There are few cities that can match the drama and mystique of Hong Kong.From an architectural perspective, the urban fabric is astonishing, shaped by the hilly topography that severely limits where you can build. This leads to tall, thin, high-rise buildings like matchsticks, clustered together on small plots. The proximity means that a human scale and vibrant streetscape are retained on the ground level, things that would not be possible in the UK with minimum distance requirements between buildings.
With the city’s constrained terrain and economic success, it is unsurprising that it has some of the most expensive real estate in the world. This produced the famous ‘Nano Flat’ in the 2010s, apartments with less than 200 sqft, around the size of an average parking space. However, the government is cracking down on these, setting minimums of 280 sqft to ease the increasingly crammed conditions. Such small living spaces put greater dependency on the public realm, as residents spend more time out on the street. The generous and well-used public spaces and parks become vital to mitigating any sense of claustrophobia as well as promoting a greater sociability.
With the city’s constrained terrain and economic success, it is unsurprising that it has some of the most expensive real estate in the world. This produced the famous ‘Nano Flat’ in the 2010s, apartments with less than 200 sqft, around the size of an average parking space. However, the government is cracking down on these, setting minimums of 280 sqft to ease the increasingly crammed conditions. Such small living spaces put greater dependency on the public realm, as residents spend more time out on the street. The generous and well-used public spaces and parks become vital to mitigating any sense of claustrophobia as well as promoting a greater sociability.
As with the UK, ownership remains the aspiration for most Hong Kongers, yet the city has an impressive legacy of public housing that blossomed after the tragedy of the Shek Kip Mei fire in 1953. Around 45% live in public housing, either rented or subsidised purchase through policies such as the Home Ownership Scheme or the intriguing Sandwich Class House Scheme, now discontinued, which catered to those on middle incomes.
Today, most buyers are on floating mortgage rates linked to HIBOR rather than fixing, which will have increased costs significantly for a lot of people over the last year. However, in spite of this and high values, the market remains resilient, with stringent mortgage stress tests offsetting part of the impact from the recent rate hike.
Looking ahead, a key question remains about the many leases expiring in 2047, 50 years after the handover, and the role the city will play on the global stage. The unprecedented floods seen this summer also add the growing challenges of the changing climate to the equation.
You also can’t talk about Hong Kong housing blocks without addressing the holes in the middle you frequently see. These cut-outs are for the purposes of feng shui, supposedly to avoid blocking ‘spirit dragons’ that live in the hills and to let them pass through the towers down to the sea below.
