hong kong is the most expensive city in
the world
to find a place to live
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but while many of the apartments sit
here empty as investments rather than
homes
how why chit struggles to afford his 30
square foot
box that's a fourth
the size of a parking space
the average rent in the city is nearly
twice that of london
and sales prices seem to have no limit
a penthouse in this building set the
record for the most expensive apartment
in asia per square foot
when it sold in february
so what's the impact on the population
and
why is hong kong so expensive
how why chit pays 360 us dollars a month
to share an apartment with 18 other
people
this is an upgrade
his old apartment was so small he
couldn't stand up
here
more than 200 000 people live in these
subdivided apartments known as
coffin homes
these coffin homes are controversial but
the government struggles to stop prices
from rising
that's partly because only a small
fraction of hong kong's land is
developed
can you guess how much land we have used
for our build up area
less than one quarter of hong kong's
land is built out
and only 3.7 percent is zoned for
high-density urban living
you can argue that it's more like an
artificial shortage
it's all rooted in hong kong's colonial
past
it was designed to be a low-tax
business-friendly hub and that model
continues today
until 1947 only expatriates were allowed
to live on the hills overlooking hong
kong
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but now it's home to billionaires and
business moguls
the government owns the vast majority of
land in the city and sells long-term
leases for private use
through auctions the sales from those
auctions
continue to set records in february
the 1.25 acres of land with these two
buildings
sold for 935 million dollars
unfortunately in our city housing has
been seen as a commodity
and people bite it up um you know and
and try to use it as an investment tool
for multi-millionaires in hong kong 78
of their assets are in property alone
it highlights a problem for cities
around the world as real estate has
become
a store for wealth the average space per
person in hong kong is less than
half of what it is in new york city yet
hong kongers pay almost four times as
much for property as new yorkers
housing prices have been so high that
it's really beyond the
affordable threshold of many families
here's what 1.9 million dollars can get
you in hong kong
okay please come on in with a sliding
door so
you can shut it if you like for the
privacy
this kitchen is really like fun to know
walking wardrobe
this is the bathroom with a standing
shower
i would say is quite
efficiently done this apartment may not
seem like much
but each square foot is worth over four
thousand dollars
granted it does have an amazing patio
purchase prices have stabilized recently
due to new policies political unrest
and the global pandemic before that
properties more than tripled in value in
just 12 years
on average a hong konger would need to
save their full salary for 20 years in
order to buy a home at these prices
renting is the only option for many
giannis hui's rent is 640 dollars per
month for 120 square feet
it's the most private space she's ever
had
she's part of what's known as the
sandwich class she makes too much money
for public housing
but can't afford to buy
some in hong kong want to develop unused
industrial areas in the new territories
known as brownfields but the government
went a different way and proposed
developing a series of artificial
islands built from reclaimed land called
lantau tomorrow vision it's not a good
solution it's not a sustainable solution
the project has drawn criticism from
environmental groups and almost
half of hong kongers object to the
development
while the government is building up the
brownfield sites only 27 acres would be
used for public housing
the solution should be a properly
strategically
ecologically planned new territories and
not
another reclamation but for many
residents in hong kong
improvements can be measured in just
centimeters
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