APARTMENT? CHECK. ROOMMATES? CHECK
Start-up Roost Coliving connects tenants with hard-to-find housing in the GTA,
Andrew Berry, 23, was backpacking in Vietnam when he started looking for a place to live in Toronto. It was early this past March, and the clock was ticking.
“I was looking for something that’s easy to move into because I heard that Toronto was a tough apartment search area,” says Berry, who came for a data science course at the digital training centre BrainStation. He’d finished his degree from McGill University in 2018, and wanted to continue living with roommates. But he didn’t have a network in the city.
Online searches led Berry to Roost Coliving, a new start-up in Toronto that rents out allinclusive private rooms in shared housing, with bedrooms and common areas fully furnished. Roost Coliving cofounder Maggie Shi met Berry over video chat about a room. He signed a six-month lease while still abroad.
Roost is one of a few co-living startups in the Greater Toronto Area that act as a housing service between landlords and individual renters. Roost began renting rooms this past March 1, and now has about a dozen tenants with hopes of having 100 “Roostrs” by the end of 2019 as they bring more landlords on board. As well as condos, it hopes to also offer centrally-located townhomes and houses that meet its list of standards that include space for a double bed and a maximum of two tenants to a bathroom.
The Toronto-based operation Sociable Living operates a similar concept to Roost, renting out individual rooms at a new condo development east of the Junction neighbourhood. In Kitchener, the international organization Node is to begin building the region’s first purpose-built, co-living space this fall, with occupancy anticipated in spring, 2021, with 38 oneand two-bedroom units that follow popular, dormitory-style models such as WeLive and Ollie in the U.S.
In Toronto, Shi says Roost’s all-inclusive setup is a luxury offering geared toward young professionals and newcomers to the city. “The idea of sharing spaces, or dividing larger spaces into smaller ones for smaller groups, is definitely spearheaded by co-working,” Shi explains.
“Co-living comes as a natural follower of the office model for homes.”
In addition to furnishings, rental fees with Roost includes shared supplies, like dish soap, salt, pepper and laundry pods; cookware, dishware, linens and bedding are provided; all utilities, as well as Wi-Fi and a Netflix subscription, are included; and a cleaning service comes once a week.
Shi is considering adding additional services and letting Roostrs toggle perks for additional fees. She also organizes social activities such as dinners, escape room visits and happy hour meetups.
Jacob MacKinnon, 23, is one of Berry’s roommates and has lived with others throughout his undergraduate and master’s degree studies. “One of the biggest struggles with living with other people was co-ordinating who was going to buy what, and who was going to do the cleaning of the common areas,” says MacKinnon, who moved to Toronto to complete the final internship of his master’s degree in health care strategy. “(Roost) really has taken a lot of the challenge out of living with other people and allowed me to just enjoy having roommates.”
The one-stop-shop, however, comes at a cost. MacKinnon pays $1,650 a month for the smallest room in the condo. Berry’s room, which is the largest and includes an ensuite bathroom, costs him $1,850. Neil Robles, 24, is the third roommate and pays $1,700 for the middle-sized room. The rates are above market price per room, but below the cost of a studio suite in their building which runs for about $1,900. As well, roommates are matched based on their lifestyles and personalities through Shi’s vetting process with background and credit checks along with in-person or video interviews. It seems to have been a success with Berry, MacKinnon and Robles who are all in the early 20s and are just starting their postgraduate lives. Berry often finds himself chatting with MacKinnon about their job searches and their social circles are slowly intermingling. “I’m really blessed to have such great roommates,” Berry says.
Lyndsey Rolheiser, an assistant professor at Ryerson’s School of Urban and Regional Planning, sees the potential for operations such as Roost to grow.
“I think it’s a good idea because of the service offered in terms of decreasing the search cost for roommates,” she says. Rolheiser doesn’t take issue with Roost’s higher cost. “Those luxury units already exist — they’re just changing the type of product that’s for rent.”
She says there’s also potential for a shift from landlords managing tenants to companies such as Roost taking on the role. “It’s removing the owner as the manager,” she says.
Shi, through Roost, guarantees new landlords two years of rent and “no hassles” finding tenants and dealing with complaints.