Spaces

Co-living: a room, a desk and people to meet

Furnished rooms in shared houses with somewhere to work and a calendar of things to do, by the night or the month: the operators and booking sites compared from their own pages, the contract you're actually signing, registering your address, city taxes, and the big names that have closed.

Checked on 20 October 2026. Prices are the published starting prices for the place named, from each operator's own pages unless we say otherwise (we name the source where a price comes from the press or a guide). Prices change by season and by room, so check the price when you book.

The short version

Prices vary a lot. Outsite lists rooms in Portugal from $22 a night (Lisbon from $53), Cove shared rooms in Singapore from SGD 1,300 a month, and ARK Shoreditch in London from £1,799 a month on a 12-month agreement, as an introductory offer on selected rooms. Outsite, Portugal, Cove blog, April 2026, Urban Living News, ARK Living Shoreditch, May 2026
Minimum stays vary just as much. Zoku and some Outsite places take a single night, and ARK one or two (its sources differ); Cohabs and most of Cove's homes want three months, in Cove's case because Singapore doesn't allow private homes to be let for less. Zoku Paris, FAQ, Outsite help, long-term stays, Outsite help, cancellation policy, Urban Living News, ARK Living Shoreditch, May 2026, Showhouse, ARK opens in Wembley, October 2022, Cohabs, book, Cove blog, short-term rental in Singapore, January 2026
There's usually no 14-day cooling-off. UK and EU rules leave out accommodation booked for set dates, and lets to live in. The booking's own terms decide what you get back: Outsite, for example, refunds a month-long stay on its flexible rates in full up to 14 days before you arrive; its non-refundable rates aren't refunded. Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 28, Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 6, Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU (EUR-Lex), Outsite help, cancellation policy
A monthly room may not be enough for a visa. Portugal's UK checklist for the digital nomad residence visa asks for a rental agreement of at least 12 months, registered with the tax authority, or other proof such as a certified host declaration. VFS Global for the Portuguese consulate in the UK, digital nomad visa checklist, March 2026

Co-living operators compared

Companies that run their own houses. Alphabetical; prices are the published starting prices for the place named.

Operator	Where	Price	Shortest stay	Included and worth knowing
ARK Living	London: Wembley and Canary Wharf, with Shoreditch due to open in summer 2026	Shoreditch from £1,799 a month on a 12-month agreement, as an introductory offer on selected rooms (reported by Urban Living News)	One or two nights (sources differ); long stays run 3 to 12 months	Owned by Crosstree. When Wembley opened in 2022, one bill covered utilities, coworking and events
Coconat	One rural retreat at Bad Belzig, about an hour from Berlin	In its spring 2025 workation, €81 a night in a dorm or €138 in a single room, all-inclusive; a discount from the 30th night	One night in that package	Three vegetarian meals a day, workspaces, fast internet; some rooms have a desk and their own bathroom	Go to Coconat
Cohabs	Brussels, Paris, London, Milan, Spain, New York, Washington DC and Marseille	Not published on its booking page	3 months	Local taxes, electricity, gas, cleaning, wifi, coworking and events included; "15 days cancellation policy"	Go to Cohabs
Cove	Singapore, plus Indonesia, South Korea and Japan	Shared co-living rooms in Singapore from SGD 1,300 a month	3 months (Singapore's rule for private homes); a few places from 6 nights	Furnished, all bills in one monthly price, no agent fees	Go to Cove
Outpost	Bali: two places in Ubud	From IDR 680,000 a night, less for longer stays (Honeycombers Bali); $48 a night on Outsite	Not published	Coworking included, en-suite rooms, a pool	Go to Outpost
Outsite	40 to 50 places in the US, Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia, 12 of them in Portugal	In Portugal from $22 a night in Ericeira and from $53 in Lisbon (Cais do Sodré), shown in dollars; the payment currency appears once you add dates	Varies by place; some take one night	In Lisbon (Cais do Sodré): private rooms, desks, 99 Mbps wifi, shared kitchens and weekly events. Optional membership: $199 a year	Go to Outsite
Zoku	Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Paris and Vienna	Not published: monthly rates on request	One night, up to a year	Hotel rooms and lofts rather than a shared house; its lofts have a full kitchen. Long stays add cleaning and coworking	Go to Zoku

Sources: Urban Living News, ARK Living Shoreditch, May 2026, Showhouse, ARK opens in Wembley, October 2022, Coconat, spring workation, April 2025, Coconat, individuals, Coconat, stay, Cohabs, book, Made in Marseille, Cohabs, February 2026, Cove blog, April 2026, Cove blog, short-term rental in Singapore, January 2026, e27, Cove acquires Casa Mia, November 2025, Honeycombers Bali, coliving spaces, October 2026, Outsite, Indonesia, Outsite, Portugal, Outsite, Lisbon Cais do Sodré, Outsite, membership, Urban Living News, Limestone invests in Outsite, January 2026, Outsite help, long-term stays, Outsite help, cancellation policy, Zoku Amsterdam, Zoku Amsterdam, extended stay, Zoku Paris, FAQ

Outsite's membership takes 10% off short stays. For long stays its membership page says up to 40% off, while its help pages say up to 30% from 28 nights and up to 35% from 60. Outsite, membership, Outsite help, long-term stays

Also around: Habyt, now closer to serviced apartments than co-living, which lists Berlin from €89 a night and Madrid and Vienna from €110 after selling its co-living in France, Portugal and Spain in May 2026; it launched a separate co-living brand, Leaze, the same month. Many smaller co-living houses run a single house and are listed on the booking sites below; check the price and terms with the house itself. Habyt, destinations, Habyt, sale of its co-living in France, Portugal and Spain, May 2026, Habyt, press, May 2026

Booking sites

Sites that list other people's houses and rooms. The house sets the price and, often, the rules; the site adds its own fees and protection.

Site	What's on it	Shortest stay	Fees	Deposit and cancelling
Coliving.com	"22,000+ rooms in 2,000+ homes across 400+ cities"	Set by each house; mostly by the month	Its help pages disagree: one says there are no booking fees, another that residents pay a service fee. Check the total before you pay	A refundable deposit, where the house asks for one, held by Coliving.com; cancelling depends on the listing	Go to Coliving.com
Flatio	Furnished flats and rooms for mid-length stays	One of its pages says both one month and five days	A one-off service fee with the first rent, a smaller share the longer you stay	Hosts can't ask for a deposit on stays shorter than 180 days	Go to Flatio
HousingAnywhere	Rooms and flats	Not published on the page we read	"Tenant Protection": 25% to 40% of the first month's rent, charged once the landlord accepts; you can't opt out	If the place is "vastly different" from the listing, cancel within 48 hours of moving in for a full refund	Go to HousingAnywhere
Spotahome	Rooms, flats and co-living, in 24 cities on its list	30 days	A booking fee; the amount isn't on the page we read	24 hours after moving in to report a problem; deposits back within 90 days	Go to Spotahome

Sources: Coliving.com, Coliving.com help, no booking fees, Coliving.com help for hosts, fees and payouts, Coliving.com, a listing in Galicia, Flatio, renting out, Flatio help, the service fee, HousingAnywhere, Tenant Protection, Spotahome, digital nomads

The contract you're signing

What the agreement is called matters less than what it is. These are the rules in three common places.

Cancelling: You usually don't get a legal right to change your mind within 14 days. UK and EU consumer rules exclude accommodation booked for a specific date or period, and don't cover lets to live in at all. Read the cancellation terms before you pay. Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 28, Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 6, Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU (EUR-Lex)
England: tenancy or licence: If you have your room to yourself and can keep others out, the agreement may be a tenancy whatever it's called: "exclusive possession" is the key test. Since 1 May 2026, most private tenancies there have no fixed term and tenants can leave on two months' notice. Lodgers' agreements haven't changed. Shelter England, tenant or lodger, BCP Council, your rights as a tenant from 1 May 2026
England: fewer rights in some cases: You have less protection from eviction if you share the home with a landlord who lives there, or if the stay is genuinely a holiday. Most co-living houses don't have a landlord living in, so this usually won't apply; you'd then normally be entitled to notice, and a court order is needed to evict you. Protection from Eviction Act 1977, section 3A, Shelter England, who is an excluded occupier, GOV.UK, rent a room in your home
England: deposits and licences: If you're an assured tenant, the landlord must put your deposit in a government scheme within 30 days of getting it. Genuine licensees, and lodgers living with their landlord, aren't covered. A shared house with five or more people from two or more households needs a council licence, and some councils also license smaller ones. GOV.UK, tenancy deposit protection, Housing Act 2004, section 212, GOV.UK, rent a room in your home, Cambridge City Council, HMO licensing
Spain: the temporary lease: Since 8 October 2026, a let of a home or room to someone away from their usual home for a justified reason they can prove must last more than 31 days and, as a rule, no more than 12 months. It comes from an emergency decree that Congress must approve within 30 days. We found no official record that it had when we checked, and Congress threw out two earlier housing decrees in October 2026, so check whether it still stands. Real Decreto-ley 29/2026 (BOE), Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos, as amended October 2026 (BOE), Real Decreto-ley 27/2026, repealed by Congress (BOE)
Spain: the national register: The Supreme Court annulled the rules setting up the national register of short-term and seasonal lets in May 2026. A linked EU data-sharing system wasn't expressly struck down, so what listings still need is unclear. Regional tourist licences are a separate matter. Supreme Court ruling on the rental register, BOE, June 2026
Portugal: rooms sold to guests: Rooms sold to guests for temporary stays count as local accommodation (Alojamento Local), which must be registered. A house letting rooms to short-stay guests is likely to be a guesthouse; the "rooms" category is only for up to three rooms in the owner's own home. We found no official rule on when a stay of several months stops being local accommodation and becomes an ordinary lease. Turismo de Portugal, Alojamento Local

Registering your address and visas

Ask before you book whether the house will let you register its address and sign the forms. Without that, you may not be able to register or get the documents a longer move needs.

Germany: Register within two weeks of moving in. You don't need to if you live abroad and stay up to three months, or up to six if you're already registered elsewhere in Germany. The landlord must confirm your move-in in writing, and a lease doesn't replace that. Not registering can cost you up to €1,000, and a landlord who doesn't confirm can be fined the same. Federal Registration Act, section 17, Federal Registration Act, section 19, Federal Registration Act, section 27, Service-Portal Berlin, registering your address, Federal Registration Act, section 54
Spain: Everyone who lives in Spain must register on the padrón of the town where they usually live, and that registration is proof of where you live. Town halls usually ask for a rental contract in your name or written permission from the owner and the contract holder; Alicante's list is one example, and requirements vary by town. Ley 7/1985, article 15 (BOE), Alicante City Council, registering on the padrón when you rent
Portugal visa: The UK checklist for the digital nomad residence visa wants a rental agreement of at least 12 months from arrival, registered with the tax authority, property deeds in your name, or a host's declaration certified by a notary or lawyer. This is for the residence visa; we didn't find the UK checklist for the shorter temporary-stay visa. VFS Global for the Portuguese consulate in the UK, digital nomad visa checklist, March 2026
Spain visa: The checklist for the telework visa we read (from the New York consulate) doesn't ask for an address in Spain; its only address item is proof of where you live now. Once you're in Spain, the padrón will need an address you can register. Consulate General of Spain in New York, telework visa

City taxes

These apply to tourist stays. We found nothing official from any of these places on whether a monthly co-living contract counts, so ask the house whether the tax is in the price. Several stop charging after a week.

Where	Charge	Cap	Who doesn't pay
Lisbon	€4 a person a night (the council's page is undated; we found no later change)	Up to 7 nights a stay	Under 13s
Porto	€3 a person a night	Up to 7 nights in a row	Children 12 and under
Barcelona	From 1 April 2026: €4.50 in tourist flats, €3.40 in 4-star and €7 in 5-star hotels, plus a city surcharge of up to €8 (the draft set €5 for 2026 to 2027)	Up to 7 nights a person	16 and under
Amsterdam	12.5% of the price of the night, unchanged in 2026, says the Dutch hospitality association	No cap found	Not checked
Bali	IDR 150,000 a person, once a trip	Paid once, however long you stay	Some visa holders, including KITAS and KITAP

Sources: Lisbon City Council, tourist tax rises to 4 euros, Porto City Council, tourist tax leaflet, Catalonia, Ley 2/2026 (BOE), Catalonia, Ley 5/2017, consolidated (BOE), Barcelona Consell Tributari, report on the draft surcharge, September 2025, KHN (Dutch hospitality association), Amsterdam tourist tax 2026, Love Bali (Bali Provincial Government), FAQ

Closed or changed hands

Older guides still recommend some of these. Check that a name is still trading before you pay a deposit.

Selina: Its parent company went into administration in the UK on 22 July 2024. In March 2025, Collective Hospitality, which bought most of the business in August 2024, relaunched 29 former Selina sites in Latin America as Socialtel. The London Gazette, Selina Hospitality PLC, July 2024, Hotel-Online, Collective Hospitality buys Selina, August 2024, WYSE Travel Confederation, Socialtel, March 2025
The Collective: Went into administration in autumn 2021. Crosstree, which now runs ARK Living, bought its Canary Wharf building in 2022. Bisnow, The Collective, November 2024, Urban Living News, ARK Living Shoreditch, May 2026
Quarters: Its US arm filed for bankruptcy and Habyt bought the company in 2021. Service Apartment News, Quarters, January 2021, Habyt, Habyt acquires Quarters, March 2021
Common: The US operator stopped trading in June 2024 because it was insolvent. Urban Living News, Common, June 2024
Remote Year: The travelling work programme shut down in December 2024. Skift, Remote Year, December 2024
Habyt: Sold its Asia Pacific business to Mitsubishi Estate in April 2026, and its co-living in Paris, Lisbon and Madrid to local operators in May 2026. Habyt, sale of its Asia Pacific business, April 2026, Habyt, sale of its co-living in France, Portugal and Spain, May 2026

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