Warburg Pincus, Weave Tell Co-Living Secrets to Packed House in Hong Kong

Mingtiandi held its first co-living forum in Hong Kong on Monday, welcoming more than 100 executives from real estate investors and developers from around the region.

Sachin Doshi, the CEO of leading industry player Weave Co-Living led the event, together with Warburg Pincus Managing Director, Qiqi Zhang, providing the audience of industry leaders with insights from their projects in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Following the opening session with the Doshi and Zhang, the event featured a panel discussion with experts including from Weave vice president Shashank Narayan, Baker McKenzie partner Jason Ng, Atlas Residential and Build Shanghai managing director Patrick Kelly, along with Colliers International’s head of valuation and advisory for Asia Pacific, David Faulkner.

Housing Greater China’s Mobile Professionals

During the initial spotlight interview session, Weave’s Sachin Doshi explained the market approach that allowed the shared economy startup to fill its first facility just three months after it opened in the third quarter of 2018.

Soon after Doshi’s sharing economy startup achieved that milestone, the company raised $181 million from a fund managed by Zhang’s employer, Warburg Pincus, with the US private equity giant having an option to expand that amount to $413.5 million.

In addition to its investment in Weave, Warburg Pincus has also invested in a pair of rental apartment platforms in mainland China, Nova Property and Mofang Apartments.

Rising Housing Costs Create Rental Opportunities

At the event, Doshi and Zhang made clear that while Weave has taken an approach aimed squarely at Hong Kong’s group of young, mobile professionals, the rental apartment markets in Greater China’s largest cities offered some similar opportunities.

In Hong Kong, as in Shanghai and Beijing, there is a growing class of high income professionals living outside of their home cities, who are staying single for a longer period of time than in earlier generations.

With this cashed up cohort of residents facing rising housing costs, the barriers to entry presented by the home sales markets in Hong Kong, as well as in Shanghai and Beijing, are creating opportunities for innovative companies able to offer branded rental housing opportunities.

Making Quality Easy

For Doshi, the idea for Weave sprang from his own experiences as a young professional in Hong Kong, where while working for a major international bank, he struggled to manage his rented apartment despite paying five-star rates for his home near Central.

The mismatch between pricing and quality standards, which is familiar to residents in many fast-growing markets, planted the seed for what would become Weave.

Appearing in the panel discussion following the event’s opening interview, Weave’s Naarayan explained that, having already purchased their fourth property in Hong Kong the company is looking to expand its footprint into additional markets around the region.

More Events to Come in 2020

In all the event attracted over 100 participants, including executives from top investment firms including Goldman Sachs, DBS, AEW, Heitman, Kailong REI, Townsend Group and Oaktree Capital.

Also attending were senior executives from some of the biggest real estate advisory firms, as well as leaders from developers,including Frasers Property, Henderson Land Development, Hines, Poly Global, Sino Land and Sun Hung Kai Properties.

Having completed its first forum in Hong Kong, Mingtiandi has arranged a full schedule of events for 2020, starting with a session focused on logistics real estate on Monday, 2 March. Later in the year, we will hold sessions on data centres, proptech and retail.

For updates on Mingtiandi events, please contact us here.