New York City, USA - October 20-21, 2020 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Various of cityscape
2. Various of house-renting website Common
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Brad Hargreaves, CEO, Common (partially overlaid with shot 4):
"Co-living is all about affording a nicer place, a nicer apartment in the neighborhood you want to live in, at a more affordable, at a lower price point than a studio or one-bedroom apartment in the neighborhood. The people who are moving into co-living, the people who are living with roommates, the pandemic didn't suddenly make them wealthier. They can't suddenly now afford a studio or a one-bedroom apartment where they couldn't before. The people who were living with roommates prior to COVID are still living with roommates today."
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4. Various of apartment buildings
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5. House-renting website Common
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Joseph Pullen, real estate agent, Corcoran (starting with shot 5/partially overlaid with shot 7):
"I don't have a crystal ball. I can't put a timeline on it, but I don't think it'll be that long. We saw how the city emptied out. It was surreal, but we've seen it start to come back to life, right? With the restaurants and the activities. So I'm very positive about it."

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FILE: Florida, USA - May 2020 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
7. Various of medical workers using swab to collect samples for COVID-19 test
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New York City, USA - October 20-21, 2020 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
8. Apartment buildings
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Brad Hargreaves, CEO, Common (partially overlaid with shot 10):
"If you look at historical pandemics, cities have bounced back much faster than that. But we're probably going to project at least one leasing cycle, so if a vaccine is available next summer, my prediction is that we will see a recovery in the rental markets in 2022."
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10. House-renting website Common
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11. Apartment buildings
12. House-renting website Common

U.S. venture capitalists are cashing in on the upsurge of apartment sharing popularity against the backdrop of a gloomy economic scenario amid the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic.

The number of initial jobless claims in the United States fell to 787,000 in mid-October, and the labor market continues to recover at a slowing pace as U.S. remains the country with the most confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide.

Aiming to make use of the huge thirst for shared rents amid the gloomy scenario, the CEO of Common, Brad Hargreaves, has been blending in the trend and tapping into the growing co-living market.

Hargreaves said they recently raised 50 million U.S. dollars to provide shared accommodation for people earning between 45,000 U.S. dollars and 70,000 U.S. dollars a year.

"Co-living is all about affording a nicer place, a nicer apartment in the neighborhood you want to live in, at a more affordable, at a lower price point than a studio or one-bedroom apartment in the neighborhood. The people who are moving into co-living, the people who are living with roommates, the pandemic didn't suddenly make them wealthier. They can't suddenly now afford a studio or a one-bedroom apartment where they couldn't before. The people who were living with roommates prior to COVID are still living with roommates today," he said.

As the co-living market has remained relatively stable amid the ongoing pandemic, some experts predict that the trend may last for as long as one to two decades, while others argue that it may not take long before housing in cities like New York picks up again.

"I don't have a crystal ball. I can't put a timeline on it, but I don't think it'll be that long. We saw how the city emptied out. It was surreal, but we've seen it start to come back to life, right? With the restaurants and the activities. So I'm very positive about it," said Joseph Pullen, a real estate agent from Corcoran.

This is echoed by Hargreaves, who believes that the market's bouncing back is largely dependent on the emergence of a widely available vaccine.

"If you look at historical pandemics, cities have bounced back much faster than that. But we're probably going to project at least one leasing cycle, so if a vaccine is available next summer, my prediction is that we will see a recovery in the rental markets in 2022," he said.