How small can they go? Henderson Land to release Kowloon flats starting from just 161 square feet

Henderson Land Development is set to release more of Hong Kong’s tiniest flats.

Apartments in its Seven Victory Avenue project in Ho Man Tin start at just 161 square feet and could go on sale as early as this month. The expected completion date is the last day of 2018.

The building, located in Kowloon West near Kadoorie Hill, will have 250 units ranging from 161 to 390 sq ft in size, over half of them single-room studios. The others will be two-room or open-plan apartments.

The smallest unit at Seven Victory Avenue will be even tinier than the 163 sq ft flat - the smallest on Hong Kong Island - unveiled yesterday at the launch of Henderson’s One Prestige development in North Point.

Mark Hahn Ka-fai, general manager of sales at Henderson, said the development is in “one of the most prestigious locations in Kowloon.”

James Fisher, director of market analysis and analytics at Spacious Hong Kong, said the current increase in the number of small flats in the city has been spurred by high property and living expenses combined with “stagnant” incomes. He believes it will become a long-term trend as developers reduce apartment sizes in order to provide affordable units.

“It’s just algebra right, solve for X,” he said. “If your income is staying the same and the price per square foot is going up, there’s only one thing left to come down, and that’s the square footage.”