Source: Gizmodo
As one of the world’s most densely packed places, Hong Kong is a vertical city. Apartments and offices stretch toward the sky, and the city of 7 million is three-times more dense than New York with nearly 7,000 residents per square kilometer. In its densest district, Kwun Tong, 57,000 people crowd every square kilometer of land.
Argyle Street, an uber-packed part of Hong Kong. Source: Yanidel
This density means that housing space comes at a premium. Landlords often subdivide flats so that they can cram in more residents (and make more money). An estimated 50,000 people live in 2-meter long cages stacked on top of each other for around $200 a month. Others live in plywood boxes – called “coffins” – stacked one on top of the other in subdivided apartment rooms. Shanty towns of homes with plywood walls and corrugated iron roofs are also sprouting on the tops of already over-crowded apartment buildings.
The people who live in these unregulated conditions suffer greatly. They are often bitten by bugs and mice that share their caged homes. They have high levels of respiratory disease as well as mental health problems. When fires break out, the subdivided apartments can become death traps. Over 200,000 people are on waiting lists to get out of such conditions and live in regulated public housing, but many of them will wait for years.
All of this is happening in the city with the highest concentration of millionaires in Asia. An influx of the wealthy from mainland China has pushed up housing prices in Hong Kong, which now has the highest level of income inequality in Asia. Hong Kong’s Gini coefficient, a measure of economic inequality, is in the same league globally as that of Brazil and Haiti.
As the pictures in this gallery demonstrate, Hong Kong is in the midst of a drastic housing crisis:
The city’s 7 million residents live one on top of the other. Source: The Atlantic While dazzlingly modern in many places, Hong Kong also has old and crumbling architecture. Source: The Atlantic 2 million of Hong Kong’s citizens live in the Kowloon district, where the population density is greater than 40,000 people per square kilometer. Source: The Atlantic Nearly 30 percent of Hong Kong residents live in public housing, including the residents of the buildings pictured here. Source: The Atlantic Apartments are frequently subdivided into tiny living quarters by predatory landlords. Source: The Atlantic An estimated 50,000 residents live in 2 meter-long cages stacked on top of each other in apartment rooms. Source: The Atlantic The rich live here, in the Opus luxury apartment building. One unit here sold for $61 million (U.S.) in 2012. Source: The Atlantic This is the kind of building an average citizen lives in. Source: The Atlantic Conditions are very cramped. Source: QZ A girl does homework on top of a bunk bed while her brother sleeps, with their parents below. Source: QZ In September 2014, tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents went to the streets to protest anti-democratic proposals from China’s National People’s Congress. Source: QZ Protestors camped in public places and drew attention from media worldwide. Source: QZ Police recently cleared protestors from streets. The protestors left without resistance and are planning next steps. Source: QZ What happens next in Hong Kong remains uncertain. Source: QZ Housing and inequality remain two of the city’s most serious challenges. Source: QZ
Hong Kong’s Housing Crisis: Soaring Buildings And Rent View GalleryCheck out The Economist's take on the Hong Kong housing crisis in the video below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AguaRoEpNuo
Thank you to The Atlantic and Quartz for the images in this gallery. Check out our other post on the Hong Kong protests and then read about the horrifying cage homes that Hong Kong's poor were once forced to live in..
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