Broad Appeal Specialty Housing (BASH)

Overview

Broad Appeal Specialty Housing (BASH) is a business strategy whereby developers create modest rental homes with features that are lifechanging to a specific group of people, yet are built in ways that still appeal to a general audience.

BASH is a mutually beneficial way to help alleviate problems caused by increasingly unaffordable homeownership costs. The ultimate goal of BASH is to create a healthy, diverse rental market in which most people can find and afford rental housing that they would prefer over homeownership.

Problem

Housing costs are rising faster than wages across the globe. In the United States in 2025, home prices were the most unaffordable they have been in modern history and continue to hover near those levels. Individual homeownership is falling and corporate homeownership is skyrocketing. The situation is similar or worse in much of the Western world.

No current indicators suggest the situation will improve any time soon. On the contrary, until larger external forces change their direction, these trends will most likely continue for the foreseeable future.

For example, the work-from-home trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic means that a commercial real estate crash is all but inevitable; however, this will not magically solve the housing crisis. Turning office buildings into apartments is so inefficiently expensive that few will be converted, and of those, even fewer will be affordable.

Ultimately, as more areas of the world become uninhabitable, or at least uninsurable, regional housing supply will shrink as developed areas are abandoned without immediate replacement.

People are suffering now, but most indicators suggest that without a major intervention, these problems will only get worse, particularly for younger people. Millennials, Gen Z, and later generations will likely never catch up to their predecessors. More and more will rent for their entire lives without ever owning a home.

As economic conditions deteriorate, marriage rates and birth rates will continue to decline, increasing isolation. Depression, already at record levels among young people, will worsen. On top of these stressors, they will keep paying an increasing share of income to rent smaller and less satisfying homes. Vulnerable groups, like people with disabilities, will be disproportionately affected, and even fewer people with special housing needs will have those needs met.

As bad as these current trends are for most people, they are even more devastating for animals. When people have less disposable income, they are less likely to have a pet. When people live in smaller homes, they are also less likely to have a pet. And when people rent instead of owning their home, they are far less likely to have a pet, especially when sharing that home with others. All these factors compounding will result in surplus animals being put to death by the millions, which will be made all the more tragic by the fact that millions of people would have wanted to give them homes had they been able to do so.

This is what will likely happen soon if we do not change course, but there is still a chance to write a better future.

Theory

We can do better.

While it may be inevitable that more people rent for life, there is no immutable law dictating that renters must be unhappy about their living situation, nor that homeownership is the only path to life satisfaction.

Despite the currently bleak outlook, this confluence of modern trends has also created an opportunity for developers to build a new kind of home that better matches the needs of the current market.

Broad Appeal Specialty Housing (BASH) provides a scenario where all parties win: Housing providers, residents, and society at large can all benefit from homes that seem like an average value to most people, but that niche groups like so much that some would prefer renting them to owning a regular home.

BASH benefits housing providers.

Housing providers can earn higher profit margins with BASH than with traditional housing complexes. If housing providers successfully create homes that enough people prefer to homeownership, they can reap financial rewards that exceed the incremental costs of building and maintaining the specialty features required for BASH.

Furthermore, BASH works entirely within the confines of capitalism and existing laws. The primary incentive is increased profitability, with first movers gaining outsized advantages in their markets.

BASH provides a USP.

There are so many similar housing products available that most housing complexes have no distinct market position that is discernable to potential residents. Through specialty features, BASH provides a cost-effective, high-value unique selling proposition in a highly homogeneous market where it is next to impossible to stand out.

A combination of recent trends—including more people working from home, decreased loyalty to employers, lower marriage and birth rates, increased isolation and diminished local ties—has resulted in a new metatrend: People are more mobile than ever before. Applied to the housing market, this means that more people can and will move to a new home or even a new area if given a compelling reason to do so.

Specialty housing can provide that compelling reason—a unique value proposition that makes those in a niche audience prefer one housing development over all other competitors, regardless of other comparative differences.

BASH broadens the market.

Typical housing products appeal to only one group—the General Market—which is limited to those who have already decided to move to that general area. As they lack a USP, their housing products are compared against all others in the area by the attributes common to all housing, e.g., price, location, size, and basic amenities. For residents who don’t care about their specialty features, BASH products compete on a level playing field against other local housing products.

However, BASH products also appeal to an entirely different group—the Specialty Market—those who do value the specialty features. To this audience, BASH provides an exceptional value that puts it far ahead of the competition, particularly among those who have already decided to move to the area. However, BASH can also appeal to those in the Specialty Market who have not already decided to move to the area, but would move for the benefits of the specialty features—something no typical housing development could ever hope to do. In times of high demand in an area, pursuing this group would not be necessary; however, during leaner times, this larger addressable market ensures that BASH could maintain high occupancy even when market conditions cause local competitors to falter.

BASH lowers advertising costs.

Until recently, reaching such a niche target audience for specialty housing would have been cost-prohibitive if not impossible. But today, advertising to individuals based on detailed personal criteria is easier than ever, and generally more cost-effective than mass media advertising. This can reduce overall marketing costs since housing property managers can focus on effective, highly-targeted communication rather than trying to reach a general audience crowded with messages from every other housing provider.

Due to the rise of social media, niche groups self-organize and communicate more than ever before. Advertising to these groups is typically inexpensive, and word-of-mouth advertising within these niche groups would reduce marketing costs even more.

BASH lowers development costs.

BASH can be built for the same price as or even less than typical housing complexes.

First, because BASH does not rely on only the General Market for residents, it does not need expensive features such as swimming pools to compete for the segment of that market that values such amenities. The amount saved from not building or maintaining such common features—which are often underutilized—can completely offset the cost in specialty features that will set the property apart.

Even more impactful, however, is the fact that to the Specialty Market, the right features are valued more than extra square footage, which means that BASH can make smaller homes appealing and viable in a market that would otherwise not support it. This approach limits the appeal to the General Market, but in an area with sufficient demand from the Specialty Market, this can have the largest impact of all on profitability by reducing land and building costs while allowing more units to be built.

BASH increases resident satisfaction.

Compared to typical housing products, people feel an appreciation for, if not a connection to, a home built around what’s most important to them in their lives.

When residents enthusiastically enjoy where they live and view it as their home rather than just a place to stay, their behavior changes. The most valuable difference a change in attitude toward renting from a short-term to a long-term perspective.

The best specialty features will tangibly improve residents’ lives and enable positive routines not otherwise possible. Once people get accustomed to an upgraded lifestyle they know they couldn’t have with a typical home, they won’t want to leave.

Those who view their home as an exclusive asset they do not want to lose will take better care of their home, complain less, pay their rent on time more often, and most importantly, will live there longer.

Less turnover means fewer evictions, less repair and cleaning costs, lower overall property management costs, and, of course, less lost revenue from vacancies. Because of high transaction costs and the impact of zeros on numerical averages, it does not take a large reduction in turnover to create a large increase in profit, particularly because turnover and vacancy costs come directly from marginal profit.

BASH benefits residents.

BASH enables new and flexible lifestyles.

BASH allows people to enjoy lifestyles that would otherwise not be possible. Instead of being locked into a one-size-fits-all home design and being limited by one’s own budget for specialty features, BASH provides access to otherwise unaffordable features—features few but the wealthiest could hope to afford.

Furthermore, it delivers these features without the high transaction costs, which makes them easy to try and easy to leave behind when they are no longer useful, which makes taking on new challenges and making life changes more approachable.

Millions of Americans want pets but don’t have one, with the primary barrier being lack of of pet-friendly housing. A home built for pets would solve that problem for them. Similarly, birth rates are plummeting, but not because the basic human drive to reproduce has suddenly vanished. If there were affordable housing designed by experts to help people take care of children, it would be easier for people to take the plunge into parenthood, even in such uncertain times.

As BASH is adopted more widely, residents also gain mobility. In the above example, once the children have outgrown the features of that home, the residents can move to a home that is built specifically for families with older children, or families with pets, or whichever other specialty is most important to them at that time. People who seek variety in life—especially those who are retired—can move to homes built around sports and activities to dive in and try out a new interest in earnest to see if it’s a good fit for them; if not, they can try another. Plus, moving to a new area also becomes easier when comparable housing that meets their specialty needs is readily available.

BASH makes people happier.

Residents who take advantage of the specialty features of BASH will receive value that is superior to any other housing option. The form that value takes will depend on the specialty. For example, those living in units built for people with newborns will benefit from the safety, time efficiency, and peace of mind that come with a purpose-built nursery and a whole home designed to be child-friendly. Regardless of the specialty, residents can gain the benefits of a space purpose-built to cater to what is most important to them at a fraction of the cost required to build such a space for themselves. From this value comes greater life satisfaction, both from the specialty benefits as well as from the perceived value of those benefits compared to the cost. When people have their most crucial needs met in ways they could not otherwise afford, they can be happier renting a small home than owning a large one.

BASH fosters community.

We are living in the only era in human history in which people aren’t generally familiar with the people who live near them. BASH lays the groundwork for a social network by gathering people together who share common interests, values, or lifestyles—some factor important enough to influence housing decisions—and through the communal features, making it easier to meet neighbors. Having something important in common with multiple neighbors increases the likelihood that residents can get along with their neighbors or even make friends, and for many people, having even a single friend living close by can make a bigger lifestyle improvement than all of the other benefits of BASH.

For most residents who live in BASH but do not use the specialty features, the housing will function effectively identically to any other comparable complex; however, they will still benefit from living near those who are using them, as that added value will lead to lower turnover and a higher share of residents who have pride in their home and a vested interest in maintaining a clean and peaceful environment.

BASH benefits the vulnerable and underserved.

In the US, about 1 in 4 adults have a disability and 1 in 5 children have special health needs. For an enormous number of people, a few changes in their home environment would mean an extraordinary benefit to them without any major drawback for anyone else using the home. For many, this could give them the dignity of living safely on their own versus remaining dependent on others. Despite the size of the potential addressable audience for such housing, this market remains almost completely untapped, leaving millions without any housing built for their needs.

BASH benefits everyone.

A wide selection of broad-appeal specialty housing helps everyone, not just the people living in it. Each of the aforementioned benefits would have a positive effect on the entire community. The more housing built for those with disabilities, the more people can take care of themselves independently and the more productive the entire economy can be. Plus, the more housing options there are, the more desirable the area will be in general, which also boosts the economy. BASH also leads to less waste, both fiscal and ecological. When parents of newborns don’t need to buy thousands of dollars on baby products because those needs are built into the home, all that money can be spent on local goods and services instead of cheap imported plastic that is destined for the landfill.

The largest benefit, however, is simply that BASH will make people happier. Although subjective well-being is typically treated only as a complex output rather than an an input that can be changed for a large population, satisfaction with housing is such a powerful factor that increasing it would measurably move the needle for the overall area, which would have secondary impacts on practically every major aspect of community well-being.

Strategy

Build for the future.

The era of an ever-increasing economy is over. Wealth disparity continues to increase to record levels, and most economists predict decades of decline for the vast majority of people in the Western world. Birth and marriage rates are plummeting, and increasing numbers of young people are avoiding dating altogether. Traditional single-family homes will be an unaffordable luxury for most, as will owning a home in general. Instead, more affordable rental homes built for one or two people will be in high demand; those who build these with a focus on life essentials rather than luxury perks will be able to capitalize on these trends.

Skip the swimming pool.

Swimming pools are wastefully expensive and notoriously underutilized. The cost in land, building, and maintenance for a swimming pool could be used to build much more interesting features that truly set a housing complex apart, giving it a unique position in the market—something a swimming pool could never do.

Property managers know that common amenities like swimming pools help convince first-time tenants to move in, but first-time tenants also come with their own problems like late payments, more damage, more maintenance calls, and ultimately higher turnover. On the other hand, many experienced tenants don’t value swimming pools because they’ve lived at a complex with one before and know they’ll rarely use it.

There are so many complexes with swimming pools that there are plenty to choose from for the few for whom they are truly important, but to most, they won’t be missed. Typical complexes face market pressure to provide these generic communal features, even though they are poorly utilized, to compete with other complexes, because they are all fighting over the same limited audience of prospective tenants. But BASH is not limited to the same audience, providing better value to those who do not need such amenities and an exceptional value to those who will use its special features, so it has other, less expensive routes to fill its vacancies—ones that leads to more desirable and more profitable tenants.

Charge market rate for everyone.

Due to the extraordinary value delivered to those who take advantage of the specialty features, there is a natural inclination to charge them much higher than market rate, and to charge less than market rate for others to account for the lack of amenities commonly found at competing complexes. However, depending on the market and specialty, this will usually be a suboptimal pricing strategy.

The profitability in this model comes from high occupancy with low overhead. The specialty features will bring in renters who would not otherwise consider a building—due to location or expense—but charging them high rent or large extra fees will lower their perceived value and thwart the fundamental strategy behind the building. For the general audience, BASH will not make sense to those who greatly value common luxury features like swimming pools; these people are not in the target audience. However, within the general audience is a large contingent of experienced renters who do not value these and will evaluate BASH just like any other complex that has aspects they won’t use, i.e., based on location, size, price, quality, basic home features, etc., meaning there is no need to deeply discount for lacking features the target audience does not value anyway.

Between the normal amount of demand from the general audience and the increased demand from the specialty audience, building BASH with the right specialty at the right price point should allow operators to achieve the goal of higher-than-average occupancy rates with lower-than-average overhead expenses.

Build near other BASH.

Similar to how hotels, gas stations, and auto dealerships benefit from being located next to competitors, BASH benefits by being located near other BASH. This is because BASH appeals to a certain type of customer who appreciates the value gained from this housing model. However, the needs of each customer will vary over time.

People with dogs looking at homes built around the living needs of pets today might also be considering having a baby in the future; if there are homes built for that purpose nearby, the perceived value of both homes is increased. For those for whom the BASH model is particularly well-suited—particularly lifelong renters—the more specialty housing options within the same general area there are, the more freedom of choice they feel and the more overall value the model delivers.

Examples of BASH

Only specialties with large potential markets would make sense to develop first. However, if the BASH model were to become widely adopted, housing developments targeted to much smaller niches could be viable in larger markets.

Animal-Supportive

• Small apartments for people with cats
• Duplexes for people with large dogs
• Housing development for people with pets

Stage of Life / Accessibility / Special Needs

• People with babies
• People with young children
• People who use wheelchairs
• People who use wheelchairs and have cats
• People with limited sight
• People with limited sight and large dogs
• People with hearing loss
• People with severe obesity
• People with autism
• People recovering from trauma

Activities / Professions

Niche housing communities could be built around practically any activity or profession that could benefit from extensive home modifications or shared communal resources. Some examples:

• Remote Office Workers
• Night Shift Workers
• Artists
• Auto Enthusiasts / Mechanics
• Woodworkers
• Metalworkers
• Musicians
• Streamers
• Gardeners
• Hydroponic Farmers
• Gymnasts / Dancers / Martial Artists
• Bicyclists
• Motorcyclists
• Baseball Players
• Basketball Players
• Soccer Players
• Hockey Players
• Pickleball Players
• Extreme Athletes

Related Concepts

The co-housing concept, first introduced in Denmark in 1967, describes a collection of privately-owned homes connected by a shared space, which has resources everyone can use.

Common-Interest Developments, governed by Homeowners Associations are the most common form of housing development similar to this in the US and Canada.

The BASH model shares several characteristics with these models and aims to recreate their main advantages.

However, key differences include:

• BASH caters to more specialized interests.
• BASH is run by a separate company rather than a self-governed organization, which means...
• BASH can be rental housing, rather than for owners only, making it widely accessible and easy to use without a large commitment.