33-year-old pays $2,100/month to live with 23 roommates in Brooklyn—take a look inside

In a city as notoriously expensive as New York, it's common to see people in their late 20s and early 30s living with roommates to help manage the high cost of living.

But Ishan Abeysekera has taken that to the next level with his current living situation in Brooklyn: a communal building that he shares with a whopping 23 other people.

"When I say I have 23 housemates, people are like 'What? That sounds wild,'" Abeysekera tells CNBC Make It. "But actually, it's quite nice."

The 33-year-old engineer lives in a space operated by Cohabs, a company that offers fully furnished bedrooms and communal living spaces for stays as short as 6 months or as long as a year or more. In addition to locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, Cohabs has properties scattered across European cities including Madrid, Paris, London and Milan.

Abeysekera actually didn't set out to have so many roommates — or any roommates at all. When he first moved to New York City from London in late 2022 for work, his job put him up in a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan's Financial District.

When he set out to find his own apartment, he looked all over the city for a one-bedroom that would fit into his monthly rent budget of $2,000 to $3,000. On a whim, he looked up communal living in Brooklyn and came across Cohabs.

When he went to tour the available room in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, he was immediately sold seeing some of the residents having dinner together in the dining area.

"How do you really meet people when you're new to a city? This seemed like a great way to do that," he says.

As a result, Abeysekera put pen to paper and moved in. He currently pays $2,100 a month for his room. His monthly payment also covers WiFi, utilities, household supplies, a weekly cleaning