A new generation is choosing to live differently. For many Millennials and Gen Z professionals, the appeal of a city is no longer a large flat in a quiet postcode, but a place inside a community — a building designed around shared amenities, flexible working and sustainable, active living. Vertical living trades square footage for proximity: to work, to culture, to the gym, and to the people next door.

A lifestyle, not just a postcode

What defines these residents is not where they live so much as how they live. Micro-living convenience, smart-home technology and on-site amenities — concierge, co-working spaces, gyms, cinemas, pet-friendly common areas — make the building itself part of daily life rather than simply a place to sleep. The result is an audience that is urban, upscale, time-pressed and highly engaged with the spaces around them.

Community is the context

Because so much of daily life now happens in and around the building, the residential environment carries a level of trust that traditional out-of-home cannot replicate. A message seen in a calm, low-clutter lobby is received very differently from one competing for attention on a busy street or scrolling past on a phone. It arrives in a considered moment, in a place residents already trust.

The building is no longer just where people live — it’s where they plan, decide and connect.

Reaching people where decisions form

This is where residential media earns its place in the plan. Abode’s screens sit at exactly these moments — as residents leave for the day, collect a delivery, or head out for the evening, in a decision-making mindset at home. Reaching an audience in that frame of mind creates a priming effect that lifts the rest of a brand’s campaign, not just the impressions delivered in the lobby.

As vertical living continues to grow across the UK’s premium developments, the opportunity for brands is clear: to be present, with relevance and trust, in the community where an otherwise hard-to-reach audience actually lives.