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Debunking the Myth about Hong Kong Living

It’s more expensive to live in Hong Kong than anywhere in the world. It’s been ranked as the least affordable housing in the world for 10 years in a row. And by the long shot, housing price by now is 20 times higher than annual household income.

The inflated prices are forcing Hongkongers to squeeze into unconventionally small spaces that can affect their quality of life. Most of the places are no better than a parking space.

Some residences living in subdivided houses will have to share 1 room. In order to save money for the rents, they have no choice but to share with other families.

And most extreme cases, Hongkongers have resorted to homes that size of a coffin. Some buildings are turned into cage house. Cage house is a residence type, is originated in Hong Kong and popular since 1950.

The government began to build as a residential apartment but over the period of time, the residence apartment is converted into smaller rooms in rectangular units called metal cage –stacked on top of each other.

• The room usually occupied by 5-6 people with the size of one cage (2 × 0,5 meters). This metal cage is rented for HK $ 1,500-2,000 (US$200- US$255).

• Today, the cage house is still filled with immigrants, elders, unemployed, and those who do odd jobs.

• They usually use a shared bucket to wash their clothes interchangeably. Some even made their toilet as their kitchen as well. • Poor hygiene, no privacy, fighting over small things, and uncomfortable living are the most problems living in a cage house.

• Some even prefer to stay outside and sleep on the streets, subways and overpass rather than squeezing themselves in one room. Public toilets are their place for bathing and washing clothes. Some report also states that Hong Kong is not only the most expensive city to buy property in, but also “one of the most expensive places to rent, ranking third after New York and Abu Dhabi. The basic explanation why the price is so high is because of land scarcity. If seven and a half million people crumbed into a series of violence, it will gonna drive up the prices, same stories to other places where they ran out of land – high prices, high demands.

But to some experts, it’s not about land scarcity. The problem is, bad land use and management. In fact, 75% land of Hong Kong is non-built up area. Some of that are mountains and rocky and are not easy to build on. Above the land in Hong Kong, only 3.7% is zone for urban housing. It’s not because of mountains, it’s because of policy. The government owns all of the land of Hong Kong. The land that is able to be developed is mostly controlled by the government, which offers land to developers behind the scenes by tender.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong's government controls nearly half of the total supply or housing through public housing rentals and assisted home ownership purchase programs, which are intended for lower-income families. Meaning, just about half of the housing market is available on the private market. While foreigners thinks Hong Kong is the best place to live, think twice before you try. Or you might end up living on a cage.

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