The future of co-living: how communal shared housing and spaces will change post-Covid-19 – think working from home and more cleaning
- Expect adjustments at Hong Kong co-living spaces Dash Coliving, Hmlet and The Nate to align with residents’ new expectations, their operators say
- Industry analysts are optimistic about the co-living sector, expecting sustained demand in leading cities in Greater China and Asia
Hong Kong property developer Alex Bent didn’t mean to venture into the co-living sector. But when he realised tenants at his serviced apartments weren’t using their kitchens much, it made sense to design some flats without them.
So at The Nate, a hybrid boutique development in Tsim Sha Tsui, Bent and Dinesh Nihalchand, his co-founder at real estate developer District 15, provided just six kitchens for 71 studio flats. Each flat has a bathroom, but laundry and living areas are shared.
The pair, and other providers of communal living facilities in Hong Kong, say their buildings have enjoyed high occupancy, even during last year’s anti-government protests. But will the coronavirus cause people to rethink cohabiting with strangers as less of a convenience and more of people being too close for comfort?
Like co-working, co-living offers a solution to prohibitively high rents in Hong Kong and gives the leasing flexibility important to workers trying to make it in the gig economy. In a report last year, property firm Knight Frank ranked Hong Kong fourth in Asia on a list of cities most likely to succeed in the growth of co-living, after Beijing, Tokyo and Shanghai.
The sharing economy, however, has not materialised in the way people envisaged five or six years ago, Bent says.
“There’s been a bit of a pushback in what [people are] willing to share,” he says. “Living accommodation is not like co-working. When you live in your home, everyone wants their own private space.”