Co-Financing with Quicken Loans: Designing New Financial Structures for 2025

trend research / brand strategy / business design

illustration by Yime (Mario de Santiago)

An Epidemic of Loneliness

2 in 5 Americans sometimes or always feel that their relationships are not meaningful (43%) and that they are isolated from others (43%)

– Cigna survey, 01 May 2019

"Living together, experiencing things together, sharing things with each other, is really what creates memories and happiness."

- Matthias Hollwich for Space10

Existing Paradigms of Shared Living

Shared living permeates our society in ways that often go unnoticed. Participation in the modern era, however, is often limited to a select few circumstances and is characterized as non-permanent and undesirable. In reality, shared living offers a wealth of opportunity to residents, helping them become happier, healthier people. Facilities targeting people in transitional periods of their life, such as college dorms and boarding houses, help build social bonds between potentially lonely residents. Halfway houses and addiction recovery facilities focus on personal growth and development, connecting individuals facing similar obstacles in life. Nursing homes and assisted living facilities offer a built-in security network to ensure the safety, health, and well-being of residents. Multigenerational homes and apartments shared by roommates benefit from affordability, opening doors to neighborhoods where rent prices function as a class barrier.

Nursing Home

Addiction Recovery Facility

College Dorm

Multigenerational Home

Roommates

Halfway House

Boarding House

Society as Insurance: Community Owned Institutions

As people regain more autonomy over their home lives, they are choosing to live in more flexible, non-traditional, and community-oriented spaces. From intergenerational families to mixed-generation condos, people are living more interconnected lives. Despite the emergence of the these new modes of living, new financial structures haven’t emerged to support it. A new financial ecosystem and improved education tools would allow for people to more easily participate in these new communities.

Trend Signals

BAUGRUPPE! Handbook

The Czech goverment published this handbook to encourage residents to engage in this new form of urbanism. Discussing everything from identifying the plot of land to co-habitating the space after construction, the government is keen on seeing citizens take intiative in making Prague a city of their own. Source: Prague Institute of Planning and Development

The Nursing Home That’s Also a Dorm

In exchange for 30 hours of volunteer work per month, Dutch college students can stay in vacant rooms at this nursing home free of charge. The college students aleviated potential feelings of loneliness in the home, statistically improving the health of older adults. Source: CityLab

Space 10 x CSM Studio

Space 10 sponsored a studio at Central Saint Martins in which students conceptualised urban solutions around share-living spaces. “Moving away from the Silicon Valley shared living model epitomised by wide open spaces with beautiful furniture, co-working space, and a bunch of startups, this was about real life.” Source: Space 10 x Central Saint Martins

Co-Living in the Modern Marketplace

We are inundated with the narrative that Co-Living is a luxury to be sold to the creative class.

Future Living

To:

From:

How can we democratize the future of urban housing?

Steps to Co-Financing

1. Organize

The first step to a collective housing development is creating a community of people around it. The goal is for the organizers to build trust and deepen relationships over time. The key benefit of community-led development is that if gives more control to citizens rather than profit-driven developers. It is important to meet frequently and debate freely with your future group. Members should discuss values to be reflected in the architecture, and the type of community they would like to build around their space. It may also be important that the members are diverse in age, race, ethnicity, and background. Cultural exchange is richest when there is a wider potential for sharing.

2. Design

There are a variety of existing typologies that exist within shared housing. Some are as familiar as roommates, whereas others are more emergent paradigms, such as baugruppen. The key to success is for the community to design facilities that work well for their lifestyle. The group should approach an architect to help develop their ideas. Public spaces could include a common house for group dinners and events, a small guest house to be shared amongst occupants, or a green space for members to enjoy together. Private quarters could range from condos to rowhouses to small homes depending on the desired urban density.

3. Finance

After drafting a design proposal, the group should bring the plans to a contractor for an appraisal. Then, the group should approach Quicken Loans to develop a suitable mortgage lending structure. With shared, mitigated risk, the members would individually take out loans to collectively fund their new property development. No payment on the loans would be required until construction is finished and members can move in to their new homes. Herein lies the financial benefit of co-financed housing. Without profits going to a private developer, the homes are overall 15-20% cheaper.

4. Build

Now that the finances are in place, the contractor can begin construction on the new development. The usual timeline for the entire process is 2-3 years. When construction is finished, members get to move in and grow closer with their new community. Quicken Loans will provide guidance and support throughout the repayment process, ensuring that members understand the group’s progress towards paying off their investment.

About Quicken Loans

Quicken loans has long been at the forefront of financial services for home buyers. They’re an online-only loan servicer, known for having industry leading digital tools. They also have a wide variety of online educational tools for new home buyers. By being on the forefront of home loaning and financial education already, it makes sense for them to take the next step into this emergent category of home ownership.

Brand Implications

Near Term

The most critical step is addressing the actual mortgage itself, finding more flexible ways for people to finance their new developments and homes. This new structure would allow groups of people to collectively, with shared risk, invest in a new housing development rather than relying on a single private investor like a home developer. This structure could be scaled from smaller projects for families hoping to live together to larger developments for communities with a shared values.

Far Term

The next step Quicken Loans could take would be the education component. It’s critical for people to fully understand the entire co-financing process, as well as how to begin paying back their investment. This could include how to actually obtain the mortgage, paying off loans faster, selling their home, and debt consolidation. Quicken Loans could take a step further in helping new owners engage with their community. Whether its organising events, setting up a community garden, or even deciding who cleans the public spaces, Quicken Loans could offer guidance on how to best embrace your new community.