Subscription Living

If you subscribe to the notion that property is theft, then the shift to subscription-based living is perfect for you: we’re moving some way to a world where the concept of ownership is being fundamentally redefined.

Work from anywhre

During the pandemic, working from home has become the new status quo for many former office workers. People have spent weeks at a time working from their cramped apartments in expensive cities and enjoying none of their location benefits. Sure, some folks have already left the cities for more suburban or rural lifestyles. But work from home is only the beginning of this disruption. Soon, work from home will become work from anywhere.

The signals are already clear on the fringes, in a global subculture whose lifestyle is about to go mainstream: digital nomads. Digital nomads were the early adopters of remote work over the past decade — combining constant global travel with online careers and businesses. Rather than sticking to one place, they leverage their ability to work from anywhere to spend time in different places. Sometimes a month or two, sometimes a year or two.

Until recently, most of these travelers had a legitimacy problem. They didn’t quite fit the category of tourists, but they often couldn’t produce the complex documentation needed for a work or business visa that would allow them to spend time in a country and pay taxes there. So they existed in grey areas — visitors who make money on the internet and use coworking spaces, and hope never to end up drinking with an immigration officer at the local bar.

Housing-as-a-service

When most people consider the digital nomad lifestyle, it doesn’t take long for them to think about housing. Whether it’s the slow process of buying and selling a home or the unenviable task of finding a decent rental, the archaic systems of real estate were not designed with flexibility, mobility, or spontaneity in mind. Yet people can work from anywhere now, and Real Estate and tourism has every reason to reinvent itself to support a life of combined work and travel.

By 2035, the hotels that remain will focus more on subscriptions than nightly rates and CRAYS will redefine the global housung rental industry. Hotels in a combination with CRAYS will become another layer of vital infrastructure that helps remote workers spend time in different locations around the world.

Generation rent 

The demographic most likely to fuel this shift tosubscription living is millennials. Because what is there for them to lose, really? 

This generation entered the workforce in the lastrecession’s depths and have struggled to afford homeownership. Now, they facethe second recession of their adult lives. Millennials are also the firstgeneration to see the world through the internet lens, giving them a shared,global culture and more awareness of distant locations from a young age. 

The choice ahead is between remaining tied to a landlord ina single, expensive city and paying a subscription to travel and live in multiple locations each year. Research indicates that millennials value experiences over material possessions and flexibility above all else at work. Digital nomads show us how remote work enables people to think differently about work and place. 

The 2020s mark the beginning of a new era. Subscription living will soon be mainstream, attractive, and attainable for most remoteworkers worldwide, offering the flexibility for people to roam the world. Tourism may be dead, but the future of travel is bright. Later this decade, even as some countries retreat into nationalism and isolationism, mobile citizens will be able to choose a different path — of distributed work and global living.