Co-living can relieve Hong Kong’s housing crisis and help rebuild community spirit

Shared housing could be a solution for young professionals, the elderly and low-income families with no choice but to share often squalid, unsafe facilities
Any potential solutions should provide versatile living areas, green spaces to allow for stress relief and, above all, affordability to offset sky-high rents

Thomas Tang

Published: 5:45am, 5 Nov 2020

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By 2030, the United Nations predicts that almost 70 per cent of the world will live in cities. City populations are swelling through natural growth but also by new migrants coming to live in cities. With the impending growth in urban populations, how will provision of housing cope with the expanding numbers?

Could co-living be an option? With pressures on space and shifts in lifestyle among those under 40 years old, co-living or shared housing that combines private space with communal facilities is becoming increasingly attractive. To deal with a shortage of inner-city dwellings in the 1960s, Copenhagen authorities introduced this method using social housing blocks dedicated to young families.

The success of this experiment led to an established culture of shared homes in that city that prevails today. Another aspect of modern living is that many young people choose to remain single but, despite the rise of social media, encounter record levels of loneliness while experiencing difficulty forming real-life relationships.

Unsurprisingly, some are interested in the co-living model as it creates new ways of socialising. Research by the Royal Institute of British Architects backs up this point, suggesting that the introduction of a wide range of co-living models could not only help people cope with rising levels of loneliness but also the increasing need for assisted living in ageing populations.

04:11

Tiny 290sq ft temporary housing a welcome upgrade for some low-income Hong Kong families

An award-winning project in Alicante, Spain, made this a reality. It set up more than 240 affordable, intergenerational housing units in the city’s central urban areas for low-income individuals older than 65 and younger than 35.

Those advanced in age and with the greatest socio-economic need received priority, as did young people based on their low-income status as well as motivation, empathy and suitability to work in social programmes. As part of a “good neighbour agreement”, each young person took care of four older people in the building and spent a few hours of their time each week with the older residents.

Could this work in Hong Kong? It is among the most densely populated places on Earth. Hong Kong has the most people in the world living at the 15th floor or above, and if we laid all our skyscrapers on their sides we would have more than 330 kilometres of buildings – one-sixth the length of all our roads.

Wouldn’t it make sense for us to consider co-living as we have so much potential to share facilities?

Sadly, we have already inadvertently stumbled on this model through the creation of subdivided flats. There are more than 91,000 subdivided flats housing roughly 210,000 people in this city. Low-income families have no choice but to share often squalid, unsafe facilities. A co-living model for Hong Kong therefore has to incorporate features that fit our needs.

First, living space must be generous. We should redesign facilities with compact quarters to be versatile, such as with beds that double up as furniture when not in use and Lego-style building blocks that can be assembled into tables and chairs when needed and stowed away when not.

Stress-busters are important. Having interesting murals or pleasing aesthetic views will help, as will the use of green spaces within bustling areas to soothe troubled minds. The World Health Organisation reports that green spaces can contribute to addressing public health issues related to non-communicable diseases such as mental illness, obesity and cardiovascular disease.

Affordability, of course, is paramount. Can co-living help offset sky-high rents by sharing the costs as well as the facilities? From a commercial perspective, Covid-19 has forced many companies to insist that employees work from home. Given good connectivity, working from home can be effective while also helping firms avoid high office rental costs.

With Hong Kong’s housing shortage likely to persist after the pandemic, it is time for us to rethink what living and working in our homes should look like alongside cutting costs through co-sharing. The addition of technology hubs in housing estates where access to IT services is limited is an important feature to bridge the digital divide in low-income households.

02:46

Life inside a micro flat: Hong Kong's soaring house prices force young professionals into tiny homes

Finally, can we engineer a community spirit for Hong Kong? NGOs in Hong Kong are working on incentives like good neighbour credit systems whereby community activities such as minor repairs, escorting elders or looking after others’ children can be rewarded with shopping tokens or services in kind. More importantly, it helps neighbours get to know one another.

Helping the aged and vulnerable is a must in any society, so is it that onerous for us to make the leap to live together? It is a shift that could redefine Hong Kong’s identity as a world-class caring city.

Dr Thomas Tang is CEO and founder of PJ Sustainability Consulting Ltd

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