Hong Kong’s subdivided flats are turning into heat traps. But what’s the fix?
Retiree Yang Fangxin’s 72 sq ft rooftop home, located on the ninth floor of a 62-year-old building in Sham Shui Po, has become a heat trap under Hong Kong’s scorching hot weather. The temperature in her home was above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) at around 5pm on Tuesday, higher than the 33 degrees recorded at the Hong Kong Observatory’s monitoring station in the same district. The…
Hong Kong’s older buildings with subdivided flats are struggling in the heatwave, as homes on the upper floors become dangerously hot. Yang Fangxin, a retiree, lives in a 72 square foot rooftop unit and found her home's temperature to exceed 40°C during the day, making life unbearable. She has no choice but to use an air conditioner, driving up her electricity bill to about HK$650 a month.
Welfare advocates are pushing for more community living rooms with electricity subsidies to help low-income residents cope. Currently, there are 15 community living rooms in Hong Kong, with three more planned to open by year-end. These facilities provide a safe space with air conditioning for tenants to rest, cook meals, and do laundry, reducing their utility costs.
However, Zhong Linfong, a homemaker in a 120 square foot subdivided flat, still spends HK$500 to HK$800 a month on her air conditioner despite daily visits to the community living room. Officials are considering providing special electricity bill subsidies for subdivided flat tenants during the summer months.
Written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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