The married couples in Hong Kong who live apart (opens in new tab)

I'm from Hong Kong, funnily enough, and what we do with mine is that we switch every 2 years. Renting here is easy (albeit expensive), so we just move to a flat near her work, spend 2 years of me having 3 hours of bus, and then we move near mine, when I am 10 minutes away by foot and she has the 3 hours of commute per day.

What's nice is we can pay the 4000 euros per month of rent. If not we'd find a 2000 euros flat mid-way. The main issue is that hker are either too stingy to rent, or really don't earn enough to spend that much on it. Don't underestimate the number of people here who can't pay rent by sheer ideology, and live at their parents while extremely overpaid compared to Europe.

Also, as a side note, city incentives to companies come either from your salary (via taxes on companies) or your taxes, not the sky, so it's not a solution. Real solutions are sacrifice, like changing job, changing girlfriend or changing flat. Would you ask for the country to give incentive to companies to help you work 300 km apart your gf ? Sometimes life's unfair and the government isn't your mom, you'll have to solve the problem yourself.

But the problem the article tries to explain is that they live apart because they cannot afford a house at all (both live at their respective parents' and their child spends time with either alternatively).

There is a solution - start FINDING remote jobs. These companies will have to bend over backwards (I hate that term) to start offering high paying remote positions as their talent pool leaves looking for better options.

Do you live in Europe, or in the US? ("I'm from Europe" doesn't specify this.) If you're in the US, this is perfectly understandable: commutes here are hellish because of the gridlock on roads and the lack of decent public transit. But European cities, from what I've seen, are much better because they generally do have good public transit.

>World governments need to start incentivizing employers to offer remote ASAP as infrastructure in the cities is not keeping up with population growth.

A lot of work can't be done remotely. Not everyone works in software. No, what governments need to do is build good infrastructure. Population growth in cities means more tax revenue, so there really isn't a problem here, except with some governments being too wasteful and inefficient and unable to build infrastructure on a budget. This isn't the case everywhere. China sure has no problems building clean and effective subway systems. The ones in Germany and Japan are pretty great too.

This won't work, as remote work only affects a tiny percent of all jobs. Most people don't have the option due to the structure of the work; those that do are a tiny percentage of the whole.

I’d think it would strain rather than ease a relationship to be home with your spouse all day every day.

Speaking as someone who intends to have children with my partner, you're basically right about why we want to move in together. That, and it simplifies a lot of the logistics of being in a long-term relationship for us. Right now I have to haul overnight bags to her house and plan how I'm going to get fresh clothes and stuff during the week, because I'm usually spending the night at her place. But when we move in together all my things will be colocated at her place. And I'll be able to cook dinner and help take care of us, which is more difficult when living separately.

We still both recognize the need for personal space within our shared home so we are discussing how we can accomplish that as we also decide how we're going to move in together.

I think the discussion of what your goals are is a critical part of any relationship, and personally as someone who doesn't share your goals I still think it's great that you know what they are and that you've discussed them with your partner. Because the communication is actually what defines a good relationship, and not this stepwise cultural treadmill toward cohabitating and having kids.

I’m not living with my long term partner, out of choice. It has all the benefits you mention, but overall we spend more on some necessities / luxuries. For example, both homes have the same coffee making facilities, toothbrushes etc. The trade off is worth it for us. There are times when we both really appreciate having some space, it’s sometimes nice to be on my own after a long day at work.

Edit: spelling

This is a convenience afforded to you because A - you have plenty of housing available to you that is affordable and you can live apart and enjoy your space. B- you don't have children C - You don't have a need to combine income so you can have the resources needed to survive

These three options A, B and C do not apply to the majority of the population, even in the United States. Many people in Silicon Valley cannot live like this. They need the help of a partner to pay rent, care for children or simply someone to pool resources with. If there is no way to live together, it becomes a huge blocker to progressing in life. A lot of young people in America are surviving on the pooled resources lifestyle. If its not with a partner, they pool resources with parents.

> I'm not completely against eventually moving in together, but am kind of unsure when or why we usually consider it to be some sort of inevitable goal of a successful relationship that is progressing.

The reason for this is that a successful relationship produces children, and you (and they!) want both parents around.

Yes, but to get a good picture one should account for how large the geographic separation between the couples is and for what reasons? The case of spouses voluntarily living apart on either coasts of the continental USA for career reasons or to save time commuting is quite different from that of a couple within tens of miles of each other, separated involuntarily due to affordability.

Hong Kong is rather small, so living apart would seem less influenced by geographic separation (though you might have couples split in HK and mainland) due to jobs, but might indicate something like what also happens in the US that it’s economically favorable to stay together in a legal sense.

Edit: looks like in HK there is a large component of this which is caused by housing unaffordability —so couples keep living in their respective parents’ homes.

The problem in Hong-Kong for those couples is that they simply can't afford any kind of house and their parents home are already too cramped without an additional husband or wife.

> [for] a single unit within a subdivided flat

that's around 100-200 sq. ft.

The numbers you cite are in Hong Kong dollar, so 400 USD for an extremely small flat with no windows, and 1000 USD income, which really is not much when you factor basic necessities.

It's the cost of a bed in a subdivided apartment, not an apartment itself.

I don't know if we should do mandatory retraining- I would also be down for this to be a "free" day to do things like home projects, rest and recovery if you are mentally/physically ill, do some grocery shopping at a farmers' market, volunteer at a shelter or retirement home...

The 28 hour week with reduced salary combined with the 40 hours with increased salary is what we've always begged the left to do, rather than force a 35 hours to everyone, from the eager 18yo starting in life to the grumpy 65yo complaining about his back.

We need choice and opportunities, not central planning and fake good ideas, like the fixed hour rate was.

Hong Kong has many public housing estates with greatly reduced rents. It's likely the parents live in one of these. New construction has not at all met demand in recent years, so there's less and less new public housing available for younger generations to try and get. Private housing is, for most, completely out of the question. Living with parents is very common in HK.

Maybe they own it? Or else is there some kind of rent control? Where I live in Berlin it's almost impossible for older people to move, because their rent would probably increase by several times if they've been in the same apartment for a few decades.

>How are the parents affording a 2-bedroom apartment?

Gap between income and housing price are no where near as wide as they are today, where Hong Kong has been Number 1 for the past 10+ years, on a scale that nearly double the 2nd or 3rd City.

Public Housing policy were also much better in their times.

Can you elaborate on what you mean by Elon Musk for housing? What kind of solution are you aiming at? Serious question.