The End of Microflats?

Can you live in a space the size of a parking space and stay sane?

Finally the trend of squeezing into inhumane spaces is ending.

Some developers who got onto the bandwagon of offering microflats are now left holding the bag, as many have several units that still haven't been sold and buyers are demanding more space for their buck.

A staggering ratio of two of every three homes built in Hong Kong since 2016 were built this year, of these 976 units, 461 were still unsold, most of them microflats.

The trend started in late 2014, with demand so high and not enough flats available, some developers started carving up big flats and making them less than 200 sq ft and charging up to 14 percent more when another block of flats were released into the market.

Flats in Tuen Mun that were subdivided even smaller

The highest price for a microflat was set this past May when a 190-sq ft flat from developer New world Development in Sai Ying Pun was sold for HK$6.52 million, or an eye-watering HK$34,315 per sq ft.

And can you believe that one developer was thinking of making flats less than 100 sq ft and selling them for HK$1 million in Tuen Mun, but then logistically it was impossible for construction workers to be able to physically fit the flat with all the amenities necessary.

In the end the developer squeezed out 356 units in a 19-storey building, which meant an unbelievable 29 units per floor at 130 to 140 sq ft each -- smaller than a standard parking space at 134 sq ft or a 20-ft shipping container at 158 sq ft.

Another developer, Filipino tycoon Lucio Tan's Eton Properties was ordered by the Hong Kong Lands Department to stop leasing co-living spaces at the prestigious address of 53 Shouson Hills.

18 luxury flats at 53 Shouson Hill were subdivided into 500

Eton had converted three luxury properties into more than 500 subdivided units, measuring between 60 and 1,200 sq ft with rent starting at HK$4,000 a month. The authorities ordered Eton to return all 18 flats to their original design.

One young couple, Joshua Lin, 27 and his wife, bought a tiny 160 sq ft flat in North Point. He took out a mortgage to pay for half of the HK$4 million cost of the flat, his parents helped him with the remainder. His mortgage payments are HK$8,500 a month.

"It's a challenge to fit a bed and a wardrobe into such a tiny apartment," Lin said, where the living room measures 97 sq ft. While the one-bedroom flat should be turned into a studio, it's worth more if it has a bedroom...

It's already a challenge for one person to live in 160 sq ft, let alone two people. Is this what Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor had in mind as a way for young people to establish their lives in Hong Kong?

It's enough to depress and frighten them away from the prospect of trying to earn enough to get a bigger flat, and to have children.

Owning a micro flat because that's all they can afford is hardly something to aspire to...