Hong Kong's tiny homes are a housing horror; thanks to creative landlords

Even with city's new plan to regulate subpar flats, landlords are simply not motivated to improve their properties' squalid conditions.

- Magdalene Fung

When I first moved to Hong Kong from Singapore over a decade ago, I lived in a 9 sq m subdivided flat in the heart of the commercial district of Wan Chai.

My home, with a floor space of roughly 2 1/2 Ikea king-size beds, cost HK$7,350 (S$1,250) in rent each month.

It had a bathroom and small windows that opened out onto the narrow, smelly alley below and looked into the stairwell of the building, where a topless beer-bellied middle-aged man would sometimes stand smoking, peering into my flat.

At first, the novelty of living like a local in a Hong Kong shoebox apartment kept me going.

I lived the minimalist life, cleaned and decluttered constantly, stored most of my belongings in stacked plastic boxes, cooked using only a small rice cooker or microwave, and tolerated my neighbour's deafening snores that I could hear through the door at night.

But eventually, the cramped space, dust balls, damp air and mouldy walls got to me.

Showers in winter were simply dreadful as the small storage heater supplied only a minute of hot water at most before needing another five minutes to reboil.

Fresh laundry had to be hung up all around the flat and would take forever to dry; there was no space for a dehumidifier.

A silverfish infestation was the last straw.

Two years into my experiment, I moved out in a hurry.

Today, that subdivided flat would be considered an acceptable home under Chief Executive John Lee's new rules to regulate Hong Kong's subpar housing.

In one of the top 10 wealthiest cities in the world, more than 215,000 people live in homes of appalling conditions - and they look set to continue doing so despite fresh regulations.

The new rules, announced at Mr Lee's annual policy address in mid-October, require landlords to ensure subdivided flats are at least 8 sq m - a floor space of two Ikea king-size beds - and have a toilet and a window.