Coliving in Madrid: Room for €475 on Gran Vía

Shared flat at 50 called Coliving: €475 on Gran Vía

Sharing a flat past the age of 50 has ceased to be a misfortune and become a product with an English name. A room in a ten-person house near Gran Vía costs €475 per month, including gas, electricity, Wi-Fi, weekly cleaning and sheet changes. The price is real. The packaging too: what was called a rented room half a century ago, according to several comments in the debate, is now marketed as coliving.

The best example is Adriana, who moved from Zaragoza to Madrid in September 2022 to work four days a week at her company's headquarters. She only needed three nights, so she ruled out renting a whole flat. A friend mentioned the word coliving, which she had never heard before. She ended up booking a room at Kanso Coliving, on a street parallel to Gran Vía, five minutes' walk from work.

€475, nine roommates and an eleven-month contract

She shares the house with nine people between 20 and around 30 years old: a nurse, a French sales representative, a telecommunications employee, a civil service exam candidate, a German teacher from Austria and four exchange students. The fee covers gas, electricity, Wi-Fi, room cleaning and weekly sheet changes. The contract requires proof that her usual residence is outside Madrid, so she cannot register her address (empadronarse) in the capital.

Parties, visitors and pets are not allowed in the property. She booked the minimum four months required by the company, renewed for eleven more—the maximum—and does not rule out trying other centers. Her life in the flat is reduced to eating and sleeping. "This is ideal for me," she summarizes. She spends the rest of her time working, at the gym, or at the cinemas and theaters almost right next door.

Why adults over 50 live in shared flats

The average age in these centers is around 30 years and the bulk of clients are young students and workers. But the profile is changing. There are work commuters who only sleep there three or four nights and, according to some comments in the debate, also separated people who have lost use of the family home. Mario, 50, chose a Urban Campus coliving in Atocha for the included services, immediate access and work spaces.

"I understand that some people prefer a hotel, but a hotel is much colder," reflects Adriana, who acknowledges the shock of seeing older people in these houses. She herself sets a condition: if her social life were active in Madrid or if she had to stay all week, she would not live in a coliving.

Coliving, subletting or room with kitchen rights

Here the dispute begins. One part of the analysis sees no novelty: it is just sharing a flat with an English word attached to make it sound better. The old formula had its own name—room with kitchen rights, boarding house with laundry—and looked quite like this. Another current raises the tone and compares these flats to the crowded accommodations of Madrid in the 1950s and 60s, when several low-income people shared a dwelling in the center.

Against that interpretation, some distinguish between well-executed coliving and rebranded shared flats. The former, they argue, are hotel-style rooms with private bathrooms designed for long stays, with common living room, kitchen and laundry, and extras not offered by a standard hotel. The latter is the same old thing with marketing. The confusion between both models is precisely the business.

How much does the alternative cost without coliving?

The numbers used in the comparison do not smile. According to calculations circulating in the debate, against the €475 for the all-inclusive room, there are accommodation offers in Tres Cantos for €575, rooms from €600 described as cramped cells and a flat in central Madrid with utilities for €700. The difference is not just price: in the flat you have to cook, arrange utilities and live with strangers anyway.

One comment summarizes the other side of the calculation: what is saved on housing ends up being spent on processed food.

Centers segmented by age: the coming business

Companies in the sector are already considering opening centers segmented by age, with specific offerings for adults and seniors. The commercial argument is that easy access, coexistence with more than 50 different nationalities and the all-inclusive model make it an attractive option for this segment too. From the business side, it is insisted that young and old coexist without problem, help each other and respect one another.

The company itself acknowledges differences in usage: the younger profile spends more time in common areas, while the older person is barely in the house, between work and the street. Intergenerational coexistence works as long as nobody overlaps too much.

With prices in central Madrid where they are, it is predictable that demand for rooms with included services will continue to grow across all age groups, not just among twenty-somethings. Whether that growth translates into truly segmented centers and not just the same old rented room with a new label remains to be seen. Nobody has signed off on that future yet.