I could buy my own house. Instead, I choose to live with a 102-year-old man

Lubosh Hanuska hasn’t paid rent in six years. Passionate about cohousing, he says he never wants to own property on his own again.

Lubosh, 61, and Will, 102, live together as housemates. Source: Supplied

Australia's housing shortage and the cost of living are putting pressure on baby boomers to downsize or find viable accommodation for the next stage of their lives. What options are available to help boomers stay out of aged care facilities in their golden years? Watch Insight episode Housing Boom(ers) on SBS On Demand.

I've always liked being near nature but also not too far from people.

However, I never thought I'd find myself living on the other side of the world in a co-living situation, but stranger things have happened.

I grew up in a small Czechoslovakian town of 2,000 people with my family of six in a large four-bedroom home with an apple orchard in the backyard.

As a boy, I spent most of my time outside: riding my bike, hiking in the nearby forest, and swimming in lakes and rivers. In the winter, I'd cross-country ski right to our front door.

I moved to Australia in 1991, when I was 27, to help my uncle with his business. It was meant to be the first part of a journey around the world; but I met someone, married her and stayed.

We owned four houses at various times over the next two decades, living with our four children in Canberra, then on the border of NSW and Victoria in Wodonga.

The home we built in Wodonga overlooked a park, which the residents of the street owned.

We had an owner's corporation managing the common property — and I think this was the first time I saw the potential in community ownership of shared spaces.

Avoiding property ownership

I bought my wife out of our two properties in 2015 when we divorced and sold them in 2019 before I travelled Europe. But I cut my trip short at 11 months and moved to Melbourne when the COVID-19 pandemic started.

At that point, I decided I didn't want to buy another property as I felt that owning would tie me down and restrict travel once the pandemic restrictions lifted.

The idea of owning land also increasingly felt wrong to me. While many of us now recognise that this whole country was stolen from First Nations people by colonisers, I feel we overlook that when it comes to private land ownership.

So, I decided to investigate different models of property ownership that would allow me to live with others and avoid owning something on my own.

I considered joining an ecovillage on the NSW Central Coast, where I had stayed several times and had even helped build some of their houses.

However, I decided it was too far from my children and too expensive for me to join.

Lubosh says that he never wants to own property as an individual again. Source: Supplied

I ended up living in a north-east Melbourne granny flat for the next two-and-a-half years, where I received board in exchange for labour.

Then, in 2023, I saw a post in a social media community group from a family looking for a housemate for their 100-year-old father named Will, so that he could continue living at home.

I met up with Will and his family, and it was an immediate click.

An unlikely housemate

Will has lived in his Melbourne home for over 70 years and is still quite independent and very mobile, but he has support workers each day to do cooking, laundry and cleaning.

I don't pay rent, but I've committed to supporting Will 10 hours a week — making sure that he feels safer living at home.

My main commitment is to sleep at the house each night in case he needs help. Going away is the only small difficulty I have living with Will, as I need to make sure that someone else (like his family or a carer) is available to stay over with him.

I live in a separate extension of the house, so I feel it's very easy to have my family and partners visit — and my kids are happy for me and my perhaps unique living arrangement.

The extension of Will's house that Lubosh lives in. Source: Supplied

It's now been two-and-a-half years since I started living with Will, who is now 102 years old, and we've developed a lovely friendship.

He is also from Czechoslovakia, so we have a lot of stories to share over meals — and we sometimes go to events at the local Czechoslovakian club together.

The arrangement is great for both of us; I still have my independence and privacy in my own part of the house, and as I'm still working part-time, I can do some of my work from home.

And even though I can afford to buy my own home, I feel good that I have avoided owning a house privately.

A cohousing future?

While I've looked at lots of cohousing models in different locations, I haven't found the right one for me yet.

In 2021, I tried to buy land in Melbourne with 20 other people to start our own cohousing cooperative, but the council found it was probably too hard and that the land was eventually sold to a developer.

I haven't given up on this idea, but I think next time, I would try to do it with fewer people. The more people you have, the more decisions you have to make.

Once I do find a suitable group of people, I will join. I would really like to build a house again — but this time, as part of a community.

I think if you live in a supportive community, you can add life to your years — rather than adding years to your life.

I see many older people struggle to stay in their homes because they don't have support in their community, but don't want to downsize or move into aged care living.

That is why I love the idea of cohousing and community living, as I don't want to be living alone in a big house, wondering what to do with myself.

If I don't find a suitable housing co-op in the city, I might look for somewhere in regional Victoria where I could live in a tiny house.

But I would much rather be able to live with people — to put my money into funding or starting a housing cooperative — than owning privately again.

That's what I see myself doing in my retirement years, before I'm so old that someone needs to come and stay with me.

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