Metropolis Partners with ChuangTzu to Build a Taiwan-Palau Co-Living Community via a Digital Real Estate Platform
If the future of work is digital nomadism, the future of living is co-living spaces.
Co-living with like-minded people in exotic places with flexible terms and infrastructure designed for people who aim to establish a short-term residency while working 100% digitally, has become the new trend of living in this post-covid era. It saves living costs and allows low commitments to a rental property.
What if occupants in such places can also establish a new kind of governance, such as a mini charter zone or startup city? As themed co-living spaces attract people from diverse backgrounds with a common intention or ideology, collaboration can be fostered and innovation can be accelerated. Naturally, governance of such space will evolve as the community evolves, and such decentralized and diverse energy can bring huge benefits to the region.
New residency programs for digital nomads in Taiwan and Palau
During Covid, Taiwan launched the Gold Card program. Most global citizens having at least 8 years of professional experiences and an income higher than a certain level can apply. Once approved, you can live in Taiwan, enjoy the amazing national health insurance program and fun lifestyle, and continue to work remotely at your current foreign job. This program was a huge success, making Taiwan the favorite safe bubble of many digital nomads, or let’s say, Covid refugees.
The Republic of Palau, located in Micronesia, is an independent island nation with a population that is around 20,000. But digitally, it has housed thousands of digital residents, with hundreds of thousands more global citizens waiting to become one, due to the success of a pioneering digital residency program launched in 2022, including notable Palau digital residents such as Tim Draper and Vitalik Buterin. These web3-native Digital Residents not only can enjoy rights and benefits virtually, now they can also come and live in Palau for up to 9 months per year.
Taiwan and Palau, with only a 3.5 hours of direct flight distance away, are diplomatic allies and have formed a travel bubble. Now with these new programs, this region has the potential to become the next hub of digital professionals.
Metropolis is building a real estate platform for the digital resident community
This digital real estate platform has multiple goals and angles. It is for individuals to invest or purchase a fractional ownership of real estate projects. Backers can enjoy healthy capital returns from the investment, or they can choose to stay in the property for a period of time, like a timeshare investment on-chain, utilizing NFT technology. Individuals can browse and choose properties to invest in to own a fraction, and trade these fractional ownership NFTs in a Digital Assets Exchange, or a marketplace.
The properties will be a series of co-living places, both in Palau and Taiwan, as Taiwan is one of the most popular transit points if one is to fly to Palau. Imagine a fully supplied co-living space equipped with high–speed internet and breathtaking sceneries in Palau, to be enjoyed with other Digital Residents in a country that champions ocean conservation in the world. When you crave bubbling nightlife and the best medical system in the world, you can easily hop back to Taiwan.
This digital real estate platform connects individuals wishing to help accelerate development of the nation to local real estate developers, and it bridges the virtual “Digital Nation” to the physical world. Metropolis and Chuang Tzu will help create a cross-border hub of co-living spaces, and digital-native investment opportunities for all.
Stay tuned for more details on this product!
