Building H Index

 

Common

 
 

INDUSTRY

housing

Category

apartment management and development

products Profiled

apartments managed by Common

 
 

H-Score

 

73

ranked 2nd of 7 within housing industry

ranked 2nd of 37 overall

 
 

product description

 

Common is a property manager that designs, leases, and manages multifamily properties. Common delivers private rooms within shared suites in homes across ten cities and for over 5,000 residents. Living arrangements include “coliving,” microunit, and traditional apartments.

Common’s core offering is to reduce your cost of living through coliving arrangements, in which residents have private bedrooms, but share common spaces such as kitchens and other living areas. 

Today, Common’s portfolio consists of 50% coliving and 50% conventional units. Their signed pipeline is 40% coliving and 60% conventional units. Generally, coliving units are units with three or more bedrooms and conventional units are studios, one and two bedrooms.

 
 

influence on health-related behaviors

 
 

EATING

slight positive influence

 

Proximity to grocery stores with healthy food options can positively influence eating habits. One metric of a neighborhood’s food environment is whether it is characterized by the USDA as “low access to food stores.”(1) In a sample of Common locations reviewed by Building H, only 4% were in low-access neighborhoods.

The Common team has blogged about how to snack healthily(2) and what to expect from coliving, but little mention is explicitly given to food.

 

opportunities:

  • Review the food environment – both access to fresh foods and prevalence of unhealthy food outlets – as part of the decision to build or buy in a certain neighborhood. Use the potential of aggregated demand that a new apartment property would create to encourage investment in local fresh food outlets like grocery stores.
  • Facilitate home cooking through:
    • experimentation with provision of indoor hydroponic gardening appliances
    • establishment of community gardens within properties
    • partnerships to provide discounted memberships to local community-supported agriculture (CSA) farms
    • partnerships to provide discounted grocery delivery services or meal kit subscriptions
    • experimentation with the promotion of food sharing apps to help residents share excess groceries
  • Monitor the use of the communal kitchens to understand the impact on residents’ cooking (and eating) habits.
  • Look into scheduling, coordination and planning software to facilitate communal cooking.
 
 

PHYSICAL ACTVITY

moderate positive influence

 

The walkability of a geographic location has an influence on the physical activity of its residents. In a sample of Common locations reviewed by Building H, approximately 96% were in neighborhoods rated as “very walkable” or better by Walk Score.(3) Nearly 60% were rated as “walker’s paradise.” Not one of their locations were in neighborhoods rated “car-dependent” by Walk Score. Mean Walk Score was 90.3; the median was 93. A higher Walk Score rating for a given neighborhood has been associated with increased physical activity among neighborhood residents.(4)

In advertisements for specific properties(5), Common does note access to walking and exercise opportunities nearby. Some of their properties offer fitness studios or gyms for tenants to utilize.

 

opportunities:

  • Review the walkability, bikeability and access to transit of a neighborhood as part of the decision to build or buy in a certain neighborhood. Use the potential of aggregated demand that a new apartment property would create to advocate for and encourage investment in sidewalks and bike lanes, if not already available.
  • Publish data on the walkability, bikeability, and access to transit of properties.
  • Provide bike sharing and scooter sharing services at properties.
  • Where feasible, build pocket parks within properties.
 
 

Sleeping

neutral influence

 

There is no indication that Common does anything in the design of their properties to enhance their residents’ sleep experiences.

To the extent that Common’s locations and property designs influence physical activity and time spent outdoors, they could indirectly influence sleep as both of those behaviors are positively correlated with better sleep.

 

opportunities:

  • Promote healthy circadian rhythms by
    • designing for exposure to natural light through larger windows, skylights and solar tubes where possible
    • installing circadian LED lighting systems that adjust color temperature to mimic natural light throughout the day
  • Monitor indoor air quality, as it has shown to influence sleep(6) and mitigate where it is poor.
  • Provide smart thermostats and appropriate instructions in order to optimize nighttime temperatures for better sleep.
  • Use soundproofing and other acoustic design techniques, such as sound-absorbing materials, to reduce noise that could interfere with sleep.
 
 

Engaging Socially

moderate positive influence

 

Approximately half of Common’s units are based on co-living, which, by its nature, facilitates frequent social interaction and cooperation.

 

opportunities:

  • Create indoor and outdoor common spaces that facilitate both planned community events and casual social interactions among neighbors.
  • Offer regular social programming – events designed to bring neighbors together.
 
 

Getting Outdoors

moderate positive influence

 

Neighborhood walkability is a key driver of spending time outdoors. The walkability of Common’s locations (discussed above in physical activity) has an influence on how much time its residents spend outdoors.

Access to public parks can also encourage people to go outdoors. In the sample of Common locations reviewed by Building H, 96% were within a 10-minute walk from a public park.(7)

At various properties, Common offers blog posts and suggestions(8) about where residents might want to go outdoors in their area. Some of their properties also offer community gardens and activities where residents can get outdoors.(9)

 

opportunities:

  • Pursue opportunities noted above related to neighborhood walkability, bikeability and access to transit.
  • Pursue opportunities noted above related to outdoor amenities such as playgrounds, community gardens and walking paths.
 
 
 
 

Notes

 

  1. The “low-access to food” designation means that a significant portion of residents of the Census tract are more than one mile (if urban) or more than 10 miles (if rural) from the nearest supermarket or large grocery store. See U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. Food Access Research Atlas: Measuring Access to Food.

  2. Christina Yoh. Common’s Inside Sales Rep David Novo Ranks the Best Snacks in the Office. Common Blog. July 3, 2019.

  3. Walk Score is a methodology for assessing the walkability of a location, using a proprietary algorithm that factors in walking proximity to amenities and pedestrian friendliness. Walk Score is based on a scale of 0-100. Locations scoring 49 or under are considered “car-dependent;” Locations scoring 70 or more are rated “very walkable.” Those scoring 90 and above are labeled “walker’s paradise.” See https://www.walkscore.com/methodology.shtml for more on the Walk Score methodology.

  4. E. Twardzik et al. Walk Score and objectively measured physical activity within a national cohort. J Epidemiol Community Health 2019;73:549-556.

  5. See, for example, the website for The Edge by Common.

  6. Tereza Pultarova. Trouble Sleeping? Air Pollution Could Be the Culprit. Live Science. May 24, 2017

  7. Based on a geographical analysis using ParkServe, a tool provided by the Trust for Public Land.

  8. See, for example, the Common Edenhaus website. 

  9. See, for example, the website for the Common City Gardens Property.