Two secular residences and an old working-class neighborhood in Porto will become in 2021 the first world unit ‘co-living’ Willa, an Israeli startup for luxury housing, with shared spaces, to combat the loneliness of seniors.
“A [‘startup’ israelita] Willa wants to dedicate herself to the generation of ’empty nester’, that is, she wants to grab the slice of the population between the ages of 55 and 75, whose children must have already left the residence, and offer them a alternative in the heart of the city, with a new way of life or even a second life “, explained to the agency Lusa Afonso Oliveira, one of the company’s spokespeople in Portugal.
The luxury housing project in a condominium, with common spaces to share among the tenants, has a total investment of more than 10 million euros and the first unit with a ‘co-living’ concept is being built in Baixa do Porto, in which it is planned to build 39 apartments, namely T0, T1 and T2.
The goal is to insert middle-aged condos into the city center and encourage locals to participate in the ‘co-living’ concept, taking advantage of the common spaces that the project will have as a restaurant open to the community.
Helping each other, sharing experiences and fighting loneliness are other missions of the project, says Afonso Oliveira.
Ending the loneliness of middle-aged people in times of coronavirus is the goal of Willa, defended Asaf Engel, co-founder of the brand and executive director of the company, in an interview given this Friday to the Israeli newspaper Israel 21 C, where he assumes that before covid-19, the “biggest epidemic in the world was loneliness”.
The first unit will be located at Rua Bonjardim, next to the Trindade Metro station and Avenida dos Aliados.
The work, with a city license obtained in late 2019, is taking place at “great pace” and should be completed in “October or November next year 2021”, if there are no setbacks due to the covid-19, Israeli investors estimate .
The work, with 3,200 square meters of construction, will respect the “facial qualities, morphology, volume of the buildings of the 19th century”, because the idea was “to take the buildings and the working-class neighborhood of the early 20th century and bring the building to the 21st century, exacerbating its qualities “, says Afonso Oliveira.
“There will be apartments for one-year leases, and there will be some apartments for shorter periods, from three to six months. A restaurant, a space for yoga and pilates classes is also open to the community, a lounge area with multi-purpose kitchen and living room with terrace on the top floor, and interior patios for the exclusive use of the inhabitants “, described Afonso Oliveira.
The option for Porto is partly due to its “teeming expat community from all over Europe and also due to the fact that the group in question, consisting of two buildings and a working class neighborhood at its rear, has all the conditions to assume itself as a startup flagship project for its unique spatial and historical qualities “, explained the local partners of Willa, Bárbara Costa and Afonso Oliveira to Lusa.
The city of Porto will be the “flag” of the first unit with a ‘co-living’ Willa concept in the world, but the ‘startup’ intends to expand in Europe looking for spaces in Barcelona (Spain), Berlin (Germany) and London (United Kingdom), highlights Afonso Oliveira.
One of the requirements for the expansion of the ‘co-living’ business is to find properties in the “center of the cities, next to cultural facilities, commerce, public transport and to provide the owners with the possibility of living in a sophisticated condominium, with common areas that allow the coexistence with the local population
The ambition of the founder of Willa is to transform this ‘startup’ into “the world’s first unicorn in the co-living market”. Asaf Engel believes that the covid-19 came to “give more strength” to the ‘co-living’ concept.
Founded in 2019 by Asaf Engel, Shanny Peleg, George Vinter and May Shur, Willa aims to fill a gap in the growing co-living market by offering middle-aged people the opportunity to live in community in an urban and sophisticated context.
The World Health Organization estimates that in 2050, of the 9 billion people living on the planet, 22% will be 60 or older (compared to 12% in 2015).
CCM // MSP
Lusa / end
– .
