Question to all you HNs readers... what&#x27;s the situation in your city&#x2F;country like when it comes to communal&#x2F;shared living, particularly with &#x27;strangers&#x27;, i.e. two young professionals who share a home for economic reasons?<p>Here in the Netherlands it happens but it doesn&#x27;t seem to be the standard. It&#x27;s extremely popular for students, and some of the leases remain after the students graduate and it effectively becomes a young-professional&#x27;s home, and rooms get filled up when someone leaves, usually via FB connections. But actually applying to live with strangers say as a 29 year old is rare... either you have your own place, or one with a partner.<p>The reason I ask is because, theoretically and often in practice, shared living is more space-efficient. The living room is shared, the kitchen, the bathroom, the washer, all the little things, and then you attach 4 bedrooms to it, and you can get a footprint that&#x27;s smaller than 4 studios with a similarly sized kitchen&#x2F;bathroom etc. But it only works if, culturally, people can stomach living together with other people they&#x27;re not family or intimate friends with. While undoubtedly many people want their own place, in a time (and city) of scarcity of space, I wonder if part of the solution should not simply come from shared living, rather than more space efficient solo-living. What&#x27;s it like in your town?