If you’ve read any of our ‘Get to Know’ series before, you’ll know that this is where we introduce some of the best and brightest businesses in Manchester. After all, we’re a city full of business innovation.
This time, we’re giving you an exclusive insight into a disruptive new property proposition by Vita Group: Union. Union’s Coliving apartments offer a totally fresh approach to renting property in Manchester.
If you’re interested in what this shake-up entails, read on – we’ve got all of the details.
Get to know: Union by Vita Group
Who?
Union is the latest offering from Vita Group. It’s a new high-rise apartment block in Manchester city centre. As seasoned property developers, Vita Group have already successfully executed many property build-outs, including Circle Square in Manchester. However, this new development comes with unique USPs for the flat sharers who call the city home.
Where?
Union is a luxe new high-rise apartment located on Water Street on the old site of the Granada Studios. Now, as new buildings and businesses spring up in this area – most significantly Factory – the area is being dubbed St John’s.
What sets Union apart?
Union tackles many of the problems that young professionals face when they try to rent a property head-on.
It’s clear exactly why many of their initiatives will set them apart from competitors using an old-fashioned system with practices which aren’t always the most convenient or logical for urban dwellers who house share.
Let’s dig into them.
Coliving
The key to all of the disruptive unique selling points of Union is the way that it defines flat-sharing professionals as its primary market. Enter, coliving .
Coliving acknowledges the large subset of people who want to live in the city with other people who aren’t their family or partners and rent by the room. They want to act and rent as individuals, not a unit. This building development is exclusively tailored to them and their needs.
Union sums up its offering up simply, in their trademark frank tone: ‘Rent a room, always ensuite, on your terms – bills included & no deposit.’
Bills included
It’s easy to understand exactly why all-inclusive bills would appeal to people living together. Utilities can be an all too common friction point among flatmates, so it makes sense to eliminate the nuisance of dividing payment responsibilities and paying each other back on a monthly basis.
No rental deposit
Deposit-free rental schemes are becoming increasingly popular, especially in developments catering to Union’s particular demographic. Scrapping the need for a rental deposit can hugely improve cash flow and affordability for renters, making the entire process of applying to rent a property smoother.
Also, crucially, there’s no messy division of the housing deposit at the end of a tenancy.
Clever matching
Union’s solution to people renting the room in units from 1 to 4 bedrooms is clever matching. When signing up for a room, prospective tenants enter details about their lifestyle and personality which Union uses to place them in a flatshare with other like minds. This is an ingenious way for people moving into the city to find flatmates if they don’t know anyone yet.
Rent by the room
Instead of being locked into a contract between all tenants for the entire property for the duration of the tenancy, residents will rent individually by room. That way there’s more freedom and flexibility to leave whenever they choose without it meaning the other tenants also have to leave.
Flexible short stays
Short-stay tenancies are generally in short supply. However, as the building functions by renting by the room, it’s easy to see why a short-stay resident leaving wouldn’t be hugely disruptive. The remaining tenants wouldn’t have to leave the apartment if one tenant leaves, and when they do another tenant can simply be ‘cleverly matched’ into their place.
Union ushers in change for flat sharers
In an increasingly customer-centric world, the restrictive way that most rental contracts work is counter-intuitive to the modern lives that many city-dwelling people live. Union acknowledges flat sharers as an underserved market whose needs can be better met by rewriting the way that renting works for them.
Union’s rent-by-the-room proposition is a great lesson in remembering to put the customer first and to challenge conventions to serve your target market better.
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