"Smaller Than Parking Space": Life In Hong Kong's Microflats, Nanoflats

The 7.5 million population of Hong Kong cram into dense, high-rise neighborhoods sandwiched between sea and mountains.

For Max Lee, a 26-year-old Hong Kong doctor, life in his single-room apartment revolves around the bed. It's the first thing you see walking in.

It's where he not only sleeps and watches television, but also where he studies medical literature when not at the hospital, his laptop perched on a narrow work table at one end. Lee chose this 220 square foot space in a glassy high rise in the busy heart of Kowloon so that he could afford to be in the city center. "It's alright to live here alone," he says, "but when my girlfriend comes over, it's very crowded."

Lee's home space might seem unusually small but the unit he lives in is in fact of an increasingly common type: the microflat. Hong Kong possesses around 8,500 of these tiny units, which represented 7% of all construction at their peak in 2019.

Look up at any sparkling new residential tower in Hong Kong, there are likely people crammed into flats like these. Far from the romanticized U.S. "tiny house movement," these are single rooms about half the size of those spacious-by-comparison houses, with only enough space for a bed, cabinet, tiny bathroom and a kitchenette. They are marketed as "affordable homes."