Hong Kong shoebox flat owners urged to comply with shake-up after years of profits

Hong Kong’s housing minister has urged the owners of substandard subdivided flats to comply with a coming regulatory regime that is expected to cost landlords after years of huge profits.

The appeal from Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin on Sunday came two days after the government gazetted the Basic Housing Units Bill, which aims to phase out subpar living spaces.

The move follows calls from Xia Baolong, Beijing’s top official on Hong Kong affairs, for the city to “bid farewell to subdivided flats and ‘cage homes’”.

Ho said on Sunday: “When you subdivided a flat into many partitions back then, it was expensive … You still did it because [you] felt that the rental income provided a return. This was a market decision.”

She also pointed out that landlords had enjoyed years of profits as a result of their investments.

“Our society has a demand and hopes that [low-income households], when in need, can have living spaces with basic sanitary conditions and a basic amount of room,” the minister said.