Hong Kong, 22 January 2025: A lonely young lady, a middle-aged couple, a professional dancer and a songwriter at his piano – these and other neighbours are spied on by photographer LB “Jeff” Jeffries, confined to his apartment with a broken leg, in the classic 1954 thriller Rear Window. Jeff spends long days and nights shamelessly observing their lives simply to relieve his boredom, but events take a sinister turn when he begins to suspect one of them of murder …
Our city’s Housing Authority is hardly expecting anything so macabre, but it would still like to know if your fellow residents have been up to no good. It is offering rewards of up to HK$3,000 for reporting neighbours who abuse the public housing system. Typical examples include subletting, using a flat for commercial purposes, or making false declarations about income, assets or marital status.
A wad of cash in return for whistleblowing, then. Housing minister Winnie Ho is all for it and insists relations between residents, rather than being undermined, will improve as a result. “If someone is using a flat inappropriately, they are the one destroying neighbourly relations,” she counters. But what if citizens start stalking, eavesdropping or – heaven forbid – secretly recording conversations with suspects to gather incriminating evidence? Always abide by the law, she advises.
Public flats with cheap subsidised rents are home to about 800,000 Hong Kong households. Providing affordable accommodation for those with low incomes, they are much coveted. The average waiting time to obtain one is five and a half years. There are 122,000 families in the queue, many living in tiny, poor quality, subdivided flats.
Yet abuse of the system takes place. Some tenants are wealthy enough not to need a public flat, but keep it anyway. Others sublet to strangers. A tiny minority use it as a business. Progress has been made following a requirement that residents declare their assets and income every two years, which has led to the government recovering 2,800 flats in the 2023-24 financial year. The new scheme, which rewards residents when concrete evidence leads to a flat being reclaimed, is an attempt to root out the remaining offenders. It is expected to lead to a doubling in the number of tip-offs.
Not everyone is convinced. “It speaks to the government’s own view of its people: that people will only do the right thing if rewarded financially,” observes South China Morning Post columnist Alice Wu, who points out that an act of altruism now has a price tag on it. With money a potential motivation, someone might be inclined to settle a grudge or exaggerate an allegation. Our government, however, is confident the reward scheme will not be manipulated, since informers are required reveal their identity.
For offenders, however, losing the flat may only be the start of their worries. They could soon be locked up. A new law is in the pipeline that will make it a criminal offence to sublet a public flat or use it for commercial purposes. The proposed penalties are up to a year in prison and a HK$500,000 maximum fine. “We have seen cases in which flats are turned into tutorial centres, gyms or storage sites,” reveals Housing Authority member Cleresa Wong. The proposals will be debated by lawmakers next month.
Families crammed in subdivided homes, waiting patiently for a public flat, have more immediate concerns. They believe government proposals to gradually phase out the cramped units are not radical enough. Hong Kong has 110,000 subdivided flats and the administration aims to eradicate the lowest-quality ones while allowing the rest to remain – for the time being – as “basic housing units”. These must be a minimum of 86 sq ft (that’s smaller than a parking space, folks) and have an individual toilet, plus at least one window. But a poll of residents reveals only 10% think their homes meet the criteria while 60% think the minimum size is too low. The government should be setting standards based on household size, insists the Society for Community Organisation, publisher of the survey. Its deputy director Sze Lai-shan points out, not unreasonably, that a flat which meets the minimum floor space is still “extremely cramped” for a family.
Housing is also the biggest concern for the Children’s Rights Association in its annual review of Hong Kong’s efforts to help impoverished youngsters. “The government has not made much progress on its policies addressing social challenges such as poverty, the wealth gap, medical care and welfare,” opines one of the NGO’s 20 child ambassadors, 11-year-old Lau Yui. His group gives the authorities an overall score of 26 out of 100 – an improvement, at least, on the previous tally of 21.
A stone’s throw – but a world away – from the packed tenements of Yau Tsim Mong sits our city’s glamorous new arts hub, the West Kowloon Cultural District. This, too, will have housing one day, as its cash-strapped governing body – reeling from a deficit of HK$1.33 billion in 2023-24 – is now being allowed to sell parcels of land to build nearly 2,000 flats. Bullish West Kowloon Cultural District Authority development chief Wendy Gan is promising to incorporate artistic elements into the apartment blocks and inevitable shopping mall. She cites residences next to the famed Louvre in Paris as a role model. Local councillors are less sure.
In closing, we should note Hong Kong has just staged a hugely successful Asian Financial Forum, attracting 3,600 executives from more than 50 jurisdictions. It was another landmark event as our city seeks to strengthen its role as an international financial centre and, especially, a global wealth hub that attracts high net worth individuals. Currently, we are home to some 2,700 single-family offices. In this regard, our chief rival is Singapore, which seems to be doing just fine. The number of such offices there has now reached 2,000 – a year on year increase of 43% – and second finance minister Chee Hong Tat predicts continued rapid growth.
Hong Kong take note. After all, as LB Jeffries knows – and our Housing Authority proves – it pays to keep an eye on your neighbour.
Until next time, everybody!
Colin Cohen
Senior Partner
Boase Cohen & Collins
