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What homes look like in the world's most expensive city

Hong Kong living: overcrowded and overpriced
The most expensive city in the world
Hong Kong’s property market is sky-high
An eye-watering view
Hong Kong's record-breaking prices
Little luxuries
Design solutions
Packing in the young professionals
Nano-flats are the norm, not the exception
Living on top of each other
Hong Kong’s tiny ‘coffin’ apartments
No space to move
Documenting conditions
Subdividing bigger apartments
Smaller than a parking space
Lockdown nightmare
New government rules
Hong Kong's cage homes
Forced removal
Basic shared facilities
No alternative
Extreme slums
Hong Kong's middle class
Co-living quarters
Desirable extras
Inventive solutions to the housing issue
OPod Tube Houses
Ingenious 'wandering' home
Challenging concepts
Building an island to house a million people
A large-scale solution?
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Society for Community Organization / Benny Lam

Hong Kong living: overcrowded and overpriced

Hong Kong is among the world’s most prosperous cities, but it’s also a tiny coastal area struggling to cope with its enormous population.

Housing 7.5 million residents in an area of 427 square miles (1,108sqkm) is a challenge that requires inventive solutions, from luxury micro-apartments built into old drainpipes to the tiny coffin and cage homes of the city’s poorest. Yet, it remains the most unaffordable place to live in the world.

 Click or scroll on and discover the ingenious – and desperate – housing solutions in this overcrowded city...

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Kim Easton-Smith

26 March 2025

Features

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