Coworking space in Hong Kong and the ‘traditional leasing model’
The co-working market in Hong Kong has grown exponentially over the last decade.
Those unfamiliar with the industry might think that the coworking office providers have split the industry between themselves, and that we all control the office leasing market. That assumption would be incorrect. The biggest competitor to all coworking providers (in Hong Kong) are the Property Groups that offer ‘traditional office leasing’.
However, facilitated by the disruptive nature of the Internet, the traditional office leasing model in Hong Kong has now become irreversibly altered and is clearly outdated.
So, in summary, I’m sure we all agree that this ‘New Order’ benefits the consumer: SME’s, Entrepreneur’s, Startup’s and Freelancer’s.
What’s this post about?
This post is a nod of respect to our peers who have helped shape the shared office industry in Hong Kong as we know it.
At Campfire, we believe that competition is good.
When coworking spaces compete with each other, consumers get the best possible price and quality of services. Antitrust laws, which are prevalent in Hong Kong, encourage companies to compete so that both consumers and businesses benefit. Another reason we believe competition is good is because it boosts innovation. Where one lead, the others tend to follow. We see ourselves as leaders in our industry and as we’ll see in this post, we’ve set the standard for many services and adherence to quality which our peers now have to follow suit.
We’re passionate about our industry and we love our home city of Hong Kong, the original City of Hustlers (as we affectionately call it), and the competitive and vibrant coworking industry wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t for the companies we’ve listed below; companies that pushed the envelope and remained true to the entrepreneurial spirit of the communities they serve.
* We’ve decided to list only Startup Coworking Spaces in Hong Kong that are real local players since they’re the ones that have truly shaped the industry in our city.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the coworking spaces we most admire (in alphabetical order):
#1 Blueprint: “The Pioneers of Coworking Within An Accelerator Programme”
Blueprint, owned and operated by Swire, was a unique “no cash, no equity” accelerator and coworking space on Hong Kong Island. The Swire Group, which is defined as being “diversified conglomerate” is a well-known company to local Hong Kong folk; indeed they are one of the largest property owners in the city.
Originally, Blueprint was launched as an accelerator for B2B startups, however this was later changed to B2C as well.
We’ve added Blueprint on our list because it pioneered the “Accelerator and Funding” Startup Coworking Space in Hong Kong.
Blueprint 2/F, Dorset House, Taikoo Place, 979 King's Road, Quarry Bay, Hong KongFor more information, here’s their website.
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#2 BLOOM: “Solid Effective Branding”
BLOOM is second on our list. For those interested in Coworking Space in Kowloon they’re likely to have heard of BLOOM. BLOOM is a co-working space and brand developed and managed by Jumpstart.
We’ve added BLOOM into our coworking resource because of their commitment to the community and for having educated the Hong Kong SME market into the benefits of Coworking compared to the traditional office leasing model. BLOOM is the result of decades of experience within the ‘serviced office’ industry.
Bloom Unit 905-6, 9th Floor, SilvercoRoad Tower, 2, 30 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong KongFor more information, here’s their website.
#3 Central Park: “Close Proximity To Green Areas = A Good Idea”
We’ve added Central Park because of the location they chose.
Close to the MTR station in Tsim Sha Tsui, this Kowloon Coworking location is situated directly opposite Kowloon Park. Central Park reviews cite the proximity to the park as being a key driver for their choice in decided in securing this coworking spot.
Central Park 11/F, 35-37 Haiphong Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong KongFor more information, here’s their website.
#4 Eaton Club: “Helped Educate The Market About Quality Membership”
Eaton Club touts itself as being “a Social Work Club” and, similar to Campfire, is a hybrid between a private member’s lounge and a workplace. We’ve added Eaton Club into our list of admired coworking companies because they’ve helped us spread the positive message of combining work and pleasure.
Every coworking centre in Hong Kong is different. When it comes to comparing Campfire to Eaton Club we are different in that we offer a larger choice of amenities: by Q2 2019 we’d have launched our newest coworking location in Whampoa and would have opened three more floors in Wong Chuk Hang.
Eaton Club 5/F, Champion Tower, 3 GaRoaden Road Central Hong KongFor more information, here’s their website.
Get the latest 2019 prices [HINT: You’ll be impressed]
#5 Garage Society: “Community Leadership Is Vital”
The Garage Society has been around since 2014 and in that short time they’ve created a loyal community and for that we’d like to congratulate them.
Here at Campfire we’re all over our community too, indeed, we believe that having a happy and productive environment is key to the success of our business and our members businesses.
Throughout 2018 and into 2019 the Campfire management team have been expanding into new and exciting areas all designed to help our members quality of life within the Campfire ecosystem. In Wong Chuk Hang for example we’ve launched three new floors of real estate which include a children’s creche, a gym, an indoor football pitch, libraries, at least half a dozen new creative meeting rooms, a photographic studio, and a speakers pitching area!
Garage Society 25F & 26F, 2, 12 Queen's Road West, Sheung Wan, Hong KongFor more information, here’s their website.
#6 Kafnu: “One Of The First To Merge Luxury With Coworking In Kowloon:”
We’ve added Kafnu because they’ve added a ton of value to our industry by being one of the first to introduce the concept of luxury within coworking. Whilst most seek cheap co working space in Hong Kong, Kafnu went the other way: they merged their operations within the Kerry Hotel in Kowloon. Kafnu is, in their own words “a community where entrepreneurs and creatives live, work, play and learn”.
Kafnu Kerry Hotel 紅磡湾, 38 Hung Luen Road Hung Hom Hong KongFor more information, here’s their website.
#7 Metro Workspace: “Competing With Campfire Within The CoLiving Space”
Located in various locations throughout Hong Kong (including Central, Admiralty, Wan Chai, Tin Hau and Kwai Chung) the Metropolitan Workshop coworking space is another respected provider in the city.
The reason why we’ve decided to acknowledge Metro Workspace is because they, like us here at Campfire, have also entered into the coliving space. Campfire was the first to enter this market, and as we stated at the onset of this resource, we consider competition to be a good thing because we have to keep improving the service that we are offering our members.
Metropolitan Workshop 17/F, Tesbury Centre, Wan Chai, 28 Queen's Road East Wan Chai Hong KongFor more information, here’s their website.
#8 Mettā: “Pioneers Of Cool”
Mettā (Pali) or maitrī (Sanskrit) means benevolence, loving-kindness, friendliness, amity, good will, and active interest in others, and within the coworking scene here in Hong Kong, especially the ‘Startup’ world, Mettā’s got a great name.
Strictly speaking, Mettā is not a ‘coworking space’; think of it more as a ‘club’ in the private sense. There are several tiers of membership and you have to have your application approved before you can join.
From experience, Mettā is a hive of activity and networking opportunities as well as putting on some great events.
We’ve added Mettā on our list of “best coworking spaces in Hong Kong” owing to their commitment to creative networking that generates results. Also – the venue is in a fantastic location in Central, Hong Kong.
Mettā 21/F California Tower, 30-32 D'Aguilar Street Central Hong KongFor more information, here’s their website.
#9 Paperclip: “Events & Pioneers Of Mentorship”
Paperclip has been around for several years now. One of the things we really like about Paperclip and thank them for their efforts is the emphasis that they’ve placed over the years on organizing excellent events as well as offering mentorship to their members.
Paperclip Nam Wo Hong Building, 148 Wing Lok Street Sheung Wan Hong KongFor more information, here’s their website.
#10 Playground: “Credited For: Activity Based Workplace”
Playground (another well-known coworking space on Hong Kong Island), pioneered the, as they refer to it, the ‘ABW’ ‘Activity Based Workplace’. This concept lends itself to a merger of lifestyle and work space. Simply put, playground contributed to our industry by placing significant emphasis on the importance of ‘well being’ which is something we relentlessly pursue here at Campfire.
On the subject of ‘well-being’ we’ve launched a bunch of new services in 2019 for our members; such as, a gym, an indoor football pitch, a meditation room, libraries, quiet zones, F&B, an indoor children’s playground, a creche – and so much more!
Playground 11/F, 244-248 Des Voeux Road Central Sheung Wan Hong KongFor more information, here’s their website.
#11 theDesk: “Pioneered An AI ‘Green’ Coworking Space”
We’ve added theDesk to our list because they’ve made a massive effort to become one of the first ‘Green’ co-working centres in Hong Kong – and we hope that this sets a new standard. Like theDesk we’ve also insisted that we use products and technologies that reduce our carbon footprint, and we’d like to thank theDesk for also making this a ‘soon-to-be-standard’ feature of coworking in 2019 and beyond.
theDesk 511 Queen's Road West, Sai Ying Pun Hong KongFor more information, here’s their website.
#12 The Great Room: “Cool Design That Inspires Us All”
The Great Room, with coworking space in Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore, is a company we admire due to their attention to detail and efforts to create creative spaces for coworkers and SME’s.
Their shared office spaces are (in their words) “inspired by the best offices, luxury hotels and business clubs”.
The Hive 21/F The Phoenix, 23 LuaRoad Road, Wan Chai Hong KongFor more information, here’s their (main) website.
#13 The Hive: “Credited For Being Around Since The Early Days”
The Hive or ‘TheHive’ is one of the largest and best known coworking spaces in Hong Kong. Out of all the coworking providers listed in our resource we identify the most with these guys – not in terms of our depth (since we offer more services than they do) but in terms of the persistent pursuit of ‘community’.
We’ve added TheHive to our list because without them the Hong Kong Co-Working industry would be a very different place. As a testament to their efforts and longevity in the shared office marketplace we’d like to offer them a salute and add them at number 13 on our list.
The Hive 21/F The Phoenix, 23 LuaRoad Road, Wan Chai Hong KongFor more information, here’s their (main) website.
#14 The Loft: “Servicing Underserved Districts of Hong Kong”
If there was a trophy to the 1980’s logo of the year we’d happily give it to The Loft – just kidding – actually we quite like the logo here at Campfire. What we also like about The Loft is that they serve areas of Hong Kong that otherwise would be underserved by coworking providers in Kowloon.
The Loft San Po Kong, Sheung Hei St, 2-4號號 3 字 樓 B 室 Tontex Industrial Building Hong KongFor more information, here’s their website.
#15 The Work Project: “Won Awards On Design”
The Work Project has been around a while now and they’ve been doing a great job at setting high standard amongst coworking companies in Hong Kong.
We’ve added them on our list because they’ve won design awards for ‘work-life’ balance and that is something that we respect at Campfire.
Like ‘The Work Project’, Campfire share a similar mission in that we developed our coworking spaces in Wong Chuk Hang, Taikoo Shing, Quarry Bay, Causeway Bay and Whampoa with the intention of changing the way our members feel about coming to work.
The Work Project 15/F, Soundwill Plaza ll - Midtown, 1-29 Tang Lung Street, Causeway Bay Hong KongFor more information, here’s their website.
#16 Wynd: “Niche & Fun”
We’ve added the Wynd because we love the location! The Wynd is located in Central, Wyndham Street, and it reflects everything that Hong Kong is: energetic, vibrant, ‘built-up!’ but also niche and cool. We’ve learned a few things from the Wynd and we thank them for their contribution to the startup coworking community in our city.
Wynd Yu Yuet Lai Building, 10/F, Wyndham Street, Central Hong KongCongratulations for having made it to the bottom of this post.To celebrate, find out our latest 2019 Coworking Prices
For more information, here’s their website.
What do you think?
Do you guys agree with us? Should we add other players? Are we accurate with our descriptions and analysis?
We’d be particularly interested to learn more about your thoughts towards the coworking model vs the traditional leasing market. Do you see a future for the traditional office leasing market?
Let us know!
