Co-living asks residents to make a trade. They accept less private space in return for shared facilities, managed services and the prospect of a more sociable, flexible way to live. That can be a worthwhile exchange. But the planning case should turn on whether the development can deliver it, including when the building is fully occupied and the novelty has worn off.

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Too much of the debate risks settling around the size of the private room. Developers explain the communal offer; local authorities question whether the accommodation is sufficiently generous. Both have legitimate concerns, but neither room dimensions nor a schedule of amenities can establish whether a building will make a good home. The more demanding question is how its different parts work together, and whether that relationship will survive everyday use.

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In our article, Co-living needs a local planning case, we argued that the accommodation model should remain open until its suitability for the site has been tested. The next step is to recognise how far that testing needs to reach. Planning advice should influence the room count, communal provision and operating assumptions while those decisions can still change.

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The August 2026 National Planning Policy Framework provides a clearer basis for doing so. Policy HO9 expressly addresses large-scale shared living, connecting its acceptability to accessible services, adequate living and storage space, sufficient shared facilities and management that maintains the accommodation’s quality. National recognition gives the sector a firmer policy footing. It also makes the practical substance of the offer harder to avoid.

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A scheme aimed at graduates and younger professionals may sound plausible in a growing city. Yet those broad descriptions explain little about why someone would choose a particular building, what they could afford or how long it would meet their needs. A prospective resident’s alternatives might include a room in an established house share, a conventional rented flat or remaining in the family home. Each involves different compromises over cost, independence, location and security.

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The useful evidence examines those choices. It compares the total monthly cost, including compulsory charges, and explains what residents receive in return. It tests whether the communal facilities answer an identifiable need or simply help market the building. A gym may attract interest, but adequate cooking facilities, quiet space and somewhere to store possessions are more fundamental to daily life.

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This is not an argument for imposing a separate market-need test wherever policy does not require one. It is an argument for understanding the product before fixing the development around it. Evidence of demand can support a commercial decision without establishing that every aspect of the proposed accommodation is acceptable. Equally, a scheme can make a useful contribution to housing choice without serving every household or solving a city’s affordability problems.

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We think developers should be more confident about explaining that specific contribution and more cautious about broader claims. Co-living does not need to be presented as the answer to the housing crisis to deserve support. It does need to offer a convincing home to the people expected to occupy it.

 

That becomes clearer when the design is tested at its busiest moment. Imagine an ordinary weekday evening: residents arrive home, cook, take calls, do laundry, receive visitors and look for somewhere quiet. A generous communal area on a drawing may be expected to accommodate several of those activities simultaneously. In practice, an event can displace someone working, cooking can disturb someone reading, and a shared kitchen can become inconvenient well before it looks crowded.

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Leeds’ Technical Guidance Note recognises the importance of the location, distribution and accessibility of shared facilities, including their capacity at periods of high demand. Although it predates the current NPPF and must be read alongside it, that practical focus remains useful. The quality of shared accommodation depends on whether residents can use it when they need it.

 

The implication for development capacity is significant. Every additional room places demands on facilities, circulation and management. Its contribution to income is relatively easy to calculate; its effect on the experience of everyone else in the building is less immediately visible. Planning and design teams should make that effect explicit before a target room count becomes embedded in the land appraisal.

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There must also be room to withdraw. The promise of community should not become an expectation that residents conduct most of their lives in company. Someone who is unwell, working irregular hours or simply seeking privacy still needs usable personal space. A communal lounge cannot compensate for every deficiency in storage, acoustic separation, daylight or the arrangement of a bedroom.

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Once residential quality depends on shared facilities, management becomes part of the accommodation itself. Cleaning, maintenance, access and replacement of equipment determine whether the offer continues to function. These are not peripheral services when residents rely on them to carry out ordinary domestic activities.

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London’s adopted shared-living guidance recognises this dependence. It expects management arrangements to sustain provision through changes in ownership and addresses the inclusion within rent of facilities relied upon to demonstrate sufficient provision. The underlying principle is persuasive: the accommodation assessed at application stage should remain available to the people who live there.

 

For developers and investors, this means the planning submission and operating budget must describe the same building. A planning case that depends on intensive management cannot sit comfortably alongside financial assumptions that leave little room to provide it. Essential facilities should be distinguished from optional services, so the operator can adapt the offer without eroding the living conditions on which permission depends.

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The same discipline is needed when discussing affordability. A room costing less than a self-contained flat may offer a useful option, particularly where bills are included. That does not make it affordable housing in planning terms. London’s guidance expressly distinguishes the shared-living product from conventional affordable housing and provides for a contribution towards the latter.

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A credible appraisal therefore asks two separate questions: whether the intended residents can afford the offer, and what affordable housing contribution the development must support. Treating the first as an answer to the second risks overstating both the public benefit and the land value.

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Long-term flexibility deserves similar scrutiny. If the operating model becomes less attractive, conversion to conventional housing may be constrained by room depths, windows, servicing and circulation. A different use may also require further planning permission. An alternative should carry weight in an investment decision only when its physical and planning feasibility have been tested.

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These questions all lead back to the bargain offered to residents. Smaller private accommodation places greater responsibility on the rest of the building and on those who run it. The more the planning case relies on shared provision, the more convincingly its quality and continuity must be demonstrated.

 

We should support co-living where that bargain is a good one. But permission should rest on more than an appealing account of how residents might live. The design, price and management need to make that life practical, comfortable and sustainable. Co-living will earn lasting credibility through buildings that fulfil their promise after occupation, when residents discover what the offer actually means.