Coloc’Montreal | Rooms in the city for students

Many young people have to leave the family nest for their studies and find themselves a little lost in unfamiliar urban environments. Sensitive to their situation, Jérôme Thuillier created Coloc’Montréal to offer them luxurious rooms and a friendly living environment. With Résidence St-Antoine, his project comes to life.

Passionate about renovation, interior designer Jérôme Thuillier has been helping people with their residential design projects for several years and also invests in real estate by renovating old houses with the aim of reselling them.

In 2022 and 2023, the increase in renovation costs and interest rates will complicate this type of negotiation and Mr. Thuillier is analyzing the market to find other interesting avenues in his field. “I thought about short-term rentals, but there are a lot of restrictions now in Montreal and a lot of competition in the regions.”

It was ultimately the search for accommodation by one of his French cousins ​​that gave the designer the idea for a new project. “He was supposed to do an eight-month internship in Montreal and he asked me for help finding him a place to stay,” says the Parisian.

While doing his research, he realized that student residences with services were developing, but often in large buildings. “I found the concept inspiring, especially if I did it on a human scale within a house. We know a lot of couples in France whose children have to go study abroad and as parents, we hope to be able to accommodate them comfortably,” notes this father of four children. He then bought a single-family home last January for a reasonable price, a few steps from Concordia University, then launched his new project which he calls Coloc’Montréal.

Promote exchanges

Before purchasing the house, Jérôme Thuillier contacted the municipal services to find out if it was possible to change the purpose of the building to make student rooms. Since the concept remains that of a family home, there are no specific rules, unlike a rooming house, where each tenant has their own kitchenette. At the Résidence St-Antoine, students share the kitchen, dining room, living room, laundry room and terrace.

These shared rooms facilitate meetings and avoid isolation for the young tenants. They can all gather around the large table to eat together if they wish, but each has their own pantry and space in the refrigerators and freezers.

A modern design

To adapt the premises to their new purpose, the designer redivided the spaces. “Some rooms were very large and others very small. The idea was to create four rooms of identical size (approximately 12 m² each) that share two bathrooms,” he explains.

The larger rooms have been kept, but redesigned, and some walls have been removed to create spaces in the spirit of a modern suite. “We have two suites of about 22 m² each which include a lounge area, a desk area, a double bed and their own bathroom.”

The whole thing was revamped and the owner also took advantage of the work to redo the air conditioning and heating system with the help of the LogisVert program grant.

Additional services

In addition to these luxurious spaces, there are maintenance services, since a cleaning company takes care of cleaning the common areas every week and the rooms twice a month. Towels and sheets are provided, the former being changed every week and the latter every two weeks. Room prices start at $1,275 and suites start at $1,675 for one person and $1,875 for two people, all inclusive (rent, electricity, water, heating, unlimited high-speed internet, cleaning services).

“It is important to do regular monitoring to properly manage all the associated services and have some control over the state of the premises. Here, we are not in a tower block that accommodates students, so there is a more human side,” explains Jérôme Thuillier, who makes a point of presenting the place to students and their parents by videoconference to reassure them.

A project that could have offspring?

This pilot project is very recent, so it is impossible to discuss its profitability at the moment, but if the experience is conclusive, Mr. Thuillier plans to create other Coloc’Montréal residences.

According to him, it is important to bring together certain points to maximize the success of such an enterprise. “The main thing remains the location, which must be close to major schools and the metro. The proximity of the BIXI is also a plus, because there are many bike paths in Montreal,” he lists.

Then, he adds, you need to have a real estate broker with good advice, a designer or a design vision, and then an architectural technologist if necessary. “Of course, you also need to make yourself known, so we created our website that we distribute on social networks, particularly in groups in France, then we went to each of the schools to let them know about us.”

Visit the Coloc’Montréal website