Portugal 
Italy 
Greece 
25 March 2019 – Press Release
The MEDICI LIVING Group, the leading co-living provider in Europe and the U.S, is expanding into Spain and Portugal. It has therefore appointed Nicolas Dugerdil (pictured below) as Director Expansion Iberia. Based in Barcelona, he will be spearheading the group’s expansion and roll-out of the QUARTERS co-living brand in the region. He will identify locations and secure buildings, with an initial focus on Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon. Other cities are to follow once a foothold has been established.
Dugerdil moves over to MEDICI LIVING from the Spanish Inditex Group where he most recently held the position of Expansion Director for Uterqüe, managing the fast-growing premium fashion brand’s entire real estate portfolio and leading its international development. Between 2013 and 2016, as Expansion Manager for Switzerland, Dugerdil built up Inditex’s network of stores in the country, and between 2012 and 2013 was part of the core team rolling-out the global Radio Frequency Identification project, a technology that has had a huge impact on the retail sector. He holds an MBA from the IESE Business School.
“We want to become the WeWork of co-living in the coming years. Iberia is another important step on this journey,” says MEDICI LIVING founder and CEO Gunther Schmidt. “Home prices in both Spain and Portugal have been rising steadily in major cities over the last few years, so that affordable housing for young professionals has become scarce. With our QUARTERS concept, we will be offering just the right community and living space to fill the current supply gap.”
The company has ambitious plans for Iberia. Up to 20 percent of the roll-out funding provided by CORESTATE Capital is to be invested in Spain and Portugal adding up to 1,200 co-living beds in these two countries.
The QUARTERS brand, with its high-end furnishings and a comprehensive digital concept, is specifically targeted at young professionals from the millennial generation. The brand’s rollout across Europe has accelerated since the end of last year when MEDICI LIVING and Frankfurt-listed CORESTATE Capital Holding, one of the region’s largest real estate investment managers, agreed on a cooperation to invest €1bn of equity and debt in the coliving sector over the next three to five years.
The programme marks the largest planned investment in the history of the young asset class worldwide. A similar cooperation was agreed with the W5 Group, the family office of Ralph Winter, which aims to invest $300m in the US. MEDICI LIVING expects the addition of at least 7,300 further rooms to its portfolio until 2023. The company currently operates 1,800.
Original story: Press Release
Edited by: Carmel Drake