<div id="readability-page-1">Hongkonger Chan Sai-chiu considers the 60 sq ft subdivided flat he rents to be home, going out of his way to make the cramped space in Sham Shui Po’s ageing Yee Wa Building more liveable by repainting the walls and setting up his own kitchen. The 72-year-old considers the flat’s HK$3,000 (US$383) rent to be a perfect fit for his tight budget, as he lives off about HK$5,000 from social security payments and receives a rental subsidy of HK$2,500. The building also suits the retiree, who is chronically ill and struggles to walk, because it has lifts and is only 500 metres (1,640 feet) away from a local wet market. But Chan was caught by surprise last December, just in the middle of his two-year contract, when landlords for the building gave more than 200 households three months to move out. The decision was prompted by renovation plans to ensure the properties complied with the Basic Housing Units Ordinance, which takes effect on Sunday. The new law stipulates that only “basic housing units”, referring to certified subdivided homes that meet the new minimum standards, can be leased on the market. But authorities are allowing landlords to lease substandard properties while getting four years to make rectifications. “The owners have exploited our rights. I have to stand up for myself,” Chan said. “Under the new law, unless the government has accommodation arrangements for tenants, there will be evictions forever.” The Yee Wa Building case is just the tip of the iceberg since lawmakers voted to approve the new regulatory regime last September.   As the Basic Housing Units Ordinance takes effect, advocates and professionals have called for ensuring a stable supply of temporary accommodation for subdivided housing tenants likely to be uprooted, along with a comprehensive enforcement plan to plug loopholes. There are currently about 220,000 residents living in subdivided homes. An earlier government survey also estimates that around 33,000 subdivided flats – 30 per cent of the city’s total – would require significant fixes before they could be deemed basic housing units. In the case of Yee Wa Building residents, authorities stepped in a month after the eviction was announced. But the issue has yet to be fully resolved. The Housing Bureau deployed an NGO to offer help after Chan and tenants made headlines in January. While the owners claimed to have earlier offered a three-to-12-month grace period to tenants, the bureau said the landlords were still exploring the arrangement and that the NGO would assist residents in moving to temporary housing or seeking other private properties. According to the bureau, as of late February, among the 138 households it had contacted, 43 had applied for transitional flats, 10 had moved to light public housing, and 39 had their applications approved to stay at a hostel offering single-person rooms just a five-minute walk from their old homes. Angela Lui Yi-shan, a community organiser at the Society for Community Organisation, noted that some building residents had already been evicted before such incidents had come to light. Such residents had moved to other substandard homes in the district, meaning that they would be uprooted again when the operators decided to fix the flats to meet legal requirements. Lui said low-income individuals and two-person households, such as the elderly and single-parent families, would be hit hardest under the new regulatory regime.  Lui said such residents could only rent small, substandard properties with rents of about HK$3,000 and could not afford a basic housing unit, which must be at least 86 sq ft, have a proper window and come with an individual toilet, among other requirements. She noted that rents for subdivided flats of a better quality were naturally higher, and their leases could increase by 5 to 15 per cent following renovations. “Those with the lowest purchasing power and or the most underprivileged may have to resort to renting a substandard flat on the black market or resort to bed-space flats,” she said. “The law aims to improve living quality … but we need to observe whether the living quality has been downgraded in some cases.” Tenants affected by the new law can apply for temporary housing, subject to availability. Residents who have waited for a public rental home for at least three years can apply for the light public housing homes built by the government, while others can apply for flats under the transitional housing scheme introduced in 2018. Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin earlier said around 4,000 transitional flats were reserved for affected subdivided flat tenants, and was exploring increasing the supply of such homes in urban areas. As of December, around 16,690 transitional flats are in operation, and another 2,700 are set to be built by 2027. Lui said that the government could only eradicate substandard housing and regulate the subdivided housing market effectively with sufficient housing supply and strong enforcement, as tenants tended to stay quiet rather than risk losing their homes. “Tenants tend not to report substandard properties as they can lose their homes, especially when they may not find a resettlement suitable to their needs. It is not ideal if the report burden lies on tenants,” she said.     Robin Leung Chi-tim, the immediate past president of the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors, echoed the need for a comprehensive enforcement plan, as authorities would only start taking action from March 2027. He said authorities would have a list of operators registered for the three-year grace period, but they would be kept in the dark about landlords who did not apply and were leasing their properties illegally. Leung also observed another possible loophole after the grace period, as the new law only regulated two or more subdivided housing tenancies in a flat. A homeowner could claim that they only leased one subdivided home and were living in the rest of the space, but were actually letting out their properties to several tenants, he said. “It can be difficult to prove. Officers have to go undercover. Authorities have to devise effective enforcement actions,” he said. While many of his neighbours have since moved out, Chan said he found relocating to transitional housing in the New Territories inconvenient and expressed reluctance to share a kitchen with other tenants in a nearby hostel. He has queued for public rental housing for three years and is eligible for a light public home, but he does not know when he will be allocated a temporary flat. “It can take eight or 10 months. I have nowhere to go,” Chan said.</div>

03037

07300

02800

83115

07500

07200

159920

09115

03115

00HSI

<p>The new Basic Housing Units Ordinance in Hong Kong is leading to evictions of tenants in subdivided flats, as landlords must comply with new minimum standards. Many residents, like 72-year-old Chan Sai-chiu, face displacement due to renovation plans. Advocates are calling for stable temporary housing solutions for the 220,000 residents affected. The law aims to improve living conditions, but low-income tenants may struggle to afford compliant housing, potentially leading to further instability in their living situations. The government is exploring options for transitional housing to assist those impacted by the changes.</p>

Are new Hong Kong subdivided flat standards triggering a wave of evictions?