[Senior Trend] Europe's Coliving, the Start of 'Together Yet Apart' Living

Senior Trends in Europe②

The government announced the 'Senior Residence Activation Plan' on July 23, which significantly relaxes regulations related to senior housing facilities. Since the announcement, there has been intense interest from both the private sector and academia across the real estate and senior industries regarding its meaning, business opportunities, and future direction. On August 16, a seminar titled ‘After the Senior Residence Activation Plan’ was hosted by Third Age Co., Ltd.

Both the government announcement and the seminar shared the recognition that in Korea, ‘age-friendly housing’ is still insufficient and that the concentration of housing types in the metropolitan area and apartments is problematic. However, since there is no definitive answer on how to address this, conclusions varied greatly. In fact, there is no perfect home for everyone. According to Statistics Korea, over 70% of seniors wish to ‘Age In Place (AIP)’?to grow old where they have lived. Rather than viewing it from an investment perspective, it is worth considering the living space as a place to live and reflecting on the residential area and type of home desired after retirement.

In Northern Europe, an ideal ‘together yet apart’ senior housing system has begun. True to their welfare paradise reputation, they early on developed ‘Senior Co-housing.’ This is a cooperative housing form where residents can live both individually and communally. It consists of communal living facilities and small private spaces. Residents manage, care for, and, when necessary, request protection from the local community through mutual cooperation. This was to address the increasing number of elderly due to aging, solve the issue of solitary seniors, and improve the quality of life for the elderly. These communities are small-scale and located in areas with convenient transportation. Co-housing, which started in Denmark in the 1960s, spread to Sweden, Norway, and others in the 1980s, and later to the UK, Germany, and beyond. It has become established as various forms of aging housing and welfare facilities tailored to each country’s circumstances.

In Finland, the ‘Loppukiri,’ considered the original sale-type co-housing, is well-known. Located in a village by the Arabianranta beach, just a 15-minute drive from the capital Helsinki, it is a silver house senior community where the average age of residents is over 70. It consists of 58 independent apartments in a 7-story building and communal facilities. It has introduced a ‘nono-care’ system where healthy seniors take care of frail seniors. In Sweden’s Dunderbacken, about 60 households and 70 people live together, with an average age of 70. Residents live in private dwellings with bathrooms, kitchens, and bedrooms, while sharing common spaces such as a large kitchen, dining room, reading room, and hobby rooms. The principle is to manage their lives independently until the very end. The community operates autonomously with residents taking turns for meal preparation and cleaning duties, without hiring staff. Professional repairs and such are outsourced as needed. While living their own lives, residents can engage in hobbies and prepare communal meals or clean shared spaces according to the duty roster.

Senior housing cooperatives in Northern Europe have voluntarily created communities by designing spaces and establishing communal living rules themselves. Each resident holds ownership of their home. New residents must have extensive discussions with existing residents before moving in. Furthermore, they actively communicate with the government, negotiate necessary matters, and have successfully drawn proactive support from local administrative agencies. For the senior generation, living as actual residents offers significant cost savings compared to traditional nursing homes, and it also reduces welfare expenses for the government, leading to increasing demands for active government support. Responses have diversified according to changing circumstances. Co-housing has increased mainly among seniors, but as members age simultaneously, vitality tends to decline. Consequently, younger generations are being actively recruited to seek cooperation and coexistence. Young people displaced from city centers due to housing shortages are welcomed, asked to help with tasks like changing light bulbs that pose fall risks, while seniors with relatively more free time provide loose childcare, naturally fostering new activities.

‘Living alone freely but not lonely’ is important for everyone. Especially advanced countries have faced the issue of solitary deaths earlier; in 2018, the UK even established a ‘Minister for Loneliness,’ making policies for single-person households, including bereaved seniors, a national priority. Even if seniors can live relatively stable lives on pensions, managing the homes and gardens they have lived in since youth becomes burdensome, and social interactions decrease after retirement. Co-living started as an alternative housing option but has many advantages. By helping and interacting with neighbors, it helps prevent cognitive decline and enriches life through communal meals and social dinners. Additionally, retirees contribute their idle human resources to serve the community.

We also need to seriously discuss where, with whom, and how we want to age. Fortunately, various stakeholders, including the government, have begun to take an interest in ‘where to live as we age.’ Not only Europe but advanced countries have already undergone trials and errors or experiments. What we can do is reduce mistakes and prepare for a better future by studying these pioneering cases from each country.

Eboram, CEO of Third Age