Charity finds cage homes cost more per sq ft than luxury flats

Some of the poorest people in this affluent city are paying rents for their run-down homes at a rate of HK$93.30 per sq ft - even higher than the rate for some luxury apartments in Southern district and Grade A offices in Central, according to research by the Society for Community Organisation.

'They are the cage men - people who call metal mesh boxes, barely big enough for a bed, home,' said the welfare group's director Ho Hei-wah.

The group's research covered 174 households staying in 54 cage homes and partitioned rooms in districts such as Sham Shui Po, Tai Kok Tsui and Wan Chai. Communal toilets and kitchens are characteristic of this kind of housing. In a cage home, one toilet on average is shared by 10 lodgers, according to the research.

Despite the financial crisis, cage-home rents have not decreased. The median rent for a cage home in 2004 was HK$40 per sq ft. That rose to HK$44.40 per sq ft in 2006 and to HK$60 this year, according to findings. And in some extreme cases, cage dwellers are paying as much as HK$93.30 per sq ft.

At Three Bays, a block of luxury flats in Stanley, the rent for a four-bedroom home of about 3,900 sq ft is HK$280,000 a month, or HK$72 per sq ft, according to the Centaline property company's website.

According to recent research by property consultant CB Richard Ellis, the average rent for Grade A office space in Central was HK$75.30 per sq ft in the second quarter of this year.