Navigating New Renter Expectations: The Desire for Flexible Living

Co-living companies and flexible-rental models are reshaping how Americans rent. This piece looks at the operators, the marketplaces, and the M&A driving the shift. In the series introduction, I emphasized the strategic importance of owning both the customer and renter relationship. I also outlined how the rental housing operating system is being rebuilt around renter engagement, operational workflows, financial infrastructure, and AI-driven automation.

• Article 1 focused on Marketing CRM Platforms with the convergence of lead generation, AI-assisted communication, and leasing workflows that are increasingly blurring the line between marketing infrastructure and the broader operating system. It also referenced owning both the customer and renter relationship and AI being the glue bringing these two worlds closer together at a faster pace.
• Article 2 examines a segment that addresses new renter expectations and one notable different kind of infrastructure challenge:

What happens when a traditional 12-month lease is not the right answer?

Roommates, Co-Living, and Flexible Lease Models (Article 2)

Homeownership affordability, shifting demographics, and lifestyle patterns have driven meaningful demand for rental alternatives.

Home Ownership Affordability

• Home ownership costs on homes with a mortgage are up over 25% from 2020 to 2024 (U.S. Census Bureau), primarily due to higher rates, prices, and insurance/tax increases
• The median age of first-time homebuyers has increased from 33 in 2020 to 38 in 2024 according to the National Association of Realtors

Lifestyle and Shifting Patterns

• Before COVID, roughly 5-7% of U.S. paid workdays were remote. Today, remote/hybrid work represents approximately 25-30% of paid workdays (WFH Research)
• Americans aged 65 and older are projected to grow from approximately 58 million today to more than 82 million by 2050 (U.S. Census Bureau), representing one of the fastest-growing demographics in the country and they are increasingly renting

Data supports renter patterns being driven by the continuance of remote work, the delaying of, inability, or lack of desire to buy a home, as well as an aging demographic that desires more freedom.

Airbnb-Era Renter Expectations

Alongside these structural shifts, Airbnb has fundamentally changed what renters expect. By normalizing furnished, flexible, and digitally managed living at scale, Airbnb raised the baseline for what renters consider an acceptable experience.  This includes keyless entry, quality furnishings, responsive support, and the ability to reserve, pay, arrive and leave without friction or for that matter human interaction. The companies in this segment compete with and are measured against that standard, and the best-positioned ones are building the infrastructure to meet or exceed it across longer stays and more complex renter arrangements than Airbnb was designed to serve.

The traditional 12-month lease increasingly underserves short-term/traveling workers, military personnel, students, corporate travelers, and renters seeking affordable or flexible alternatives. 

These trends and expectations have created meaningful demand, which is the focus of the companies in this article.

What This Segment Primarily Serves

Unlike the Marketing CRM category, which is focused on converting prospects into residents and driving renewals, this segment serves renters and owners at a different and growing intersection of the rental journey:

• Renters Seeking: Flexibility, furnished and more affordable options, roommates, and the ability to move without the friction of a traditional lease
• Owners/Operators Desiring: Turning vacant or underutilized units into revenue through alternative leasing models, managing multi-tenant and shared housing complexity, and accessing renters who might not qualify under traditional underwriting alone

The segment spans a wide range of company types and business models. This model was partially served in the past, but always secondary. The infrastructure required to serve it well, multi-tenant underwriting, room-level payment splitting, flexible lease management, and resident experience at varying stay lengths, is different from the Property Management System (“PMS”) infrastructure built for traditional rental housing.

Now given renter demand and expectations, this segment has grown and requires dedicated solutions. 

Key Differentiating Dimensions Across This Segment

Because the companies in this segment serve such different renter profiles and operating models, it is useful to evaluate them across several dimensions:

Ability to Move Between Units

Some platforms (Landing, Blueground, PadSplit, Bungalow) allow renters to transfer to different homes or cities within the network, a meaningful differentiator for renters with uncertain timelines or those who value mobility.

Stay Lengths

Range from a 30-day minimum (Blueground, Landing), to 12 weeks (PadSplit), to 4-24 months (Bungalow). Some platforms are agnostic and others have hard minimums or maximums tied directly to their business model and operating structure.

Lease Terms

Traditional roommate marketplaces (Roomster, Roomi, SpareRoom) do not manage leases directly, they facilitate connections. Full-service platforms (PadSplit, Bungalow, Outpost, and Landing) provide structured lease or membership frameworks with varying flexibility built in.

Vertical Housing/Segment Focus

• June Homes and Outpost primarily target student and young professional housing
• Blueground is strong in corporate and mid-term stays
• PadSplit targets affordable workforce housing
• SpareRoom has significant roots in UK and NYC markets
• Outpost targets international and community focused renters in NYC.  It has also explored commercial to residential conversion co-living opportunities.

Geographic Focus and Scale

Ranges from local and regional to national and global. Outpost concentrates on NYC, PadSplit is in 40+ states, and Landing is in 250+ U.S. cities.  Blueground is in 77 cities across 4 continents and Roomster covers 192 countries. Geographic density matters significantly for platforms that offer network mobility as part of their renter value proposition.  Some may have a breadth of location and may emphasize this in their marketing, but lack the inventory depth in those markets to back it up.

Renter and Owner/Operator Perspective and Offering

Select platforms are primarily consumer-facing (Roomster, Roomi, SpareRoom). Others are built to be full-service to both renters and owners (PadSplit, Bungalow, Landing, Blueground). A few operate more like property management companies that happen to serve alternative housing with a focus on hospitality (Outpost, June Homes).

Price Points

• PadSplit: ~$729/month in Atlanta, all-inclusive, targeting affordable workforce housing vs. their represented ~$2,155/month normalized rate for the market
• Bungalow: Market-rate shared housing + $175/month service fee, targeting middle-market renters
• Landing: Average of $2,000 to $3,000 per month furnished apartments, broader middle-market flexible living
• Blueground: $3,000-$15,000 monthly furnished for premium corporate and high-income, mid-term stays

Price point directly correlates to the renter profile and the differentiation the operator provides relative to traditional alternatives.

Flexible Rentals: A Deeper Dive into the Companies

As with Article 1, there is meaningful overlap between companies and categorization involves judgment. I have grouped them by primary business model and renter/owner focus.

Roommate Matching Marketplaces

Roomster

Founded in 2003, Roomster is a roommate marketplace and shared housing discovery platform with a presence in 192 countries. The model is straight forward: list a room, find a roommate, with detailed renter profiles (up to 10,000 words), designed to improve the quality of matching. Free basic access and messaging requires a paid subscription starting at $5.95 for three days.

Renter

Light identity and social matching. Users can search for listings by size, amenities, budget, and location, and connect directly with prospective roommates. The free tier provides access to listings and messaging to connect requires a paid subscription.

Owner/Operator

Not a traditional underwriting or full-service lease management platform. Landlords and property managers can list rooms and reach a global audience of renters looking for shared housing, with minimal infrastructure requirements on the operator side.

Differentiation

Scale and international reach. 20M+ accounts created and 10M+ app downloads across 192 countries. Breadth rather than depth of matching and verification.

Concentrated in high-cost urban markets: New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles.

Renter

• Renter ID Verification processed through Stripe plus selfie matching
• Safety Screening via Checkr partnership leveraging national criminal database, global watchlist, and sex offender list checks
• Non-business users can post one active listing and connect with up to 10 people for free. Verification and expanded messaging require a paid plan.

Owner/Operator

• Solo agent plan: Up to 10 active listings, unlimited outreach to potential renters
• Business unlimited plan: Unlimited listings and unlimited outreach

Differentiation

Roomi positions itself as a more professional, more trust-oriented alternative to general roommate marketplaces. The identity verification and safety screening infrastructure is more robust than most in this segment, making it the more appropriate platform for operators who want a higher standard of renter vetting than a basic listing site provides.

With 17M+ registered roommates worldwide, SpareRoom represents itself as the largest roommate finder globally, with strong presence in New York and the UK.

Renter

• 18,000+ rooms, sublets, and apartments in the U.S. at any given time
• Consumer inventory access: $14/week to $149 for 6 months
• Early Bird Access gives renters a 7-day head start on new listings, an advantage in competitive markets like NYC

Owner/Operator

• Room posting with time-based pricing: from $14 for 7 days to $199 for a year
• Additional listings available at tiered pricing with volume discounts for 5+ listings

Differentiation

SpareRoom’s network density in the UK and NYC, two of the most competitive rental markets globally offers a content depth and breadth advantage considering the size of these markets too. Their scale creates a marketplace effect. More listings attract more seekers, and more seekers attract more listings. SpareRoom is also the only platform in the segment where both sides pay for access.

Affordable and Full-Service Shared Living

PadSplit is the most directly affordability-focused platform in this segment. The model is private furnished rooms in shared homes with all-inclusive weekly payments, no minimum credit score requirement, and minimal upfront costs.

Renter

Renter value proposition (Atlanta example):

• Traditional average move-in cost: $3,605 vs. PadSplit at $119 (less furnishings needed/smaller footprint)
• PadSplit’s view of monthly Atlanta market rent, utilities, and internet is ~$2,155 vs. their cost of ~$729 or roughly 50% cheaper
• No credit score minimum, $19 application fee (refundable if not approved), and ~$100 move-in fee
• Own furnished room, private bathroom available in select homes, all utilities included
• 48-hour move-in and 12-week minimum stay, no maximum, early move-out flexibility available for an additional fee
• Transfer to any other PadSplit home in the network at any time with some small fees and a minimum commitment
• Weekly payment cadence requires more planning for renters, but helps operators with more frequent rent

Scale: 30,000+ rooms, 70,000+ people housed, 40+ states, strong presence in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, and Washington DC.

Owner/Operator

• Stated to typically increase yield by more than 2x versus traditional single family rentals (“SFR”)
• Nearly half of property owners who become hosts list additional rooms within a year
• Full-service intake: identity verification, background/eviction screening, and income verification built into the platform
• Digital leasing and listing syndication to major external sites
• State they rank #1 on Google for room rentals in 90% of core markets

Differentiation

PadSplit’s most differentiated position: it simultaneously addresses affordability for renters and supply constraints in the market while delivering higher yields to property owners. This structural alignment of incentives, lower cost to the renter and higher return to the owner, is the model’s core strength and a difficult combination for traditional rental platforms to replicate.

Bungalow offers a full-service shared living platform at market-rate pricing across 20+ U.S. markets with 5,000+ residents. The model is vetted roommate communities in furnished, shared homes with flexible lease terms.

Renter

All residents go through background, credit, and income checks in accordance with local requirements prior to placement which is a meaningful quality and safety standard across a shared living environment.

• Lease terms from 4 to 24 months
• Moving freely, without breaking the lease, between homes and cities within the Bungalow network requires selecting a transfer option with a resulting fee
• All managed through the Bungalow app: maintenance requests, monthly payments, and communication
• Common area furniture, smart TV, kitchen essentials, Wi-Fi, and utilities included via $175/month service fee. Cleaning costs and utilities split equally among residents.
• Partnership with Esusu for on-time rent reporting to credit bureaus
• Partnership with TheGuarantors for security deposit alternatives and co-signer replacement, useful for renters without strong credit history or savings

Owner/Operator

• All-in-one SFR investment management platform, Radar, powered by Bungalow
• Exclusive in-house brokerage with managed, value-add renovation pipeline and timeline visibility
• Automated listing integrations and a lease-up playbook stated to generate higher occupancy and above-average retention rates
• Over $100M of investments deployed with 98% of renovations completed under budget and a 45-day average time to fill new rooms
• 60%+ renewal rate with 1 in 7 residents staying within the Bungalow network long-term

Differentiation

The combination of roommate vetting (including full background, credit, and income screening), flexible network mobility across cities, SFR investment and renovation tooling, and above-average resident retention creates a platform that works for both the renter who values flexibility and the property owner seeking stabilized, optimized returns. The Radar platform for investors is a differentiator versus co-living competitors who do not offer a comparable owner-side investment management product.

Co-Living and Operations Management

Professionally managed co-living operators with scaled operational infrastructure represent a relatively concentrated segment within the broader alternative housing ecosystem. COVID-era unit economics pressures forced a meaningful consolidation wave among early co-living operators, and the survivors tend to be those with diversified revenue, deeper operational infrastructure, and/or a differentiated niche (geography, renter vertical, conversion expertise). Outpost is the most complete example of this model currently operating at scale.

Outpost has evolved into a residential management company that designs, leases, and manages multifamily properties including co-living, student housing, and full apartments. Outpost acquired and merged with June Homes, combining Outpost’s operational and management infrastructure with June Homes’ consumer-facing platform and vertical-specific housing tracks. Together they represent one of the more complete B2B2C offerings in co-living and alternative housing.

Key facts: Based on their reporting 4,000+ units under management, 50,000+ renters served, and approximately 200 employees. Outpost benefited from broader COVID-era co-living consolidation as operators such as Bedly, Quarters, and Common either exited markets, restructured, or reduced operations.

Renter

• Co-living, fully furnished private rooms and shared spaces vs. less traditional apartment formats
• Student housing and travel nurse housing tracks available through the June Homes platform. Vertical specialization that drives repeat renter traffic with predictable timing (academic calendars, deployment cycles, travel nurse assignment lengths).
• Per-bedroom or per-apartment leasing flexibility to fit different budget/privacy needs
• RentSplit calculators for multi-tenant financial management
• Presence in NYC (primary focus), Chicago, Boston, DC, Los Angeles, and Austin
• App-based management of rent payments, maintenance, and resident communication

Owner/Operator

• Full-service property management: marketing across 30+ platforms, leasing, renter screening and placement, rent collection, maintenance and repairs, resident management, vendor and utility management, and financial reporting
• Outpost states their NOI model generates 15-30% higher NOI compared to traditional leasing through higher revenue per square foot and reduced vacancy

Strategic angle: New York Commercial-to-Residential Conversions:

Outpost is positioned in New York’s office-to-residential conversion market. NYC’s real property tax law 467-m program (affordable housing from commercial conversions) offers up to a 90% property tax exemption for up to 35 years for qualifying commercial conversions. These conversions create co-living floor plans which are stated to:

• Cut conversion construction costs approximately 25-35% versus standard apartment conversions
• Roughly triple the number of revenue-generating units per floor compared to conventional layouts
• Enable higher total revenue even at lower per-unit rents due to the density of rent-generating units

Differentiation

The combination of Outpost’s operational infrastructure and June Homes’ consumer-facing platform creates a relatively complete solution for owners in urban markets looking to convert or re-position underperforming assets into alternative housing formats. The verticals served through June Homes, students and travel nurses, represent repeat renter cohorts with predictable demand patterns, which reduces leasing uncertainty for operators in those markets. The NYC conversion angle adds a distinct and timely strategic value proposition not broadly shared by other platforms in this segment.

Flexible and Furnished Mid-Term Living

The flexible and furnished mid-term segment, generally defined as stays from 30 days to 12 months, is where Airbnb’s influence is most directly felt. Airbnb demonstrated consumer willingness to pay a premium for furnished, flexible, and digitally managed living at scale. Its monthly rental feature (Airbnb Monthly) now directly overlaps with the 30-day entry point of platforms like Blueground and Landing. The difference: Airbnb aggregates inventory it does not standardize, while these platforms control quality, standardize the experience, and offer infrastructure like lease management and corporate booking that Airbnb was not built to provide. For renters seeking a consistent, professional experience across cities and over months rather than days, these platforms offer a meaningfully different product.

Landing is a membership-based flexible apartment living platform operating in 250+ U.S. cities.

Landing’s research (white paper: ‘Cash-Rich, Lease-Shy’) reinforces the macro thesis behind this segment: 1 in 4 renters are shifting away from traditional 12-month leases. Homeownership is at decade lows (63% vs previous years closer to 66%), and renting, according to this white paper, is now cheaper than buying in every state. This is structural, not cyclical, and it creates growing demand for what Landing offers across its primary locations including Austin, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Orlando, Fort Myers, and Charlotte.

Renter

• Flex Stay: Fully furnished, no end date required, with the ability to change units and cities within the Landing network with 3 days notice and a cleaning fee pending membership type
• Flexible stays: a few days, a month, or longer
• 6-Month Flex Stay: approximately 20% average savings and 12-Month Flex Stay: approximately 30% average savings
• Fixed Stay: Traditional term structure within furnished inventory
• Standby program: Lower pricing with the tradeoff of potential unit reassignment with 3 days’ notice
• Price point: generally $2,000-$3,000/month, all-inclusive (utilities, Wi-Fi, cleaning, and service fees)

Owner/Operator

• Full-service management: Landing furnishes, markets, and fills units
• Partners maintain full unit flexibility under Landing’s 1-year program while gaining incremental occupancy and NOI
• For lease-up buildings, Landing drives meaningful NOI improvement during the on-ramp period as the asset fills

Differentiation

Landing’s combination of national network density (said to be 250+ cities), fully-managed operator onboarding, and renter mobility within the network creates a more institutionalized version of the flexibility Airbnb popularized. The Standby tier and flexible-stay packaging differentiate Landing from both traditional furnished apartment operators and short-term rental platforms by serving renters across a wider range of commitment levels and prices.

Blueground states they are one of the world’s largest flexible living operators with 20,000+ premium apartments in 77 cities globally, plus a partner network of 18,000+ additional homes from vetted third-party providers. Owners can rent their furnished and unfurnished units (which Blueground furnishes to its standards).

Key stats: Stated 200,000+ guests hosted, 4,000+ organizations that book, 5,000+ landlord and property owner partners, 100+ cities globally, U.S. presence in Texas, Atlanta, Denver, San Francisco, Florida, Nashville, New York, Toronto, and San Diego. Price range: roughly $3,000-$15,000 per month. Minimum stay: 30 nights at fully furnished premium apartments.

Renter

Individuals on corporate relocations, extended business travel, or mid-term personal transitions. The Blueground experience is designed to deliver hotel-quality furnishing, decor, and guest services with the space and functionality of an apartment with each property featuring Blueground’s signature quality and decor standards.  Renters can move units with 30 days’ notice, a cleaning fee, and potentially a relocation fee.

Owner/Operator

• Franchise: Partners acquire exclusive rights to invest in and operate the Blueground network in a new city, supported by Blueground’s global marketing, corporate sales, operational workflows, BI tools, design, and supply chain infrastructure. Blueground provides ongoing support and extensive training.
• Also can opt in through Managed by Blueground: The global Blueground team manages day-to-day operations and the partner gains exclusive rights to develop the network of properties within a city

Differentiation

Blueground’s franchise and managed operator models are meaningfully more sophisticated than most in this segment. They allow Blueground to scale into new cities with limited balance sheet exposure while maintaining brand and quality standards globally. The institutional-quality partner infrastructure (BI tools, global marketing systems, corporate sales relationships) also positions Blueground to capture corporate travel and relocation budgets that remain largely out of reach for smaller or less systematized flexible living operators.

Select Acquisitions and Strategic Positioning

This segment has seen a distinct pattern of consolidation, not driven by large strategic acquirers from outside, but by internal consolidation as the co-living model worked through its first growth cycle. 

What Has Already Happened

Co-living consolidation: COVID exposed the unit economics vulnerabilities of early co-living operators. Several pioneers including Common, Quarters, and Bedly, exited or were absorbed. Outpost was a primary consolidator in the NYC market, absorbing operators’ units and renter bases not through premium acquisition pricing but through absorption of distressed assets. 

Outpost + June Homes: The combination of Outpost’s property management infrastructure with June Homes’ consumer-facing platform and vertical housing tracks (student and travel nurse) is the most notable recent example of a within-segment strategic merger, combining operational depth with consumer reach and renter-vertical specialization.

What Could Come Next

Internet Listing Service (“ILS”) / Top of Funnel

The leading ILS platforms have limited penetration in alternative and shared housing inventory. Companies like Roomster, Roomi, and SpareRoom operate more like ILS platforms for non-traditional inventory. A top-of-funnel acquisition here could extend reach into a renter segment increasingly underserved by traditional listing platforms. The ILS platforms already have the traffic, lead generation scale, and now most left have a notable brand. Adding a roommate and shared housing discovery layer is a relatively low-friction product extension.

PMS / Bottom of Funnel

The established PMS platforms have a limited co-living specific infrastructure. Shared housing creates distinct underwriting, multi-tenant payment splitting, room-level lease management, and roommate eviction workflows that most legacy PMS platforms were likely not built for. A purpose-built platform with proven multi-tenant infrastructure (PadSplit, Bungalow, Outpost) represents a logical tuck-in for PMS platforms looking to serve this renter segment and expand their total addressable market.

The barrier: these companies often lead with consumer-facing, digital marketplace businesses, a different model than the B2B software infrastructure most established PMS platforms have built and operate.

Corporate Travel and Relocation Platforms

The flexible mid-term furnished segment (Blueground, Landing) serves a renter cohort, corporate travelers, relocating employees, and contract workers that corporate travel and relocation management platforms already serve. A cross-segment acquisition here could bundle housing procurement into relocation services, a product extension that may be more difficult for these platforms to build organically.

Observations

• The affordable shared housing segment (PadSplit, Bungalow) has the strongest structural alignment of renter and owner incentives and continues to attract strategic capital interest as the model has proven out at scale
• The flexible mid-term furnished segment (Blueground, Landing) represents a potential cross-sell target for corporate travel and relocation platforms
• The pure roommate marketplaces (Roomster, Roomi, SpareRoom) face commoditization risk unless they expand into select top of the funnel elements of full-service infrastructure or gain scale (systematic depth + breadth of content) creating additional network effects.  Their most likely path, besides scale or vertical focus, is either ILS acquisition or expansion into such segments as lease management, payments, and identity/risk infrastructure.
• Commercial-to-residential conversion (Outpost/June Homes) is a growing opportunity in urban markets with significant office vacancy and supportive policy tailwinds. We have not felt the full impact of commercial vacancy and this attempts to help with that asset.

Strategic Positioning in the Rental Housing Operating System

This segment sits at a different point in the operating system than Marketing CRM Platforms. Rather than competing for the traditional 12-month lease conversion workflow, these companies are building or enabling an alternative infrastructure layer, one that accommodates renters who are priced out, require greater flexibility, or simply need something the traditional rental model was not designed to deliver.

The long-term winners in this category will likely combine solutions for both the renter and the owner/operator:

Renter

• Network effects and mobility: Platforms that allow renters to move relatively freely (still too many fees/barriers) between cities and markets (Landing, Bungalow, Blueground) become significantly more valuable as inventory density increases. Thin networks limit the mobility value proposition and reduce renter retention.
• Vertical specialization: Student housing, affordable workforce housing, and corporate mid-term stays each have distinct characteristics with compliance requirements, timing patterns, financing structures, and renter profiles that support focused players alongside generalist platforms.
• Consumer UI/UX: Platforms that make it simple to find, compare, apply for, and move between units across markets and lease types. Simple payments. Clear all-inclusive pricing. Mobile-native management. The renter cohort served by this segment has high expectations for digital experience, in part shaped by Airbnb, with low tolerance for friction.

Owner/Operator

• Multi-tenant underwriting and risk management: Background, credit, income, and identity verification designed for shared occupancy including tools for rent splitting, payment collection across multiple tenants per unit, roommate eviction, and financial reporting at the room and unit level. This is fundamentally more complex than single-tenant underwriting and is a genuine infrastructure differentiator for platforms that solve it well.
• Measurable NOI improvement, yield uplift, reduced vacancy, and reduced operational friction for owners who convert idle or underperforming inventory into productive revenue. Platforms that can demonstrate a clear, consistent yield advantage over traditional rental approaches will continue to attract property owners and investors.

The most defensible positions combine a proven renter experience, a clear owner value proposition, multi-tenant infrastructure that traditional PMS platforms cannot easily replicate, and the ability to aggregate and service inventory at scale.

“The rental housing operating system is increasingly being rebuilt around renter engagement, operational workflows, financial infrastructure, and AI-driven automation. But not every renter fits the traditional model. The companies that serve renters who need flexibility, affordability, and alternatives are building a different, and equally important, layer of that operating system.”

The flexible-rental shift is still early, and the winners will be the operators and platforms that pair a strong renter experience with a clear owner value proposition. At STE Advisors, we advise founders, operators, and investors across various industries including PropTech, home services, digital marketplaces, and vertical SaaS businesses. We lead sell-side preparation, M&A, strategic positioning and execution. For the marketing-and-CRM layer feeding this segment, see Rental PropTech: Winning Both the Customer and Renter Relationship. And if you’re weighing a transformational event including a sale, acquisition, or partnership, start a confidential conversation.