Got one million dollars? Then you can afford a 209-sq ft apartment in Hong Kong.
SOCIETY
Shoebox home in Hong Kong sold for $1 million
That’s smaller than the area you’d get if you combined two parking spaces.
An apartment in the city’s upscale Pok Fu Lam neighborhood sold for $1 million this week, according to its developer.
That price translates into $4,800 per sq ft – a record price for Hong Kong’s so-called micro-apartments.
The studio flat consists of an open area that serves as living room, bedroom and dining hall, plus a corner bathroom.
Another 310-sq ft apartment in the same building, constructed by Kowloon Development, was recently sold for $1.4 million.
Construction site of the Pok Fu Lam apartment building.
Photo: Sam Tsang
Hong Kong has been the world’s least affordable property market for eight years in a row, according to research group Demographia.
In 2017, a typical apartment in the city cost a staggering 19.4 times the median household income, Demographia’s annual International Housing Affordability Survey showed.
Not many Hongkongers can afford a proper apartment any more
By January, home prices in the city had been rising for 15 months in a row, the longest stretch of gains since 1993.
Skyrocketing property prices have led to a boom in tiny apartments — also called nano flats, capsule homes or shoebox homes.
Many Hongkongers can only afford to live in subdivided apartments like this.
Photo: Edward Wong
At least 2,100 apartments under 200 sq ft are expected to be completed in Hong Kong between 2017 and 2020 — about 510 units every year, according to property consultant JLL.
That is five times the annual pace between 2014 and 2016, JLL said.
Take a look at a similar 263-sq ft apartment, developed by Henderson Land:
Thomas Lam, senior director at Knight Frank consultancy, said the frenzy for micro-apartments would continue due to ever-rising housing prices.
“These tiny studios cannot even accommdate a small family,” Leung said. “But not many Hongkongers can afford a proper apartment any more.”
The skyrocketing home price in Hong Kong.
A new record for Hong Kong’s smallest apartment is expected to be set in September when Chun Wo Property finishes constructing several 128-sq ft units with a design inspired by university dormitories.
The developer said it is aiming to attract young Hongkongers buying their first property.
