At the beginning of the year, real estate development and construction company groups “Eika” and partners in Kaunas city “Etapas group has started implementing the first new generation community housing concept in Lithuania, which will open its doors in September. The first project of this type is “Solo Society student house, where Lithuanian and foreign students coming to Kaunas to study will live.
Changing consumer attitudes dictate changes in the real estate market
In February, an administrative complex in the center of Kaunas, Kęstučio g. 36, was purchased and reconstructed to accommodate student accommodation services. Modern student housing has been installed here. The changing attitude of consumers towards real estate means that other market participants and the products they offer must change. “Real estate is becoming a service, a part of the sharing economy, a space that is needed to perform a certain function and that space does not necessarily have to belong to its user.” – says EIKA General Director Domas Dargis. In the first stage, the complex will have 150 rooms, which will be occupied by Lithuanian and foreign students this fall, and the reconstruction of the entire complex should be completed in 2019 and students will be offered another 90 rooms for rent.
Solo Society– combination of community and private life
The first communal housing project of Eika and Etapas group is the Solo Society student house. “This project will be intended for a very targeted group of users – students, but we do not rule out the possibility that other Solo Society communal living projects may appear in other cities of the country and beyond in the near future, where living spaces will be available to everyone,” EIKA CEO Domas Dargis reveals possible future plans. Students usually choose between renting a dormitory or an apartment, but in the first case, privacy is lost, and in the second, community is lost. Solo Society student house aims to offer a solution that unites both of these ideas – living together with the community, while maintaining one’s privacy. The complex will have many common spaces for leisure and study: leisure and quiet study areas, a library, spacious kitchens, a gym, and privacy will be ensured by comfortably furnished rooms of different sizes with mini-kitchens and a sanitary unit.
With just over a month to go until opening, occupancy is at 80 percent.
Solo Society will not only offer a roof over its head, but will also strive to ensure the full comfort of its residents: high-speed internet in rooms and wireless internet in common areas, maintenance and cleaning of common areas and rooms, self-service laundry, indoor parking, a closed courtyard and a terrace with a panoramic view of Kaunas city. Seminars, creative workshops, culinary lessons and other community-building initiatives organized here will help diversify social life. Great attention will be paid to the safety of residents – only its residents will be able to enter the building, and video surveillance and recording cameras will be installed in common areas.
Solo Society has started communicating with universities, student representatives, colleges and other educational institutions in Kaunas. Solo Society student houses already have 80 percent occupancy. Students from Sweden, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Israel and New Zealand, as well as Lithuania, will settle here from September. Total investments in the project will amount to 7.4 million EUR.