HONG KONG — Jimmy Au’s world shrinks to about the size of a parking space whenever she gets home.
Her cramped Hong Kong home is one of four units carved out of what was once a single apartment. Most of the space is occupied by the bunk bed she shares with her husband and son, and their sleep is often disrupted by neighbors returning late or heading out early. Au’s son often gets bruises bumping into things. Privacy is limited, with only a curtain separating the bathroom from the kitchen.
But what troubles Au most about her home is that she might lose it. Hong Kong’s government is planning to crack down on what it calls inadequate housing in subdivided apartments, mandating a minimum size and other baseline standards for homes like Au’s. A public consultation period ended on Monday, and the government is aiming to pass the rules into law this year.
The proposed rules leave many low-income residents like Au uncertain about their future in one of the world’s most expensive housing markets.
Au, a homemaker who moved from mainland China nine years ago, said her family pays about $460 a month in rent, about half of the income her husband makes from irregular renovation jobs.
“I’m afraid the rent will get so high we can’t afford it,” Au said, sitting on the bed’s lower bunk, surrounded by clothes, a fan and plastic storage drawers.
Housing is a sensitive issue in Hong Kong, one of the world’s least affordable cities. Some 7.5 million people live in a small territory that’s mostly made up of steep slopes. Just 7%, or 80 square kilometers (30 square miles), of the city’s total land is residential. The average price of an apartment of less than 40 square meters (430 square feet) last December ranged from about $13,800 to $16,800 per square meter, depending on the district.
Beijing, which sees the city’s housing problems as a driver of the 2019 anti-government protests, wants the city to phase out subdivided units by 2049. The government is also boosting the public housing supply, aiming to provide 189,000 flats over the next five years.
But some 220,000 people rely on subdivided units, including migrants, workers, students and young professionals.
Most subdivided homes are not far from the standards, the government said, but an estimated 33,000 units would need major renovations to meet them.
The proposed rules would mandate a minimum size of at least eight square meters (86 square feet), a bar the government says it meant to leave room for low-priced housing. Every unit will also need to have a window, a toilet exclusively for the occupants’ use, and a door to separate the toilet from o