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C
ast your mind back a decade, five
years, or even twelve months ago.
What do you remember more vividly,
the big holiday, or the shiny new
phone you bought?
The realisation that experiences
bring more enduring happiness than
material possessions is becoming
a defining feature of the age.
Ownership is being replaced by
subscription – why buy a single album
when I can access most of music
history for the same price?
Dane Andrews, co-founder of co-
living developer and operator Roam,
is taking this shift and using it to ask
a necessary question, ‘When was the
last time we really took everything
we knew about housing, put it aside,
and started with a blank slate?’ His
answer is another, more fundamental
question; ‘What actually makes us
happy?’ Is it being tied to a 30-year
mortgage in a location dictated
to you by affordability, or is it the
freedom to move around some of
the world’s greatest cities?
This is a trend that we have also
identified. Institutional investment
into the Private Rented Sector (PRS)
is creating a sea of change in the
way people in the UK live, towards
a model already widely adopted in
places such as the coastal cities of the
United States. Professionally managed
developments, taking care of bills
and offering concierge services, is
taking the hassle out of living and
giving more time for experiences.
Simultaneously renting is allowing a
more footloose generation the ability
to live and work more flexibly.
In the trailblazing PRS schemes in
the UK, we are seeing the most well-
used amenity spaces not necessarily
being the swimming pools, gyms
and cinema rooms that may initially
attract customers, but the more
functional working spaces. As a
higher proportion of the workforce
have the option to work from home,
spaces offering good Wi-Fi, a
printer and work space are absolute
essentials in any PRS scheme.
This theme of becoming
untethered from the office was widely
explored in our
Future of Work
event.
Dane Andrews and Roam has taken
the trend to its logical conclusion – if
the working element of “working from
home” can be anywhere, then why
not the home part?
If the working
element of “working
from home” can be
anywhere, then why
not the home part?
When was
the last time
we really took
everythingwe
knew about
housing, put
it aside, and
started with a
blank slate?
The Roam model is a global co-living
subscription, currently offering the
opportunity to call London, Tokyo,
Miami or Bali home, while locations
such as New York, Singapore and
Buenos Aires are in the pipeline. Once
approved for a “Roam Passport”, and
for between $500 to $850 a week, or
$1,800 to $3,200 a month, paying as
you go, you can become a resident
in any of Roam’s schemes around
the world with a few simple clicks, no
deposit or contract required. In return
you get a private room and bathroom
(think boutique hotel), co-working
space with “battle-tested” Wi-Fi, and
shared spaces such as professionally
equipped kitchens. These kitchens are
the heart of the concept, providing
the social interaction so often missed
by home workers, while the more
intimate setting creates stronger, closer
communities than co-working spaces.
These communities are also more
diverse than you might think. Just
as we have observed in the PRS,
it is not just millennials attracted
by this lifestyle. The average Roam
subscriber is in their late thirties,
and Dane’s own father has sold up
and become a full time “roamer”,
representing a large demand from
empty nesters for this kind of lifestyle.
For those of you who dream of
Bali whilst sitting at your desk, sitting
at your desk whilst actually being
in Bali may seem like a pipe dream.
Indeed, many people may still need
convincing that this isn’t a futurist
utopia; but then, as Dane says,
‘Roam
wasn’t built in a day’.
GUPPIE (Global Urban Professional)
Young, single, location independent
Sabbatical Sam
30-40ies, family, questioning priorities
Empty Nester
Active, financially independent
Three types of
Roam customers
CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD
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FUTURE OF WORK