Social Interaction
What is Senior Cohousing?
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In previous articles, we have discussed what Cohousing is, a new model of community living and housing imported from Northern Europe that is gaining increasing traction in our country.
Cohousing itself has countless forms, and each group of families must find the one that best suits their location, budget, and needs. In today’s article, we discuss the cohousing model for older adults with complete autonomy but a desire to share services and resources within the same housing complex. Today, we explain what Senior Cohousing is.
What Is Cohousing?
The term Cohousing translates to housing cooperative in English and represents an alternative model to the urban development we know, based on self-management and community. This approach helps solve the housing access problems we face today in large cities, while also improving the quality of life for its residents through their interrelationships.
Its origins trace back to Denmark in the 1960s, a country where it currently accounts for 10% of the housing stock. Since then, its variants in promotion, management, and organization have been countless. Broadly speaking, it is a collective, non-profit model in which a group of people unite to acquire land and self-promote their future homes, achieving more affordable housing by removing real estate agencies and speculation from the equation.
The model is typically structured as a cooperative and includes the so-called ‘resident members’ who will consciously form a community, based on an initial affinity that will add more specific labels to the project. Users lead decision-making throughout the project process, with the intention of placing people and their needs at the center through the collectivization of certain spaces and services.
What is Senior Cohousing?
One of these labels or subgroups we mentioned would be affinity based on a life stage, such as old age or retired groups, which would materialize in what is known as Senior Cohousing.
The Catalan association Sostre Cívic leads various Senior Cohousing projects, highlighting 5 positive characteristics: its design, conceived to improve the lives of residents and their environment; its economic viability; its respect for individuality within the collective; its intention to prioritize care; and its collective and cooperative management.
Indeed, one of the impediments to accessing Cohousing is often the necessary initial investment. It is precisely retirees who are often in a position to sell their habitual home, which in many cases no longer has an outstanding mortgage, and invest the money in a newly built Cohousing-type dwelling.
Questioning the Model
In Spain, there isn’t just a housing problem; the housing model is based on inflexible developments where our neighbors end up being a lottery, and our architectures are completely isolated.
Humans are social beings; our happiness depends on the quality of our family and friend relationships. Therefore, it makes little sense to leave the relationships in our daily environment to the interests of a real estate developer.
This problem extends and worsens when we reach old age. The reality of Spain’s demographic pyramid for many years has been one of very low birth rates, to the point that it is estimated that by 2033, 1 in 4 inhabitants will be over 65 years old.
Furthermore, in addition to the difficulty of maintaining this reality at the level of social policies and pension collection, there is the problem of loneliness, which currently affects 25% of older adults, according to a study recently published in the Spanish Journal of Geriatrics.
The assessment scale for degrees of dependency is divided into 3, ranging from moderate dependency, where the person needs intermittent support, to what is called severe dependency, which refers to those with a total loss of physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory autonomy and who require continuous support from another person.
Upon reaching a certain degree of dependency, the options for living out old age have also been very limited until now: one can continue living in one’s own home by hiring a full-time external caregiver, or move in with a family member or friend who is available for care; there is also the option of moving to a specialized care center. Within these centers, there are two models: one would be sheltered apartments with associated services, and the other, the geriatric residence model, which is the most common in our country but does not necessarily offer the highest quality of life.
The problem then arises at an economic level due to the lack of public places in residences and the high cost of these, both in the public and private sectors.
In Catalonia, there are 60,000 residential places, of which 10,000 are public, 14,000 are social initiatives, and 36,000 are private.
Considering that the majority of private places exceed the average monthly pension income of retirees, we find ourselves in a situation where many families must make a joint effort between children and parents to cover the cost of a family member’s residence.
Origin and History
We cannot answer the question of what Senior Cohousing is without tracing its origins. In Spain, the first Senior Cohousing project developed opened its doors in 2000 in the province of Malaga, under the name Residencial Santa Clara. With the motto ‘manage your future,’ the cooperative did not dissolve once the complex was built and laid the groundwork for future projects.
By 2013, four more projects had emerged: Servimayor, Profuturo, Trabensol, and La Muralleta, the latter in Catalonia.
Currently, there are over 40 projects in Spain that are in the development phase. Furthermore, within the senior sector, the diversity of profiles has multiplied, reaching individuals from the LGBTQI+ community or those with functional diversity.
As a result of this experience, there has been a change in regulations to no longer consider them residences and to be able to generate services to support and advise groups emerging from Senior Cohousing.
These are user-driven projects that respond to the same dissatisfaction: they do not want to depend on their children or remain isolated in their own homes or in a residence; they aspire to continue being autonomous and making decisions about their own lives.
Living Old Age in Community with Autonomy
Although it may seem contradictory, within the need for community and social interaction, there is a place for autonomy and intimacy—a convergence summarized in what Senior Cohousing is. This model represents a significant social change, a generation that identifies with the conquest of freedom.
Their motto is the self-governance of their old age to keep it active; ‘we want to die alive,’ they tell us.
This approach involves transforming housing into a space for communal living, not just assistance. Furthermore, the quality of life is no longer strictly related to the number of m2 of private living space, but extends to a new category between public and private: the common.
This entire model of coexistence, which constitutes what Senior Cohousing is, is reflected in the cooperative’s various physical spaces, which we distinguish into 3 types: care spaces (rooms, healthcare, nurseries), productive spaces (gardens, kitchens, workshops, etc.), and logistical/service spaces (laundry, guest rooms, childcare, etc.).
As an example, some of the common services included in the various Senior Cohousing developments are listed below:
– Outdoor spaces, with community and individual garden areas, bringing users closer to nature.
– Community guest rooms, which eliminates the need for an extra room in each housing unit.
– A communal laundry room, which again makes energy expenses more efficient and even facilitates encounters among users during daily tasks.
– A training area, gym, or sauna, providing professional facilities and company that motivates users to take care of their physical health, and which can include trainers for the cooperative.
– Communal dining room and kitchen, in addition to private ones in each unit. The use of these spaces varies greatly depending on the group forming the cooperative, ranging from cooperatives that eat lunch and dinner together daily, to those that only celebrate certain joint events, or even have a room used solely by residents when they have guests.
– Multipurpose rooms, for intellectual and recreational activities suitable for seniors or for gathering and enjoying time together.
– A centralized parking area where shared cars or charging stations for electric vehicles can be available.
– Community library and computer area, with a collection of books shared among all members, where computer classes can be received. Having community computer equipment allows users to share the costs of staying up-to-date with the latest technologies by sharing the investment in them, as well as technical maintenance.
– Physiotherapy and nursing room, with communally hired staff.
Urban Planning, Legal, and Regulatory Viability
But how does the economic model of Senior Cohousing work?
Firstly, the self-promotion format itself significantly reduces the project cost, as it eliminates the real estate developer’s profit.
Normally, the financing method for housing cooperatives is to apply for a developer loan, but in the senior case, it can involve lifelong savings or the sale of the habitual property if owned, considering that older age often means greater purchasing power.
Thus, this non-speculative, non-profit system represents an intermediate point between renting and buying, tenant and owner, structured into two payment formats. The first is the initial capital, a refundable payment made upon entering the project, which covers the construction cost. This payment can be recovered upon leaving, according to the conditions established by the cooperative, which usually involves a non-speculative sale to a third party that may require approval from other members. This is important to consider if the sale is managed after the tenant’s death, in which case the heirs will be responsible for managing the transfer.
In parallel, there is a monthly fee similar to a social rent price and much lower than the monthly fee of a conventional residence, which will cover the maintenance of spaces and facilities, as well as basic utilities and care services.
This monthly fee can vary depending on whether the initial investment from the residents covered the total construction cost. If there is a pending mortgage, the fee is higher, but if the entire construction could be financed with personal savings, then the monthly fee might be similar to maintaining a conventional home, while still enjoying the advantages of common care services that this type of development offers.
As it is usually structured as a cooperative, users must become members to join the project. There is the concept of an ‘expectant member,’ who signs up awaiting the release of a spot that allows them to join. Sometimes, when the number of expectant members is sufficiently high, they can agree to develop their own project.
What is Ecological Senior Cohousing?
The Ecological Senior Cohousing model is similar to what we propose with ecological housing communities.
But exactly what is Ecological Senior Cohousing?
Through energy efficiency systems, including both passive architecture systems and active systems like renewable energies, combined with water accumulation and recycling, we can achieve self-sufficient buildings disconnected from the grid.
In some cohousing examples in Northern Europe, we can even find communities that produce and consume their own products through gardens and even livestock.
In parallel, the amortization of these installations, which avoid energy mortgages, can significantly reduce the monthly fee, requiring investment only in maintenance and, if applicable, care staff, allowing users to enjoy their senior years autonomously and with a high quality of life.
An Example of Senior Cohousing: Walden XXI
Perhaps the best way to understand what Senior Cohousing is is by analyzing a pioneering example in Catalonia, located in the town of Sant Feliu de Guíxols.
This is the case of Walden XXI, a development managed by the cooperative entity Sostre Cívic under a right-to-use model.
This involves the rehabilitation of the former Jecsalis hotel, converting its 74 rooms into 27 apartments of about 40-50 m2 for one or two people, where the project’s 35 members will reside. These apartments consist of a bedroom, a small kitchen, a living-dining room, and an adapted bathroom. Additionally, 20% of the building, approximately 800 m2, will be dedicated to shared services, such as a library, a laundry room, multipurpose rooms, a physiotherapy room, nursing; communal spaces like a large collective dining room and kitchen, the library, the computer room, and the silence room. The project will also feature a room open to the town, with the aim of engaging in the municipality’s associative life.
To make all this possible, the City Council had to modify the POUM (General Urban Planning Plan) to accommodate a Senior Cohousing project.
At the management level, ownership is based on the quota model we described earlier: the entry fee to the cooperative and the monthly usage fee to guarantee the use of the housing and communal spaces, for which we will detail the prices in this specific case.
The purchase of the hotel represents an investment of two million euros, which will be financed by an initial contribution of 40,000-45,000 euros from each member and through a loan that will also finance the building’s conversion works. This fee will be returned if a member leaves, while if they pass away, it will go to the heir, who will also have the option to decide whether to join the community, provided it is compatible with the project’s philosophy.
In parallel, a payment of 750-850 euros per month per cohabitation unit will be made, corresponding to the loan repayment, as well as a maintenance fee of 600€ per person to cover basic utilities and the contribution for care services.
Models like Walden in Sant Feliu de Guixols are success stories where an association of users has managed to carry out a large-scale project with the shared enthusiasm and energy to achieve a better quality of life in the company of other retirees and with care services comparable to those found in a residence, but maintaining their autonomy and privacy with their own home adapted to their needs.
Undoubtedly, understanding what Senior Cohousing is and knowing how to implement it is key for both public entities and user organizations. This model is certainly gaining strong momentum in our country and will become increasingly common as a life alternative for our elders.