It is a Tuesday night in Sham Shui Po. Below the neon signs and the smell of roasting goose, a man named Wong climbs a narrow, grimy staircase. He enters a subdivided flat. This isn't a normal home. It’s a 400-square-foot apartment that has been sliced into twenty individual "units." Wong pays roughly $2,500 HKD a month for a space that is roughly 15 square feet. He calls it home. Most people call it a hong kong coffin apartment.
The name isn't hyperbole.
When you lie down, your feet touch one wall and your head almost touches the other. If you’re over six feet tall, you have to sleep diagonally. There is no room to stand up. You live, eat, and sleep in a wooden box that is stacked on top of another wooden box. It’s a claustrophobic existence that defies the image of Hong Kong as a shimmering, world-class financial hub.
What exactly defines a coffin home?
Basically, these are "subdivided units" (SDUs). But they are the most extreme version. You've got partitioned flats where a single room is split into two or three. Then you've got cage homes, which are literally wire mesh bunks. The hong kong coffin apartment sits right in the middle—usually a wooden frame with a sliding door or a curtain.
No windows. No ventilation.
The air is thick. It smells like a mix of old cooking oil, damp wood, and too many people in a space meant for one. According to the Society for Community Organization (SoCO), an NGO that has spent decades documenting these conditions, the mental health toll is staggering. How could it not be? Imagine spending a lockdown in a box where you can't even stretch your arms out wide.
The math of a housing crisis
Hong Kong has been ranked the world’s least affordable housing market for over a decade straight by the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey. The ratio of median house price to median household income is absurd. In most "unaffordable" cities, that ratio is 5 or 6. In Hong Kong, it has historically soared past 20.
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That is why the hong kong coffin apartment exists. It isn't because people want to live like this. It's because the alternative is the street.
The waitlist for public housing is a decades-long line. As of recent government data, the average waiting time for general applicants is around 5.5 to 6 years, but for single, non-elderly men? Forget about it. You could be waiting twenty years. So, you find a coffin. You pay a disproportionately high rent per square foot—often higher than what a billionaire pays for a mansion in The Peak—and you wait.
Life inside the box
Let’s talk about the logistics. Where do you go to the bathroom?
Usually, there is one shared toilet for fifteen to twenty people. It’s often a "wet room" where the shower head is directly over the toilet. If someone is taking a long shower, you wait. If the plumbing breaks, the whole floor suffers.
Cooking is another story. Many residents use a small electric hotplate inside their coffin. This is a massive fire hazard. The buildings are old—often "tong lau" tenement buildings from the 50s and 60s—with narrow staircases and no modern fire suppression. One spark in a room filled with plywood partitions and "coffin" dwellers, and the results are catastrophic.
Honestly, the most heartbreaking part isn't the physical space. It’s the stuff.
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You see photos of these places and they are packed with memories. A small TV. A wedding photo taped to a wooden plank. A single suit hanging from a nail. These aren't just storage units; they are lives compressed into the smallest possible volume. People like Lui, a 70-year-old resident featured in several documentaries, have lived in these conditions for over a decade. He spends his days at the park or the library just to feel "space." He only returns to his hong kong coffin apartment to sleep.
Why doesn't the government just ban them?
This is where it gets complicated.
If the government shut down every hong kong coffin apartment tomorrow, 200,000 people would be homeless. There is no "Plan B" ready yet. The government has tried to implement the "Subdivided Units Task Force" to set minimum standards (like minimum ceiling heights and fire safety), but the progress is slow.
Land in Hong Kong is a controlled commodity. About 75% of the land is "undeveloped" or green space, but getting the permissions to build on it is a bureaucratic nightmare involving powerful developers and villagers.
The myth of the "lazy" resident
There's a common misconception that only the unemployed live here. That’s flat-out wrong.
Walk through a coffin home cluster at 7:00 AM. You’ll see men in ironed shirts and women in service uniforms. These are the people who clean the malls, serve the dim sum, and deliver the mail. They work 12-hour shifts. They contribute to the economy every single day. The "coffin" is simply the only thing the economy offers them in return.
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What has changed in 2026?
As we look at the situation today, the government has moved toward "Light Public Housing" (LPH) and "Transitional Housing." These are prefabricated units designed to get people out of the worst SDUs. They are better, sure. They have private toilets. But they are often located in the New Territories, far from the jobs in Kowloon or Central.
For a delivery driver, moving an hour away from his work zone to get a bigger room might mean losing his livelihood. It’s a brutal trade-off.
Actionable steps for the concerned traveler or local
If you are reading this because you want to understand the "real" Hong Kong beyond the skyline, here is how to engage ethically:
- Support Local NGOs: Organizations like SoCO (Society for Community Organization) do the heavy lifting. They provide medical checks, legal aid, and advocacy for those in hong kong coffin apartment units. Donating or volunteering with them makes a direct impact.
- Educate, Don't Voyeurize: There is a trend of "poverty tourism." Do not go into these buildings to take "gritty" photos for Instagram. It is someone’s home. If you want to learn, visit the SoCO photography exhibitions which are curated with the residents' consent.
- Advocate for Policy: If you're a local, stay vocal about land supply and the "Subdivided Units" licensing regime. The goal should be the total eradication of coffin homes through the provision of dignified public housing.
- Understand the Cost: Next time you see a cheap meal or a clean street in Hong Kong, realize that the person providing that service might be going home to a box.
The hong kong coffin apartment remains a stain on one of the wealthiest cities on Earth. It is a reminder that without proper urban planning and a focus on human dignity, the "market" will gladly squeeze a human being into the space of a suitcase.
Moving forward, the focus must remain on the 200,000. Not as a statistic, but as 200,000 individuals like Wong and Lui, who deserve a door they can walk through without ducking, and a bed where they can finally stretch their legs.