Addressing an important societal issue – loneliness

By: J. David Chapman/June 8, 2023

Half of 2023 is behind us. I recently was asked to speak about an interesting change I had seen in the real estate market and industry. I have been thinking about how real estate professionals are growingly being asked to solve societal issues with the built environment. Surveys indicate that one of society’s biggest problems is the loneliness of citizens. Community-driven residential is seen as a potential solution to this issue.

Community-driven residential will increasingly have a larger effect on multifamily projects as they change to reflect a new wave of renter demands. The needs for unique experiences and services will heighten and define competition. It is growingly important for building owners to build brand value around solving tenant needs. The No. 1 factor in residents’ perception of value is the sense of community that they feel on a daily basis. The second most important factor for residents to renew their lease is their relationship with their neighbors. Both of these factors relate to solving the biggest problem indicated on surveys today – loneliness.

In the past, this problem was thought to be a senior-citizen issue. I was visiting my mother, who lives in an independent living facility in Tulsa. It was interesting to analyze the effort that management was expending to build community among the residents. They get it. As a professor I also understand the importance of first-year student engagement with their community to retention. Like in senior citizen residential facilities, student services divisions of universities are tasked with building relationships that limit loneliness. We have failed to realize the importance of eliminating that same feeling of loneliness of people between the college years and the age of retirement. Today’s property managers are being asked to perform that task with the built environment.

The key to success in today’s residential communities is not the amenities, but the way the residents are encouraged to engage each other with, and around, those amenities. The amenities from fire-pits to pools, should be used to build community and encourage relationships among residents. One example I witnessed was the way residents build community at the community dog park in a high-rise apartment in Denver. The dogs turned out to be the perfect icebreaker to generate conversation among residents, build relationships, and positively affect the feeling of loneliness.

J. David Chapman is a professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).