'We moved in with 17 strangers so we wouldn't be lonely' - why co-housing is on the rise When Nikki Little and John Porter retired, they considered buying a bungalow for just the two of them. Instead, they invested in a £1m house tucked away on Devon's rugged and remote Hartland Peninsula - and looked for a community of like-minded people to join them. Now they live with 17 other people, aged four to 70.
“我们搬进和17个陌生人同住，只为不再孤独”——合作建房为何兴起。妮基·利特尔和约翰·波特退休后，本打算只为两人买一栋平房。相反，他们投资了一栋位于德文郡崎岖偏远哈特兰半岛、隐蔽一隅的100万英镑豪宅，并寻找志同道合的人加入。如今，他们与17位其他居民（年龄从4岁到70岁不等）共同生活。
Co-housing is gaining popularity in the UK, says the UK Cohousing Network - in a post-pandemic world where loneliness, the housing crisis and costly care are forcing a drive for new solutions. "In the future I was probably going to die first and I didn't want Nikki to be on her own," John explains. "Because we're a childless family it just seemed like a natural thing to do - to form a community where Nikki could be looked after in a few years' time, after we've looked after this community."
英国合作建房网络表示，合作建房在英国正日益普及——在后疫情时代，孤独感、住房危机以及高昂的护理费用正迫使人们寻求新的解决方案。“将来我可能先走一步，我不希望妮基独自面对这一切，”约翰解释道。“因为我们没有孩子，组建一个社区似乎是很自然的选择，这样在我们照顾完这个社区后，几年后妮基也能得到照顾。”
Berry Park receives "weekly inquiries" from people considering the lifestyle leap to co-housing, in which residents live in owned or rented lodgings clustered around a shared space and common facilities like gardens, allotments and dining areas. There are more than 120 co-housing developments either completed or in development and nearly 2,000 names on a national waiting list looking to join one, according to Owen Jarvis, CEO of the UK Cohousing Network.
贝里公园每周都会收到关于考虑跃入合作建房生活方式的“每周咨询”。在这种模式中，居民居住在围绕共享空间（如花园、菜地和用餐区）聚集的自有或租赁住房中。英国合作建房网络首席执行官欧文·贾维斯表示，目前已有120多个合作建房项目完工或正在开发中，全国等待名单上近2000人渴望加入。
"We also have landowners bringing forward sites and asking for people interested in developing co-housing on their land - that's probably the biggest recent change," adds Jarvis. He says it is recognition of a growing desire among individuals to live in a "more neighbourly way" - a key motivator for many of the residents at Berry Park. According to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 8.6 million people - 30% of all households - were made up of a single person in 2025.
“我们也有地主主动提供地块，并寻找有兴趣在其土地上开发合作建房的人——这可能是最近最大的变化，”贾维斯补充道。他表示，这反映出个人希望以“更邻里化”方式生活的愿望日益增长——这是贝里公园许多居民的关键动力。根据英国国家统计局（ONS）的最新数据，2025年，860万人（占所有家庭的30%）为单人家庭。
Nearly half (49.6%) of those people were aged 65 and older, an increase from 46.9% a decade ago. Almost one million of these over-65s are "often lonely", according to Age Concern. In 2025, 779,000 people lived alone in the South West, accounting for 30.4% of total households and the region has a higher proportion of older people living alone than the national average. The cost of lone living is higher too, according to ONS figures.
其中近一半（49.6%）为65岁及以上老人，较十年前的46.9%有所上升。据“关爱老人协会”称，这近100万65岁以上老人中“经常感到孤独”。2025年，西南部的77.9万人独自生活，占总户数的30.4%，该地区独居老年人的比例高于全国平均水平。ONS数据显示，独居的成本也更高。
"I'm single, I don't have children. Here I have a family," says Lorraine Jones, 49, who moved to Berry Park in April 2025 from a single life in Bath. "I feel like I've found my tribe." Jones, a charity fundraiser, says she does not miss her solo life in Bath - where she could not have afforded land to grow on or the space to keep animals. "There's a real sense of community and I've felt a reduction in loneliness. I intend to die here," she adds. "Not straight away I might add."
“我单身，没有孩子。在这里，我有了家人，”49岁的洛林·琼斯说，她于2025年4月从巴斯的独居生活搬到了贝里公园。“我觉得我找到了我的部落。”这位慈善筹款人表示，她不怀念在巴斯的独居生活——在那里她负担不起种地的土地或饲养动物的空间。“这里有一种真正的社区感，我也感到孤独感减少了。我打算死在这里，”她补充道，“不过不是马上。”
Most members found their way to the community online - there is a stringent joining process, with Zoom calls and visits followed by a trial three-month stay to make sure it is the right fit on both sides. Households, most of whom have bought into the project, have separate accommodation with kitchen and bathroom facilities and have jobs which provide private sources of income - making it significantly different to more traditional communal living models.
大多数成员是通过网络找到这个社区的——加入过程非常严格，包括Zoom通话、实地探访，随后是三个月的试用期，以确保双方都合适。大多数住户已购买该项目股份，拥有带厨房和浴室的独立住所，并通过工作获得私人收入——这使得它与更传统的集体生活模式有显著不同。
Berry Park was already divided into holiday flats when the founders - including John, Nikki and two other families - bought it about five years ago, forming a limited company in which members buy equity. Communal washing machines line the utility room, bills are divided so each adult pays £115 a month and the storeroom is stocked with canned vegetables from the allotment.
大约五年前，创始人（包括约翰、妮基和另外两个家庭）买下贝里公园时，这里已经被分割成度假公寓，他们成立了一家有限公司，成员在其中购买股份。公用洗衣机排列在杂物间，账单分摊，每位成年人每月支付115英镑，储藏室里堆满了来自菜地的罐装蔬菜。
This is a classic case of the market failing to provide social care, so individuals are forced to privatize community. The article highlights that residents have 'private sources of income' and buy equity, meaning this is a luxury solution for the asset-rich, not a structural fix for the housing crisis. While the 'sense of community' is real, it relies on the exclusion of those who cannot afford the entry fee. We need public investment in social housing and care, not just wealthy retirees forming gated enclaves to solve loneliness.
这是市场未能提供社会关怀的典型例子，个人被迫将社区关系私有化。文章强调居民拥有“私人收入来源”并购买股权，这意味着这是一种仅对资产充裕者开放的奢侈解决方案，而非解决住房危机的结构性方案。虽然“社区感”是真实的，但它依赖于对无法负担入场费者的排斥。我们需要对社会住房和关怀进行公共投资，而不是让富有的退休人员组建封闭飞地来独自解决孤独问题。