Intergenerational Living: Building Communities, Not Just Homes

Intergenerational living is one of those ideas that almost everyone agrees with.

It promises healthier lives, stronger communities and more resilient neighbourhoods. Bringing generations together can reduce loneliness, improve wellbeing and create places where people want to live. The recent, Creating Intergenerational Communities report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Housing and Care for Older People reinforces many of these benefits, highlighting the role that housing plays in tackling some of society’s challenges.

Yet despite widespread support, genuine intergenerational developments remain the exception in the UK.

Why?

Because believing in an idea is very different from knowing how to deliver it.

Evidence grows that communities bringing together people of different ages can improve physical health, reduce loneliness, strengthen neighbourhoods and create places where people are happier and more resilient. Inter- generational housing developments will need to be delivered in the context of the prevailing circumstances of investment and development.

More than a housing product

Intergenerational living is often described as a type of housing; this is not our starting point. It is better understood as a way of creating communities.

Buildings provide the framework, but it is the relationships between people, the quality of public realm and the way a place is managed that determine whether intergenerational living succeeds.

Developments can contain homes for young professionals, families and older people, yet still fail to become an intergenerational community, if those residents simply live alongside one another without meaningful opportunities to connect.

Thoughtfully designed places create thousands of everyday interactions that gradually build trust, friendship and mutual support. Children play safely outside. Older residents remain active and connected. People know their neighbours. Informal support develops naturally rather than through formal intervention. Voluntarily participating is important.

These everyday moments are difficult to measure, but collectively they become one of the most valuable forms of social infrastructure any community can possess.

Why does this matter?

The UK faces a number of interconnected challenges:

• our population is ageing;
• loneliness is recognised as a significant public health issue;
• housing affordability places pressure on younger generations;
• local authorities face increasing financial pressures; and,
• town and city centres are searching for new identities as retail continues to evolve.

Intergenerational communities cannot solve all these issues, but they have the potential to contribute and help reduce the pressures on the public sector.

Great design encourages walking, improve physical activity, reduce social isolation and increase opportunities for volunteering and mentoring. They can help families remain close to support networks and enable older residents to remain independent for longer. Mixed-age communities also tend to generate activity throughout the day, supporting local businesses, community facilities and public spaces.

These are not simply social benefits; they have genuine economic value. Healthier communities reduce pressure on public services. Stronger neighbourhoods become more resilient. Successful places attract investment and retain talent.

Increasingly, the boundaries between housing, health, regeneration and economic development are becoming blurred. Rightfully so in our opinion.

If the benefits are so clear, why are there so few examples of inter-generational housing?

Perhaps the most interesting question. We believe that barriers are rarely philosophical.

Developers, investors, local authorities and housing providers recognise the value of creating stronger communities. The challenge is making those aspirations work within the UK development market.

Planning policy supports healthy communities but rarely explains what an intergenerational neighbourhood should actually look like. Funders seek certainty. Valuers rely on established markets. Developers have to focus on proven products that can be delivered, sold or funded with confidence. None of these behaviours are unreasonable. They are simply the way the property industry has evolved in the UK.

The result, is that innovation often struggles to move beyond good intentions and reports.

The commercial challenge

A misconception is that intergenerational living requires a specialist housing product. We are not convinced that this is the case. Indeed, it can be a constraint.

The most commercially resilient developments are likely to remain mainstream residential, embedding intergenerational principles within their design, operation and management. More akin to many condominiums (Condo’s) in North America.

That may include adaptable homes capable of responding to changing life stages, accessible public spaces, shared amenities that encourage interaction, flexible tenure structures and high-quality public realm.

Importantly, these features should enhance the attractiveness of the development to a broader market rather than restrict it to a particular demographic.

The objective is not to create housing for older people or younger people. The objective is to create places that continue to work for people throughout different stages of life.

This distinction is critical from both a commercial and investment perspective.

The operational challenge

Perhaps the biggest lesson emerging from successful examples is that intergenerational living is ultimately an operational challenge rather than simply an architectural one.

Good design creates opportunities. However good stewardship turns those opportunities into communities. Programming activities, supporting residents, managing shared spaces and fostering a sense of belonging requires long-term commitment. These are operational functions that continue long after construction. Without that stewardship, even thoughtfully designed development risks becoming little more than a collection of homes / apartments, perhaps with communal facilities. Importantly any ‘communal facilities and enablement’ should not result in an increase in service charges that make the scheme unattractive.

Maybe housing associations / council estates traditionally provided some of the operational glue, but less so these days, and there are few development companies who are capable to looking at both development and operational models simultaneously. Yet with more ‘build to rent’ schemes emerging there is a great opportunity for operational management to be integrated within new housing schemes. However, we are trapped in a completion numbers game instead of qualitative, integrated solutions.

With stewardship the same physical environment can become something entirely different.

Inter-generational communities - Ethical capitalism in practice?

At Whatif..., we believe commercial success and positive societal impact should never be viewed as competing objectives.

Too often, developments are judged solely by the speed at which they are delivered or the financial return they generate. Those outcomes matter, but they are only part of the story.

We believe the most successful places of the future will also be judged by the lives they improve, the communities they strengthen and the long-term value they create for society.

That is not philanthropy, it is simply better development. This does not mean abandoning commercial discipline. Quite the opposite. Long-term stewardship, thoughtful design and commercial viability should reinforce one another.

Creating places where people remain healthier, more connected and more independent for longer generates economic value alongside social value. It reduces pressure on public services, supports local economies and creates neighbourhoods that are more resilient.

The strongest developments of the future are likely to be those capable of delivering both financial returns and measurable improvements in health, wellbeing and community resilience. Consumer choice will play a role, hence the need for more positive examples.

We call this ethical capitalism—where commercial returns and positive societal outcomes reinforce one another rather than compete.

Looking ahead

We do not believe intergenerational living is a passing trend. It reflects a need to address the profound demographic, social and economic changes that are already reshaping how we think about housing and place.

The opportunity now needs to move beyond aspiration and begin developing practical delivery models that work within the planning, funding and operational environment.

This requires new thinking and genuine collaboration.

Above all, it will require us to stop viewing intergenerational living as a niche housing product and start recognising that it is: a different way of creating successful places.

At Whatif…, we believe the conversation is only just beginning and we are helping deliver. We believe the conversation around intergenerational living is only just beginning. More importantly, we believe the industry now has an opportunity to move beyond aspiration and begin delivering commercially viable places that genuinely improve people’s lives.

Our role is to bridge the gap between vision and delivery—bringing together planning, development, investment and operational thinking to create places that work for both people and investors. The property industry has always shaped how society lives.

Perhaps it is now time to ask a different question. Instead of asking “How many homes can we build?”

What if we asked, “What kind of communities do we want to create?”

If we can answer that question, intergenerational living could become far more than another housing model.

It could become one of the defining placemaking opportunities of the next generation.