Developer in Hong Kong offered an apartment of 12 square meters

Hong Kong - A stir was caused in Hong Kong at the end of last November by a development project in which a company put tiny apartments of just 12 square meters up for sale, located in an already completed block. The project received even more mockery when a representative of the developers stated in a local newspaper that the inspiration for the micro-apartments, intended for adult consumers, was student housing, wrote Time magazine.

Young people are unable to afford even such "mosquito apartments," as the media nicknamed them, let alone larger spaces. "You wouldn't say that (owning a micro-apartment) is a big deal, yet it is a dream for many people. Prices of everything are rising sharply," said twenty-four-year-old John Kok.

The outrageous property prices in this Asian economic center are nothing new. This January, an international survey ranked Hong Kong first among cities with the least financially accessible housing - for the sixth consecutive time. According to statistics from the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Hong Kong is the tenth country with the highest economic inequality in the world, surpassed only by places like Haiti and the Central African Republic.

During the peak of the city in the 70s and 80s, social mobility was driven by property ownership. For couples and families, it was easier to save up and pay for their first apartment. They would move within a year or two and rise on the real estate and social ladder. Today, however, property ownership has become unattainable for the younger generation, similar to what is happening in North America and Western Europe.

The rise in rents and property prices has outpaced wage growth, said Edward Yui, who is among Hong Kong's leading property experts.

The lack of personal space, whether felt or real, frustrates young people in the city. "When you want to engage in sex, there's simply no place to do it. That's a very real problem," summarized a twenty-five-year-old local politician succinctly.

The persistent efforts of the city's residents to secure their own roof over their heads or at least move out from their parents is leading resourceful developers to push the limits. There have even been apartments available for rent with so-called space modules, which unlock with a card and contain a single bed, air conditioning, and blue lighting.

The "modules" have attracted attention from both local and international press. One journalist referred to them as "luxury cage homes," referring to the notoriously cramped houses in slums where people live in wire enclosures with a single bed.

There is a surplus of 12-square-meter housing units on the market. In the second half of 2016, many residential projects emerged, all offering a large number of miniature apartments, demonstrating how developers are capitalizing on the lack of space. Some developers have become targets of criticism in the local press for the mini-apartments - they are said to offer "smaller space than a prison cell for one."

Small apartments are nothing new in Hong Kong, but previously these units were created by dividing larger units in older buildings. According to official figures, about 200,000 people live in these often poorly lit and poorly ventilated apartments. The division of larger apartments into smaller ones often happens unofficially, increasing the risk of fire, for example.