Barriers to co-living space development in Hong Kong

Abstract

Many people live in small housing environment in Hong Kong, it being the most unaffordable city in the world. Co-living, an alternative for the young adults to sub-divided flats or share accommodation, emphasizes affordable rental price with interactive lifestyle and is developing rapidly after it was firstly launched in the market in 2015. The market reacted favourably and thereafter lots of Co-living space become available and often fully occupied. This research aimed at investigating the challenges faced by Co-living operators from the social, political and economic perspectives through the face-to-face and telephone interviews, to identify the barriers which Co-living operators had to overcome and the biggest challenges they experienced. Implications would then be discussed to which Coliving providers, developers and policymakers may make reference, as they may help mitigate the barriers and enhance the sustainable development of Co-living in Hong Kong. Coding and content analysis were applied as the research method. Six hypothesis were tested and the results are: sharing a toilet is not well received by Hong Kong people; acceptance of the Co-living concept is low because it is new to Hong Kong people; enhancement of social interaction is just a selling point of Co-living provider, and may not be achieved in practice; the land-use policy does not have a significant impact on Co-living operators as Co-living buildings are usually converted from hotels; the length of payback period may not be a critical factor affecting Co-living development, as the length depends on the development model adopted by Co-living operators; the payback period is shorter for renting a building from a landlord than purchasing it. In addition, it was found that the most significant barriers to Co-living development is the difficulty in convincing landlords to rent their buildings and convert them to Co-living space; it takes time to promote the concept of Co-living to Hong Kong people; and the Co-living market is increasingly competitive.