products created by the financialization process affecting the private rental sector?’ by combining quantitative and qualitative methods. The paper also provides results on intra-urban geographies of financialized housing. First, coliving is aimed at a particular market segment consisting of young international workers attracted by the international functions of Brussels. To attract this clientele to a student-style accommodation, operators must promote a unique experience. Second, the Brussels coliving market illustrates that the financialization of the private rental sector relies notably on the creation of new products shaped so that investors of various scales can easily inject their capital. Third, most Brussels coliving establishments remain small-scale projects located in renovated old single-family houses.

Keywords:

• coliving
• financialization
• young adults
• private rental sector
• flexible housing

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to J.-M. Decroly, N. Revington and M. Van Criekingen for their feedback on earlier versions of this article. Critical comments from three anonymous reviewers also contributed to its improvement. Many thanks to Emory Shaw for his proofreading.

Errors and omissions remain my own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Unfortunately, more detailed data on the rental market is not available for the Brussels Region.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by a fellowship of the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique – FNRS.

Notes on contributors

Charlotte Casier

Charlotte Casier is a PhD student in geography at ULB. Her research interests lie in the fields of demography and urban studies. Her thesis focuses on the coliving sector in Brussels.