Coliving — the Next Level Serviced Apartment Type of Living in Hong Kong?

Imagine renting a fully furnished bedroom with a beautiful shared living space, communal kitchen, and other shared facilities in prime locations in most major cities like Hong Kong. Also, there’s a sense of community when you walk into the space. It’s called coliving. According to JLL, the rise of sharing economy has helped drive coliving to be a hot topic with more individuals renting accommodation with the coliving experience. It sounds cheesy but there are people who want to do more than live in a space, they want to experience life together with new friends.

For a young professional trying to make a home in an expensive city like Hong Kong, it’s a great deal. Dash Living, a serviced living operator, launched its first coliving project in 2019, Dash Coliving Carnarvon. It has shared common areas such as living rooms, kitchens with private bedrooms and private bathrooms. However, for most of the tenants at the space, it is more than just a place to live, it’s the opportunities to meet new faces and be part of a community.

The Community in Coliving

Community is a key part of the culture in a coliving space. Tenants see familiar faces every day. There’s no doubt this increases the number of interactions between tenants living under one roof, who eventually become friends, second family, boyfriend, or even business partner. Finally, a sense of community starts to cultivate.

The design of a coliving space plays an important role in facilitating the interactions and spontaneous encounters to start a sense of community. Take Dash Coliving Carnarvon as an example, each of the shared spaces is designed to give tenants a purpose to be there. That means when someone cooks in the shared kitchen, most likely they’ll be cooking alongside another tenant next to them and in most cases, make the decision to say hello to spark a conversation. There’s a large sofa and TV for lounging with your neighbour and a balcony for relaxing with a couple of individuals who live on the same floor.

Most coliving operators in Hong Kong have a cleaning crew to keep shared spaces tidy.

A Space for Individualism

For many people, privacy is a necessity at home. A report from Ikea indicates privacy is one of the most important needs at home. You might be surprised to find out but coliving is one of the housing solutions for individuals who value personal space and community. Everyone has different needs — to recharge, develop personal growth, or explore new hobbies. Take Dash Coliving Argyle as a reference; each unit is designed for each tenant to have their privacy with their own studio space and private bathrooms in all units and a shared common lounge and a terrace to mingle with tenants.

Dash Living hosts monthly events for tenants to join for free such as rooftop exercises and calligraphy workshops.

Coliving Is Happiness, Productivity, and All the Good Stuff

You may not realize it, but friendships play a crucial role to health, happiness and wellbeing as we age according to Time magazine. With shared communal spaces and amenities in one building, it’s a great environment for city dwellers to form new connections. A great example of how coliving enables tenants to make quality connections is taken from Dash Coliving Carnarvon. A small handful of tenants have trouble meeting new people. The older they got, the harder it got. During their stay, some tenants started as neighbours, but overtime a deep connection was formed. They’ve made travel plans for next year and are joining new activities every month such as baking classes.

To help us get a better understanding of what is a coliving experience from a tenant’s perspective, we interviewed a handful of tenants from Dash Coliving Carnarvon. Most agreed on the following points about the Dash coliving space:

• They get more out of life when they stay in coliving
• They have made new friends in the space
• They feel happy living there
• The location is impeccable

Whilst connecting with people in a meaningful way, you’re paying for the convenience of living in a city center location. Now imagine you’re living in Tsim Sha Tsui, one of Hong Kong’s busiest neighborhoods in Kowloon. As you walk out of the building, you’re surrounded by a cluster of restaurants ranging from local eateries to bubble tea shops at your doorstep. If you’re walking to the MTR, which is a 2 minutes walk away, you’ll notice dispensaries selling medicine and healthcare products, Hang Seng Bank and fast-food restaurants like Mcdonald’s before getting to the station. If you want to relax with friends on a Friday night in your neighborhood, The One shopping mall is within a 2 minutes walk away where you can buy groceries to cook with friends, shop around or find a restaurant to eat at — there’s an endless of choice cuisine to choose from.

Try to make time to check out your neighborhood before moving in — being near a supermarket and public transport is always handy!

COLIVING IN STYLE, CONVENIENCE

Sharing an apartment with a group of strangers might sound like dorms for adults, but the concept is far from it. In most cases, you enjoy the benefits of renting a serviced apartment in a coliving space. Meaning there’s weekly housekeeping, the units are fully furnished as well as additional facilities.

We know it can be tricky to add your personal touch to your bedroom when you’re renting, but there are ways to work around it without the need to repaint the walls. You don’t need to be a professional interior designer to do this — the bedroom is a blank canvas with basic essentials, and the rest of the room is for you to personalize. At Dash Living, there have been tenants who turned their units into a princess sanctuary by adding fairy lights, a bohemian swing chair, cushions, and a cozy rug. There’s also a beautiful shared kitchen and lounge with all the necessary items, Yes, that means a microwave, fridge, an oven and a stove with appropriate cookware to get the job done most conveniently. By providing shared common spaces, tenants can focus on the good stuff in life from binge-watching their favorite movies with your friends to or reading a book while resting on a sofa.

Donki Donki and Living Plaza by Aeon is popular for shopping destination for bedroom decorations and within a 3 minutes walk from Dash Coliving Carnarvon.

Perks, Perks, and Perks

Not only do coliving operators provide fully furnished units, but they strive to offer a well-rounded and affordable living experience. With Dash Living as reference, the moment tenants move into their units, they get access to 40+ lifestyle benefits with selected vendors in the neighborhood.

For tenants staying in Dash Coliving Carnarvon who has yet to sign up for a gym membership, there’s a 2-week trial pass to access Goji Studios and a free gym pass to use at King’s Fitness. During check-in, tenants receive a welcome pack with coupons including a HK$100 grooming voucher to spend at Handsome Factory, one of the coolest barber shops in town, a styling session at Amika and more. Of course, everyone’s interest differs, and if baking to bake is a top priority, Bakebe is offering a 10% discount for Dash Living tenants to enjoy. If tenants are looking for a restaurant to eat with friends (or their coliving neighbors), there’s plenty of dining outlets with discounts to choose from.

Dash Living offers 40+ perks which gives tenants over HK$1500 value plus gym access for your entire stay.

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