Co-living planning trends
Co-living's share of UK planning applications in the year to September 2026 was 2.7 times that of three years earlier, with London far ahead.
Co-living applications since 2016
Co-living applications in every 10,000 planning applications, over the 12 months to each month
How this is measuredRising since 2023
The count rose from 36 in 2023 to 48 in 2024 and 63 in 2025, and co-living's share of applications almost doubled, from 0.7 to 1.4 in every 10,000. It reached 1.8 in the year to September 2026, the highest since 2016.
London far ahead
From 2023 to 2025 London received 2.6 co-living applications in every 10,000, two and a half times the UK's 1.0. Three of the six councils with the most since 2016 are in London: Ealing and Southwark, on 14 each, and Brent.
Q3 2026 against a year earlier
Councils received 23 co-living applications in Q3 2026, too few to compare their share with a year earlier.
Co-living applications each quarter
23 in Q3 2026, against 12 a year earlier.
Out of every 10,000 applications
As a share of every application: 2.2 in every 10,000 in Q3 2026, against 1.1 a year earlier.
Where co-living applications concentrate
By region
Co-living applications in every 10,000 planning applications, 2023 to 2025
Councils with the most
Applications since 2016
-
Ealing
London · 3.5 in every 10,000 14 -
Southwark
London · 6.1 in every 10,000 14 -
Brent
London · 3.3 in every 10,000 13 -
Sheffield
Yorkshire and Humber · 4.6 in every 10,000 13 -
Peterborough
East of England · 10 in every 10,000 12 -
Bristol
South West · 2.9 in every 10,000 11 -
Royal Borough of Greenwich
London · 4.4 in every 10,000 11 -
Tower Hamlets
London · 6.7 in every 10,000 11 -
Exeter
South West · 11 in every 10,000 10 -
Glasgow
Scotland · 3.4 in every 10,000 9
Latest co-living applications
- St Catherines (plot 3 And 4) Phased development comprising co-living units (sui generis), associated amenity spaces, commercial floorspace (Class E), together with associated servicing and access arrangements, landscaping, public realm, and associated works.
- 14-18 George IV Street And 20 And 22 Hills Road Cambridge Cambridgeshire Demolition of 14-18 George IV Street, erection of building for commercial office use (Class Eg) on George IV Street. Alterations and extensions to 20 and 22 Hills Road to provide 18 co-living units (Sui Generis), with associated landscaping and infrastructure.
- 298 - 304 Charminster Road Bournemouth Erection of a two storey side extension on the second and third floors and a four storey rear extension with internal alterations, associated access, and bin and cycle storage, and associated infrastructure; Change of use from existing office (use class E) to co-living accommodation (sui generis) with café and gym (use class E) on the ground floor
- 23 Portley Wood, Surrey Internal reconfiguration of existing building (C3) to provide 24 rooms across 6 co‑living units (Class C4) together with the removal of existing garage block and outbuilding to provide off‑street parking, with associated cycle and bin storage. (retrospective)
- 101 Newington Causeway London Southwark Phased development including demolition of the existing buildings and phased construction of two buildings, comprising a hotel building (Use Class C1) with ancillary facilities, and a purpose-built shared living building with ancillary cafe space (Sui Generis), and separate co-working/office spaces (Use Class E); new public realm and landscaping works and all other associated and ancillary works. Further information to describe the proposal The hotel building would be 24- storeys high plus basement (maximum 82.8m AOD) and would contain 404 hotel rooms The co-living building would be 37-storeys high plus basement (maximum 127.15m AOD) and would contain 720 contain co-living rooms
- 150 Coles Green Road & Land next to 51, Waterloo Road, London, NW2 Outline planning application (all matters reserved except for access and scale) for demolition of existing buildings and redevelopment to provide a mixed-use development comprising a new pocket park, the erection of a flexible Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) or Large-Scale Purpose-Built Shared Living (LSPBSL) use building with access off Coles Green Road, an industrial building with access off Waterloo Road and associated parking and landscaping. Further detailed explanation of the proposal for consultation purposes (not forming part of the formal description of development set out above): The proposal includes two blocks up to 28 storeys in height (up to 155m AOD); comprising: up to 479 Purpose Built Student Accommodation rooms or to accommodate up to 451 Large Scale Purpose Built Shared Living units building and industrial building up to three storeys (up to 70.80m AOD).
Questions
How many co-living planning applications are there in the UK?
Councils have received 377 since January 2016, 80 of them in the 12 months to September 2026. Their share of all applications is the highest since 2016.
Which councils receive the most co-living applications?
Ealing, Southwark and Brent have received the most since 2016.
What counts as co-living in planning terms?
It has no class of its own in the Use Classes Order. London Plan Policy H16 treats large-scale purpose-built shared living as a sui generis use, and Greater London Authority guidance generally applies it to schemes of at least 50 private rooms.
About Plota
Plota is the UK's most visited planning search, according to Similarweb. It shows every new planning application from every UK council, read daily from 390 planning registers, with past applications back to 2016 from more than 420 registers, including those of councils since merged. It also covers planning committee decisions, HMO licences and premises licences.
How this is measured
What needs an application
Co-living has no use class of its own, so these figures count applications that use the term. One application can cover a block of 50 rooms or more.
Methodology
- What is counted: planning applications to UK councils whose description names co-living or a close variant of the words, by the date each council received them. These are planning applications, not completed schemes; the largest energy and infrastructure projects are consented nationally rather than by councils, so they sit outside these counts.
- How matches are checked: we read the 200 most recent co-living applications and 20 from every year since 2016 to confirm each one belongs.
- Topic counts leave out, by design, works to trees and applications that only discharge conditions, amend an earlier permission or approve reserved matters, which follow a scheme already counted. Everything else is counted.
- A share is the number out of every 10,000 applications over the previous 12 months. Each topic is a number in every 10,000 planning applications, so trends compare when overall planning activity changes; the share still moves when either the topic's count or the total does. This topic has no planning index: councils received fewer than 20 in 2016, too few to measure change against.
- Source: the planning registers of every UK council, January 2016 to September 2026, read on 9 November 2026.
- Planning is seasonal, so each quarter is compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Year on year: each topic's and theme's share of all applications in Q3 2026, against Q3 2025, at every council we hold. A share is the number in every 10,000 applications. Shares compare across councils and years; raw counts do not.
- Left out of the topic shares: Birmingham's applications from June to September 2026: a validation backlog at the council since June 2026: of 685 reference numbers it issued in September, its register lists 288. The same months a year earlier are left out too, so every comparison covers the same councils.
- Download the data (CSV): every topic and theme, each quarter since 2016.
Sources
- Policy H16 of the London Plan 2021 treats large-scale purpose-built shared living as sui generis; Greater London Authority guidance published on 29 February 2024 generally applies it to schemes of at least 50 private individual rooms with shared spaces. london.gov.uk