Lawmakers have passed legislation regulating Hong Kong’s notorious subdivided flats, with enforcement efforts set to begin in 2027 and landlords able to register their properties from as early as next March.
The Legislative Council on Friday morning approved the Basic Housing Units Bill, which requires all subdivided flats to meet new standards for “basic housing units”.
These include a minimum size of 86 sq ft, a ceiling height of 2.3 metres (7.5 feet), proper windows and at least one toilet per unit.
Landlords will be able to register their subdivided flats with authorities starting in March next year and will have a 36-month grace period, from March 2027 to February 2030, to bring their properties into compliance.
To encourage landlords to apply early to register their properties for rectification, authorities from March next year will waive or reduce recognition fees for the first three years of the policy.
“The rental market will not have much room for growth, given the coming supply of public homes,” Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin said in Legco.
She added that subdivided flats with the worst living conditions were expected to be eliminated by the market.
Xia Baolong, Beijing’s top official on Hong Kong affairs, earlier called on the city to “bid farewell to subdivided flats and ‘cage homes’”, and city leader John Lee Ka-chiu said in his policy address last year that about 30 per cent of the city’s 110,000 subdivided flats were “improper” and needed to be phased out under the legislation.
The government also previously said that some tenants of existing subdivided flats could move into ready basic housing units, while others could live in one of the 189,000 public flats set to be built in the coming five years.
Lawmakers, who started debating the bill on Thursday, expressed support for the legislation, saying it could improve living standards for lower-income families while also urging the government to minimise the risk of landlords passing conversion costs onto tenants.
Lawmaker Scott Leung Man-kwong said he was hopeful authorities would adopt clear, template-based guidelines for basic housing units, rather than relying solely on text-based standards.
He also raised concerns that the cost of converting properties to meet the new standards would be transferred to tenants.
“I hope the government can provide a suggested decoration cost and price for owners as a reference,” Leung said.
Providing such a price would help minimise the chance of tenants being stuck with the expenses for the changes, he added.
Lawmaker Wendy Hong Wen suggested the government provide a display of the basic housing unit template for owners to follow, making it easier for them to convert their rooms.
Legislator Gary Chan Hak-kan called on authorities to continuously modify and reinforce the standards based on the actual conditions.
“Authorities could adjust the exact standards of the basic housing units due to the evolving situation,” he said.
Lawmaker Doreen Kong Yuk-foon agreed, saying the government would gradually need to review the standards as more flats became available in the future.
“The basic housing unit standards will have a beginning phase, a changing phase and an eventual end phase,” she said.
Hayson Chan Hin-hay, chairman of the Hong Kong Basic Housing Units Operators Association, said he expected most of the flats that were smaller than the required area would quietly exit the market after the grace period.
“Taking myself as an example, the flats of mine which are smaller than required, I will not rent them out as subdivided flats after the grace period, but rather as whole units,” he said.
Some landlords earlier described the regulatory regime as “troublesome” and did not rule out the possibility of withdrawing from the market as some of their properties fell below the minimum size requirement.
A landlord who rents a subdivided flat without valid registration and recognition faces a maximum penalty of a HK$300,000 (US$38,562) fine and three years in jail, along with a daily fine for ongoing offences. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
