• A man walks in front of a residential and commercial building where the ‘coffin homes’ are located in Hong Kong. In wealthy Hong Kong, there’s a dark side to a housing boom, with hundreds of thousands of people forced to live in partitioned shoebox apartments, coffin homes and other inadequate housing.
    A man walks in front of a residential and commercial building where the ‘coffin homes’ are located in Hong Kong. In wealthy Hong Kong, there’s a dark side to a housing boom, with hundreds of thousands of people forced to live in partitioned shoebox apartments, coffin homes and other inadequate housing.
  • A resident walks outside his illegal rooftop hut, which is located next to a public housing estate. The US-based consultancy Demographia has ranked Hong Kong the world’s least affordable housing market for seven straight years.
    A resident walks outside his illegal rooftop hut, which is located next to a public housing estate. The US-based consultancy Demographia has ranked Hong Kong the world’s least affordable housing market for seven straight years.
  • Li Suet-wen with her son and daughter in their 11-square metre room. Crammed with a bunk bed, small couch, fridge, washing machine and small table in an aging walkup in Hong Kong. She pays HK$4,500 (Dh2,200) a month in rent and utilities – nearly half her salary working in a bakery.
    Li Suet-wen with her son and daughter in their 11-square metre room. Crammed with a bunk bed, small couch, fridge, washing machine and small table in an aging walkup in Hong Kong. She pays HK$4,500 (Dh2,200) a month in rent and utilities – nearly half her salary working in a bakery.
  • Wong Tat-ming, 63, sits in his ‘coffin home’. It’s crammed with all his meagre possessions, including a sleeping bag, small colour TV and electric fan.
    Wong Tat-ming, 63, sits in his ‘coffin home’. It’s crammed with all his meagre possessions, including a sleeping bag, small colour TV and electric fan.
  • Simon Wong, an unemployed man, watches TV in his tiny home in Hong Kong.
    Simon Wong, an unemployed man, watches TV in his tiny home in Hong Kong.
  • Tse Chu, a retired waiter, sleeps in his little cubicle home in Hong Kong where rents and home prices have steadily risen and are now at or near all-time highs.
    Tse Chu, a retired waiter, sleeps in his little cubicle home in Hong Kong where rents and home prices have steadily risen and are now at or near all-time highs.
  • 10. Hong Kong. Getty Images
    10. Hong Kong. Getty Images
  • An illegal rooftop hut is seen in Hong Kong.
    An illegal rooftop hut is seen in Hong Kong.

World

Inside Hong Kong’s ‘coffin homes’ amid housing crisis - in pictures

Rob Gurdebeke

May 10, 2017

  • English
  • Arabic

Some 200,000 of Hong Kong’s 7.3 million residents live in “subdivided units”. That is up 18 per cent from four years ago and includes 35,500 children 15 and under, government figures show.

The figure does not include many thousands more living in other inadequate housing such as rooftop shacks, metal cages resembling rabbit hutches and “coffin homes” made of stacked wooden bunks.

All photos Kin Cheung / AP

Hong Kong