Coliving in Barcelona: The rise of shared housing

Nowadays many people work as freelancers or freelancers. This modality of work can sometimes become a little lonely, since you work on your own, online, without seeing anyone. Well, Coliving is created to solve this problem and to bring you other types of benefits that can be very useful for your way of life and work. Barcelona has been one of those territories where large Coliving companies have invested, don’t miss the rest of the article to learn more!

What is Coliving?

When we talk about Coliving, we refer to a term that has already been used for several years, this modality although it is not very new, it is in a constant and rapid growth.

Coliving is nothing more than shared housing among several freelancers, where they have their private room but with common areas that everyone can take advantage of to interact with each other.

And you may be wondering, isn’t Coliving the same as Coworking? Well, although these terms are often confused as synonyms, Coliving is different from Coworking. However, Coliving stems from the Coworking methodology, both terms are based on being in a common area between freelancers.

However, Coworking is based more on a common area to work with other people, that is, a shared workspace. On the other hand, Coliving is a home, where you share more intimately with other people, where you can develop new work and personal relationships, which is thought more than anything else in living with other freelancers.

Coliving in Barcelona

Did you know that Barcelona is one of the most adapted cities for digital nomads? This is why it is one of the destinations most used by freelancers to settle in a coliving.

In Barcelona, Coliving is booming for digital nomads, however, this has caused that Coliving prices are experiencing an increase in their costs.

The city has many attractions for digital workers, having many tourist areas, a very well implemented Wi-Fi connection that makes it very good quality, very nice tourist beaches to hang out, an architecture that is very striking, and many other things that make Barcelona the ideal place to implement Coliving.

This housing model is mostly used by young people, people who are studying or working online. Barcelona is a very complete city and very adapted to these two worlds, that is why, if you study in Barcelona and want a place to work comfortably, to live with people and at the same time to live, you can opt for the coliving, as it gives you all these features that will undoubtedly be essential in your educational and work journey.

Barcelona is also a great destination for those workers who want to start a business in Spain and want to surround themselves with people who work professionally from the Internet, to make working relationships and to get the most out of their stay in the city.

Prices of a room at Coliving in Barcelona

We have to tell you that Coliving is not cheap, in fact, they can be much more expensive than a traditional room in the city, however, all the benefits that living in Coliving gives you can make that price difference not so overwhelming, because, you will give more money, but what you will receive in return will be something more satisfactory for your needs.

According to Coliving.com data, Coliving rooms in Barcelona do not go below $466, even, there are very few rooms that are around $400 and $500, generally the rooms are located between $700 and $1.900.

Doing some calculations, Coliving rooms in Barcelona have an average of $828.94, that is approximately $639.98 average for each room. Undoubtedly, Coliving rooms in this territory are not cheap, but, as mentioned above, it will be worth the extra expense for all it has to offer.

Visa for self-employed workers

That’s right, Spain has a type of visa that is tailored to your needs, the self-employed visa, which legally has a name of Self-Employment Visa, it is a visa that allows you to reside in Spain for an initial period of one year.

This visa is perfect for you if you want to experience Coliving in Barcelona, or anywhere in Spain, where you will be able to travel through all the autonomous communities of the country without any problem, visiting tourist places while you work and that, after the period of one year, you can renew it without any inconvenience.

To apply for this visa it is necessary that you are of legal age (over 18 years old), fulfilling this requirement, you will be able to apply for the visa showing the documents that will be requested, it is necessary that you have all your papers up to date, such as your passport for example.

Once your Self-Employment Visa is approved, you will be able to put into practice your self-employed economic activity in the Spanish territory.

Advantages

When you live in Coliving, the relationships you can draw from that experience are very important. Especially when you meet people who are dedicated to the same thing as you, or who share the same opinions and have similar goals. All of that adds up and is motivating, they are undoubtedly relationships that drive you to be better and that, living in Coliving, you can easily find.

Another advantage that you can have when you live in Coliving, is that one of the fundamental factors that companies take into account when creating the space is the internet. That is why, if for some reason you have not been encouraged to live in Coliving because you think that the internet can be a bit bad or unstable, we have to tell you that this is generally not the case. Since all these residences generally have high internet plans to make your experience very pleasant and stable.

The events are very important for you to get to know the city, to establish personal relationships outside the Coliving space, and undoubtedly, to have a very satisfactory experience in the territory where you are. For this reason, one of the advantages that Coliving offers are the Events that are organized, where they make outings, tours, walks, etc.

A great advantage when we refer to the amount of time you want to stay in the residence of Coliving, is that you can stay for short stays, it is not necessary to rent for a year or more, if you want to stay a month, a week, or even a few days, you can do it without problems.

You have to know that the Coliving spaces almost always have a very complete amount of services. They have a gym, cleaning service, security, assistance, private parking, and many other services that depend on the space where you want to stay.

If you like to be outdoors, you won’t have to go outdoors, since most, if not all, Coliving residences have open spaces that you can enjoy while you work, chat with other people or just hang out.

Disadvantages

Unfortunately, all things have their negative aspects, which, although in this case are scarce, we could not pass up the opportunity to mention them so that you have a more complete view of this housing model.

As we mentioned earlier, when we talk about coliving spaces, we are not talking about cheap spaces. They hover around $800, which, for many people can be a bit expensive.

Another disadvantage that can arise when applying this method of living, is that privacy can become a bit reduced. Keep in mind that there are Coliving spaces where you will have to share a room, this to reduce costs, this can make you not so comfortable, and is that comfort when living in any place is essential for the experience to be good.

Even if we talk about being in private rooms, sometimes, if you are not used to socialize or you are introverted, sharing common spaces such as kitchen, living room or other spaces, can be uncomfortable, that is why we always recommend that you inform yourself very well about the space where you want to go and that you are sure that it adapts to all your needs.

Just as it can be an advantage to interact with people, in some cases, you may also find people who do not adapt to you, people with a different lifestyle, who have opposing views that may seem a little difficult to carry. This is why, when you enter the world of coliving, you have to be very tolerant and know how to get along with people.

There is no doubt that the world of Coliving can be very attractive, especially in a city as capable of receiving foreigners who wish to work independently as Barcelona is. Shared housing for work, housing and socializing can be very useful in your day to day life! If you liked this article, do not hesitate to visit our other articles about current affairs, education and other topics related to business in Spain.