In pictures: rooftop living in Hong Kong

‘The rent is so high out there, how can we leave here? It costs at least several thousand [Hong Kong] dollars, we cannot afford it,’ said Su Xingyun, whose family of four lives in a tiny two-room rooftop hut which is under a government removal order. Anthony Wallace/AFP Photo

Ms Su’s neighbour Quang Xuan, 55, a refugee from Vietnam who works as a handyman and has lived in his rooftop home for 10 years. Anthony Wallace/AFP Photo

Ms Su is seen here walking up with her children to their rooftop hut. Anthony Wallace/AFP Photo

Their chipboard and corrugated iron home is one among a dark warren of around 10 shacks on top of a 10-storey building in the working-class Sham Shui Po neighbourhood. Anthony Wallace/AFP Photo

Precarious rooftop houses have for years offered refuge from an unaffordable Hong Kong property market, but some of the city’s poorest residents now face losing their makeshift homes as the government seeks to dismantle them. Anthony Wallace/AFP Photo

Many rooftop homes were built in the 1950s, when there was an influx of immigrants from mainland China and few building restrictions. Anthony Wallace/AFP Photo

While there is no exact record of the number of rooftop residents, there are more than 170,000 substandard homes throughout the city, according to authorities. Anthony Wallace/AFP Photo

The government says they are not safe –– and many of those who live in them agree. Anthony Wallace/AFP Photo

The government says its campaign against ‘unauthorised building works’, which include rooftop homes, is in the interests of public safety. Anthony Wallace/AFP Photo

But the pace of rooftop removals is now outstripping the ability to rehouse due to a lack of coordination between the buildings and housing departments. Anthony Wallace/AFP Photo

The buildings department removal notice, issued in 2012, does not give a timescale for eviction. But what is certain is that the illegal homes will eventually be torn down. Anthony Wallace/AFP Photo

Hong Kong’s rooftop dwellers may have some of the best views in the city, but their ramshackle dwellings are frequently battered by typhoons and the summer heat, prompting authorities to issue removal orders due to safety concerns.