Rent control proposal for Hong Kong’s smallest homes could consider inflation, will respect property owners’ rights
- Moves to protect poorest families from rising rents complicated by fear of backlash by owners
- Task force hopes to initiate change, but won’t set ceiling on rent or ban substandard dwellings
Almost 100,000 subdivided flats, home to some of Hong Kong’s poorest people, could become subject to a rent control mechanism to safeguard tenants from exploitation by landlords.
The mechanism would take into account various factors, such as inflation, said Dr William Leung Wing-cheung, who heads a government task force studying tenancy control of shoebox homes as tiny as 15 sq ft.
He told the Post any moves to protect tenants under a proposed bill regulating such flats would be a “compromise solution” that also respected the rights of private property owners.
The policy must steer clear of any “disproportionate” infringements on laws upholding those rights, while avoiding worsening the housing shortage for the city’s poorest residents, Leung added.
This means the government will not set a maximum rent or ban existing substandard dwellings. But the task force’s recommendations are expected to include regulating rent increases and rolling out standardised contracts.
“If we set a rental level for everybody to observe, it would be too high-handed and the chance of infringing these laws will be there,” Leung told the Post. “That would lead to legal challenges and even judicial review, and if that happens, it will probably take years before tenancy control can be introduced.”