The Institute of Future Cities study interviewed 66 households in subdivided flats over the past six months and found that since 2013, the rent-to-income ratio has increased by 12 percent to 41 percent.
Meanwhile, the average living area per person has dropped by almost 20 square feet to 47.8.
If tenants lived in average-sized flats two years ago with the same rent and earnings rates as today, 72.8 percent of their income would be spent on rent, which rises to shocking 114.8 percent for a five-person household.
Speaking to the SCMP, associate director of the institute Edward Yiu urged the government to find short and long-term measures to address the problem, stating, “The size is even below the minimum standard of 70 square feet in public housing.”
A possible solution pushed forward is for the government to build more public rental flats and provide temporary accommodation for those waiting.
However, by the end of March this year there were still almost 300,000 applicants waiting for flats, with more than half of those listed as low-priority non-elderly single people.
The average time for an applicant to be offered a public rental flat is 3.3 years for general applicants, and 1.8 years for the elderly.
Photo: Benny Lam/SoCo
