A few years ago, Khaled Khaled was envisioning a new world order for renters: “I started telling everyone, ‘No one is going to sign apartment leases anymore.’”
He made this bold claim at the outset of a 12-month journey that took him around the world, from one apartment to the next — before he arrived at an unexpected conclusion.
It was 2019 and Mr. Khaled was living in San Francisco. A Palestinian who grew up in Abu Dhabi and Qatar, he had landed a work visa and a job with Kasa, a national short-term rental company focused on the tech industry. He was happy with the status quo of his life. “I always loved San Francisco and imagined that’s where I would end up living,” he recalled.
That is, until his brother — who was also his roommate — decided to marry, leaving Mr. Khaled with an apartment he couldn’t afford on his own. He looked around for options, but nothing felt right.
The pandemic was then at full force, introducing a host of anxieties but also an unexpected sense of possibility. Mr. Khaled, who considers himself a minimalist, put his few belongings in storage and set out to explore the world. His work for Kasa as a data analyst, which mainly involves writing code, could be accomplished from anywhere. “I figured I may just travel for a few months,” he said. “My theory was that anywhere outside of San Francisco was going to be cheaper.”
