Student accommodation
Flex living
Flex living is furnished, serviced accommodation that an operator lets for stays of variable length, from weeks to months, in complete flats or in rooms with shared areas. It sits between coliving, the traditional residential let and the serviced apartment.
Also known asflexliving · flexible living · flexible rental
What it is, exactly
It is above all a market term. Where a rule does pick it up, the difference from coliving lies in the unit: the Andalusian Housing Act (Ley 5/2025) defines flexliving as private living units that "may or may not be complete homes", intended for temporary residence, with shared services and rooms and managed by a single operator (art. 4.j), and keeps for coliving the units that are not complete homes. Both definitions leave the minimum floor area to later regulations.
With build to rent it shares the idea of a building designed to be let and run by a professional; what changes is the length of stay: flex living lives on short and medium stays, and build to rent on tenants who stay for years.
Worth knowing
Since October 2026 the Spanish Urban Leases Act has a figure for temporary stays. The consolidated text calls a temporary residential lease one that meets the housing need of someone who is away from their habitual home for a justified cause that can be proven, and requires it to last more than thirty-one days and, as a general rule, no more than twelve months (arts. 2.3 and 9 bis). For a product built on flexible stays it is the first article to read; the detail is in residential lease or lease for other use.
Sources
Related terms
- ColivingA coliving is a building of private rooms or studios with a shared kitchen, lounge and work areas, run by an operator with services included and a community life. It is aimed mainly at young professionals and stays of several months. In Spain it has no national law of its own.
- Build to rentBuild to rent (BTR) is the development of residential buildings designed from the outset to be let rather than sold flat by flat: an institutional owner keeps them and a professional operator runs them. In Spain it is also called promoción para alquiler or residencial en alquiler.
- LAU: residential lease or lease for other useSpain's Urban Leases Act (LAU) separates the residential lease (art. 2), which meets the tenant's housing need —even when only one room is let—, from the lease for a use other than housing (art. 3), which is governed by what the parties agree. In a coliving, that choice decides the contract's whole regime.