This is an updated version of the article that we have written for The Class Digital Trend Report 2021 in the section “Global Talent Mobility”.
Today you might have started your morning using a Dollar Shave Club razor to trim your beard or shave your legs. Maybe you went to work driving a bike or a car from a shared service, like Share Now, while listening to Spotify, and your lunch was delivered to you by a supplier of healthy meals such as Home Chef. This evening you might relax with a fine pinot noir from your Wine of The Month Club while watching Netflix. Perhaps this is not the case, but have no doubt: the subscription economy is on its way to take over most aspects of your life.
After surfing the shared-economy wave of transformation, the subscription-based business model is thriving by fulfilling more and more of our daily needs and cashing in from innovative ideas and untapped opportunities. Subscription economy businesses allow their clients to pay per monthly subscription or long-term contracts to better suit their needs. Flexibility and convenience are the unquestionable benefits provided by the model, and forward-thinking real estate companies have already started dipping their toes in the trend through a promising format: subscription living.
The Subscription Model in Real Estate
The subscription model in real estate is not a new idea; Build To Rent (BTR) has been working with their own form of subscription leasing for ages. Businesses are now bringing flexibility and convenience to the table through a monthly subscription. For example, residents can choose to live for a period of time in a coliving community inside a vibrant city or in a charming house in an idyllic village. Prospective residents follow a smooth payment process and have the game-changing advantage of choosing, for any set period of time, the town or even country they want to live in. Subscription living simplifies the bureaucracy and eliminates long-term commitment to one specific living space — typical aspects of the BTR model — and amplifies possibilities of living and working experiences for its customers.
Economic and societal changes are creating perfect conditions for a subscription living model to thrive. The middle class’ purchasing power has declined in several countries in the last two decades. Furthermore, although they are the most educated age cohort to have ever lived, millennials are delaying milestones such as buying a home or car by as far as a decade compared to previous generations. Simultaneously, younger generations have lost interest in traditional ownership; nowadays they see greater value in quality of experience, freedom, diversity and sustainability. In addition, remote working has been on the rise since before the pandemic, and it is now sure to become more normalised than ever. To attend to the needs of both an eroded middle class and younger generation’s thirst for experience and functionality, subscription living presents itself as the most ingenious and overall pleasing solution for both users and investors.
Examples of Subscription Living Concepts
If you would like to continue reading the full article and discover our choice of concepts, click on this link.
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Originally published at www.spatial-experience.com.
