An empirical study on the personal-level factors influencing decision-making in the rental of co-living spaces in Hong Kong

Abstract

Co-living is gaining increasing popularity around the world as an innovative housing solution, and it’s no exception in Hong Kong, where housing prices have been soaring. As suggested by numerous studies, students are always said to be the target audience of co-living spaces. However, no research has been done regarding the situation in Hong Kong. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the personal-level factors that affect people’s decision-making in renting co-living spaces. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis, including a questionnaire, multiple regression analysis and semi-structured interviews, were adopted to provide a comprehensive insight into the co-living market in Hong Kong. In the multiple regression models employed in this study, nine independent variables regarding the personal background of the 246 respondents collected in the online survey are included. The models are used to find out the contribution of the personal-level factors to the eight decision-making criteria of individuals regarding co-living spaces. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with 10 of the survey respondents with diverse backgrounds to gain more insights into their thoughts on co-living. The results show that among all the personal-level factors, only race and ethnicity have no significant effect on individuals’ decision-making regarding co-living spaces. Young professionals, more educated individuals, full-time employees, single individuals with no children and those without mobility issues are found to be the target audience with higher desirability in renting co-living spaces. In addition, gender, age, education level, occupation, income level, marital status, number of children and physical mobility are found to significantly affect other decision-making criteria in both quality and quantity perspectives in various ways. Implications of this study are concluded and it is hoped that the findings of this dissertation can contribute to co-living operators to improve their offerings according to the preferences of the target audience they choose.