How Do You Scale a Real Estate Brand Without Venture Capital? - Luca Bovone (Habyt)
Innovation and Private Capital x auliumShow Notes
Luca Bovone raised €90 million, expanded across continents, then realized he'd funded the wrong model. Co-living in residential buildings created operational nightmares—shared kitchens, regulatory constraints, and impossible unit economics at scale.
The pivot to flex-living changed everything: commercial real estate instead of residential, full apartments instead of rooms, fewer buildings with 300+ units each instead of scattered 10-room properties. Bovone walked away from Asia-Pacific, sold off France, Portugal, and Spain portfolios, and let the U.S. entity file for insolvency after a failed turnaround attempt. The new model targets undervalued locations outside city centers—places too far for hotels, too plain for premium residential—and layers in co-working, gyms, F&B, and flexible lease terms from one day to one year. Institutional buyers like Bain Capital and Greystar are acquiring these assets at residential cap rates despite hotel-like cash yields, validating the thesis that concentrated bets on large properties beat venture-backed geographic sprawl.
**Key Discussion Points:**
🏢 Operational complexity killed the co-living model—managing 200 buildings of 10–15 rooms each across cities proved unsustainable compared to single 300-unit properties
💰 Venture capital incentivized growth at all costs; balance-sheet capital from developers now funds expansion while equity stays small and focused
🌍 Geographic concentration beats global ambition—selling Asia-Pacific and U.S. operations allowed laser focus on fewer, higher-conviction European assets
🤖 AI compressed deal underwriting from three weeks to 25 seconds, but human reception staff remain core to the guest experience
🏨 The new hospitality real estate play: cheap land outside cities, hotel-like revenue upside, residential exit multiples
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About Luca Bovone [CEO & founder of Habyt]:Co-founder and CEO of Habyt, a flex living platform operating across Europe and previously Asia, which he started in Berlin at 25 with a single seven-bedroom apartment. He led the company through multiple acquisitions including Common Living in the US, served as manager on Common's Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing in May 2024, and recently sold Habyt's Singapore and Hong Kong operations to Mitsubishi Estate while deepening direct operations in Europe through the Flex product.About Aulium:Aulium is a video show exploring Innovation and Private Capital, hosted by Thomas Viguier.Connect with us:➡ Aulium on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aulium➡ Thomas Viguier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tviguier/
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