Can widespread industrial building conversions fill Hong Kong’s housing shortfall?
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor recently announced proposals to allow industrial properties to be used for transitional housing
Industrial property owners in Hong Kong are rushing to subdivide their buildings into smaller, liveable units in the hope of benefiting from Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s recently announced proposal to allow such properties to be used for transitional housing.
The Post visited two such buildings in Kwun Tong, an industrial area where rents are cheaper by at least 37.5 per cent than other nearby residential units.
One site inside the Howard Factory Building at 66 Tsun Yip Street, a six-minute walk from Kwun Tong MTR Station, is being subdivided into five rooms, each with an individual washroom, ventilation and electric water heater.
At another site, the Post found a unit at the Everest Industrial Building – basically furnished, and not subdivided into separate rooms – offered at a larger 719 square feet in gross floor area with a washroom and electric water heater for HK$12,000 (US$1,530) a month rent, or for sale at HK$4.24 million, or HK$5,900 per sq ft.
Lam proposed allowing older industrial buildings to be converted into non-industrial use sites in her recent policy address.