Co-living, a United States living trend, now appears to be growing in Britain.

Landlords investing in the residential property market chiefly rent houses and flats, but the new idea has attracted landlords in Britain to a new style of accommodation

Co-living offers tenants serviced rooms in buildings with communal lounges, kitchens and bathrooms. In an April 2016 article that appeared on Dezeen.com, Brad Hargreaves, founder of shared accommodation company Common, said U.S. tenants pay approximately 25% more than they would for a room found on Craigslist.

Co-living has been described as an upmarket version of student housing for adults, with some of the features of a hotel. Co-living’s main target market is young professionals living in London and other major cities. One property company heavily investing in London is The Collective, which has projects in Kings Cross and Notting Hill. Its properties appeal to young people who have few possessions; for example, they may prefer to use a Kindle rather than buy books, or to watch Netflix on their portable devices rather than buy a TV and use Uber and rental bikes to get around rather than owning their own form of transport.

James Scott, a Chief Operating Officer of The Collective, lives the co-living lifestyle and was quoted in The Evening Standard as saying:

“I don’t have possessions anymore, I’m all about experiences and it’s high time that our workspaces and living spaces caught up. There’s definitely a future based on this whole co-movement.”

Co-living is more complicated to administer than conventional residential rental properties, as there are higher running costs. Like any buy-to-let investment, landlords need detailed financial plans when applying for a commercial mortgage to fund co-living properties.