Sharing space can be a beautiful thing.
Flatshares. Co-living communities. Multi-generational homes. Done well, shared living creates connection, affordability, flexibility - and sometimes even friendship.
But what happens when sharing stops being about community and starts being about cramming as many bodies as possible into houses never designed to hold them?
In Luxembourg, this isn’t just a theoretical question. It’s called “Café Zemmeren” or “Colocation” - the quietly booming business model of renting out single-family homes room by room, often to six, eight, or more unrelated tenants. No structural changes. No additional parking. No real oversight.
The ads call it “flexible living” - or, in one particularly honest typo we spotted, “flexibile living.” Which feels oddly accurate, given how often the concept stretches definitions (and sometimes neighbourly goodwill) beyond recognition.
Good for landlords. Less so for neighbours, tenants, and the long-term livability of our towns and villages.
Because density doesn’t have to mean degradation. But when houses turn into bed factories, we all pay the price.
In my four-part series “Human Storage: A Luxembourg Housing Story,” I take a closer look at this trend - where it came from, why it’s thriving, and what it’s really costing us. Not just in rent, but in quality of life.
Read the full series here: Link to Part I
written by Helen M. Krauss