Conflicts over dirty dishes, lack of privacy, compromise on daily habits… Once the student period is over, living in a shared apartment can seem imposed, or even a form of going backwards. However, according to the dedicated barometer of the rental management agency Oqoro, published in July 2025, 43% of candidates for shared accommodation are active, “often at the beginning of career”.
The trend is confirmed on La Carte des colocs, the leading site for finding shared accommodation for students and young professionals in France. “In six years, the share of over 35s has increased by 10% on the platform, to reach almost one user in five”underlines Thibaut Ehrhart, co-founder of the site. The average age has increased from 26 in 2016 to more than 29 today. According to the entrepreneur, the explanation does not come down to the financial aspect. HAS”We observe a real quest for social connections. Often, people have established friendships with their previous roommates and want to repeat the experience.”
Do you pee lien social
An opinion shared by Marie-Renée, retired for several years. In 2010, she welcomed her first roommate, in her apartment located in the canton of Valais, in Switzerland. “My first experience of cohabitation happened almost by chanceshe slips. My neighbor, then a doctoral student, told me about an Ethiopian student, Mulu, on an Erasmus exchange in the region and looking for accommodation.”
At the time, she had been living alone with her son since her husband’s death and agreed to rent a room. “Mulu ate quite poorly and ate mostly instant noodles.remembers the septuagenarian with humor. I regularly invited him for dinner.” Over the months, a friendship was formed: they visited Basel, Friborg and even Stresa (on the shores of Lake Maggiore, in Italy). This first successful experience of cohabitation led to the subsequent reception of many people, mainly students. “Humanly, it brings me a lotadds Marie-Renée. I had tamed solitude, but being around young people every day gives me momentum.”
“I see roommates as a shield against loneliness, particularly in Paris, which remains a fairly individualistic city.”
Mathieu is also a fan of community life. His first roommate dates back to his third year of undergraduate studies. Since then, this 40-year-old architect has shared his daily life with “around twenty people”in several Parisian apartments. “I see roommates as a shield against loneliness, particularly in Paris, which remains a fairly individualistic city.”
He currently lives in the 12the district, with two thirty-somethings who have become “from true friends”. His need for «social link» motivated his choice, well before the financial question. “And also the sharing of household choresâ€he says, laughing. However, he recognizes that those around him regularly question him about the end date of this “Student Life”. Not right away, according to him.
Participatory housing, an “ideal compromise”
Anouk found her balance within participatory housing in the Grenoble area, in Isère. After living in shared accommodation for years, this 32-year-old circus artist joined, in 2024, HLM housing managed by the Les Naïfs association, “An ideal compromise is that I have my own space, without other isolation”she confides, having just returned from a “arrive in forest” organized with a few neighbors to admire the sunrise over tea. In this large U-shaped building made up of thirteen juxtaposed apartments and a studio – where Anouk lives – the residents share the left wing, where there is a games room, a bicycle garage and a large common room with kitchen.
Residents meet there several times a week “to eat, play board games, watch a movie or do morning yogaénumère l’intermittente du spectacle. We can be up to sixty people, including guests.” This living space, which celebrated its fortieth anniversary in 2025, remains multigenerational: four apartments are occupied by retirees who have lived there since the beginning, joined since by eight families. Anouk particularly appreciates the mutual aid that exists between residents. “One of my neighbors is very ill. We call him as soon as we organize a dinner. We try to surround him as best we can.”
The «coliving» in full swing
In France, “coliving” is also on the rise. This anglicism designates a model of turnkey furnished shared accommodation, offering a large number of rooms, generally equipped with individual bathrooms. Shared spaces include a large kitchen, living room, sometimes a gym, garden, coworking space or screening room. At the start of 2025, the Paris Region Institute, an Ile-de-France town planning agency, identified eighteen residences with more than fifty rooms in ÃŽle-de-France (i.e. approximately 7,500 beds) and almost as many projects in progress.
“Coliving” offers have multiplied in recent years, driven by an attractive economic model. With a rent of between 1,000 and 1,200 euros per month on average for a room in inner Paris, the actors generate their profitability thanks to the included services: gas, electricity, cleaning, wi-fi or insurance. The target audience remains young single working people.
In the capital, however, the model comes under criticism. Its detractors see it as a new “real estate flow”taking advantage of the housing crisis. On October 8, 2025, the Paris Council adopted the deliberation “Paris, zero co-living”, aiming to regulate this practice which, according to the text, “diverts the initial spirit of solidarity and mutualisation” of shared accommodation “to make it a financial product”. A bill aimed at regulating “coliving” on a national scale was tabled in November 2025 by communist senator Ian Brossat.
Initiatives to promote solidarity
Going against this commercial logic, other organizations favor a solidarity approach to shared accommodation. Created in 2023, the Pause roof association offers shared accommodation for parents in the process of separating. Several adults live together with their children in a 20th century loft.e district of Paris, for a period of eighteen months maximum, at a rent lower than market prices.
“Around 40% of the families we have hosted adhere to the concept and wish to extend this way of lifepoints out Valérie Dagut, founder of Pause roof. What they seek above all is mutual aid. Adults go through similar situations, marked by difficult separations. Here, they feel understood and are not isolated with their little ones.” For these single-parent families, the difficulty of finding affordable and suitable accommodation – with one bedroom per parent and per child – often compromises the continuation of the experience after their departure. “In Paris, rents remain prohibitive. This model is more easily possible in rural areas”résume Valérie Dagut.
Intergenerational cohabitation is another form of shared housing focused on solidarity. Since 2018, the Elan law has allowed people aged 60 and over to rent part of their home to people under 30 as part of a solidarity intergenerational cohabitation contract. The objective is threefold: to strengthen social bonds, fight against the isolation of seniors and facilitate access to housing for young people. In exchange for a moderate rent, they provide small services (cleaning, shopping, sharing time).
“I considered her like a second motherâ€
Elvina, a 27-year-old psychology student, lived for three years with Anna, a young retiree in Lyon. “I benefited from a reduction of 100 euros on my rent and, in return, I provided weekly cleaning.” She has excellent memories of this cohabitation which ended in 2024, following the move of her landlady. “We were very close. I confided in her a lot and considered her as a second mother, an adult on whom I could really count.” Anna introduced her children and her partner to him. On a daily basis, they shared “series evenings” in the living room or one-on-one meals.
Whether it is shared accommodation, participatory housing or intergenerational cohabitation, everyone we met recommends this way of living together. Lasting bonds are forged. Marie-Renée still receives news from certain former roommates and keeps the “grigri” offered by Mulu. Anouk now considers the other residents “a bit like his family”. For Thibaut Ehrhart, co-founder of La Carte des colocs, the rise of shared accommodation among working people primarily concerns single people “who want to rediscover community ties”. A way of life which is part of a quest for sociability and collective anchoring.
