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Two secular houses and a former working-class neighborhood in Porto will become in 2021 the first global ‘co-living’ unit of Willa, an Israeli startup of luxury housing, with shared spaces, to combat the loneliness of the elderly.
“A [‘startup’ israelita] Willa wants to dedicate herself to the ’empty nest’ generation, that is, she wants to grab the chunk of the population between 55 and 75 years old, whose children must have left the residence, and offer them an 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 spokespersons of the company in Portugal.
The luxury condominium housing project, with common spaces to be shared between 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 objective is to insert middle-aged condominiums in the center of the city and encourage locals to participate in the concept of ‘co-living’, taking advantage of the common spaces that the project will have as a restaurant open to the community.
Helping us, sharing experiences and fighting against loneliness are other missions of the project, says Afonso Oliveira.
Ending the loneliness of middle-aged people in times of coronavirus is Willa’s goal, defended Asaf Engel, co-founder of the brand and CEO of the company, in an interview this Friday with 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 on Rua Bonjardim, next to the Trindade metro station and Avenida dos Aliados.
The work, with a municipal license obtained at the end of 2019, is being carried out at a “great pace” and should be completed in “October or November of 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 19th century buildings”, because the idea was “to take the buildings and the working class neighborhood of the early 20th century and bring the building to the XXI 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 hall with Kitchen and living room multipurpose with a terrace on the top floor, and interior patios for the exclusive use of the inhabitants ”, described Afonso Oliveira.
The choice for Porto is due in part to its “abundant expatriate community from all over Europe and also to the fact that the group in question, made up of two buildings and a working-class neighborhood at the rear, has all the conditions to assume as a flagship startup project due to its unique historical and spatial qualities ”, Willa’s local partners, Bárbara Costa and Afonso Oliveira explained to Lusa.
The city of Porto will be the “flag” of the first unit with a ‘co-living’ concept of Willa 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, along with cultural facilities, commerce, public transport and to offer the owners the possibility of living in a sophisticated condominium, with areas common areas that allow 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 covid-19 came to “give more strength” to the concept of ‘coexistence’.
Founded in 2019 by Asaf Engel, Shanny Peleg, George Vinter and May Shur, Willa aims to fill a void in the growing market for coexistence by offering middle-aged people the opportunity to live in community in a sophisticated urban context.
The World Health Organization estimates that in 2050, of the 9 billion people living on the planet, 22% will be 60 years of age or older (compared to 12% in 2015).
CCM // MSP
Lusa / end
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