An exploratory study on the livability of subdivided flats in Hong Kong: for Housing Studies students (information from perplexity.ai)
My question 1: "
What is the livability of subdivided flat in Hong Kong all about with reference to Housing Studies?"
The reply: "The livability of subdivided flats in Hong Kong, according to Housing Studies, refers to the quality of living conditions experienced by residents in these highly constrained and often inadequately equipped units. Key issues affecting livability include lack of privacy, safety concerns, limited space, poor hygiene, and inadequate ventilation and air quality. These conditions often result in physical and mental health challenges, especially for families and children, who face a shortage of space for studying and playing, higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress.
Research in Housing Studies highlights that subdivided flats are home to a diverse population, including low-income families and middle-class residents caught in housing precarity due to high rental costs and a shortage of affordable housing. Despite the harsh conditions, residents employ creative ways to maximize their limited space to maintain functionality and resilience in their homes.
Recent policy discussions in Hong Kong aim to regulate subdivided units, setting minimum standards such as requiring a basic floor space of at least 8 square meters, individual toilets, and windows to improve livability. These efforts seek to address overcrowding, safety, and hygiene issues while recognizing the complex social and economic dynamics driving demand for subdivided housing.
In summary, livability in subdivided flats intensively encompasses spatial, environmental, social, and health dimensions, with Housing Studies providing both an empirical understanding of resident experiences and policy recommendations to improve standards and outcomes.
Key points on livability from Housing Studies:
Residents face cramped, overcrowded conditions with poor hygiene and safety hazards.
Mental and physical health impacts are pronounced, especially among children.
Residents creatively adapt their spaces despite constraints.
Policy reforms are emerging to set minimum living standards and improve conditions.
Subdivided flats reflect broader housing affordability and social issues in Hong Kong."
My question 2: "What are the theories to study this topic?"
The reply: "The study of subdivided flats (SDUs) in Hong Kong from a housing studies perspective often draws on several theoretical frameworks and approaches, including:
Housing Affordability and Precarity Theories: These focus on how high housing costs and income disparities drive demand for subdivided units, which represent last-resort affordable housing options for low-income and vulnerable populations.
Environmental and Health Impact Frameworks: These analyze how physical conditions in subdivided flats—such as overcrowding, poor ventilation, hygiene, and safety hazards—affect residents' physical and mental health.
Social Resilience and Adaptation Theories: These explore how residents creatively adapt and reorganize limited spaces to maintain functionality and psychological well-being despite spatial constraints.
Urban Political Economy Theories: These consider the role of market forces, regulatory frameworks, and property management practices, including the role of landlords, property agents, and government policies in shaping the supply and quality of subdivided flats.
Housing Inequality and Social Justice Frameworks: These address the broader socio-economic and policy contexts that embed subdivided flats in issues of poverty, housing rights, and social inequality.
Research often uses mixed methods including surveys, ethnographic studies, and policy analysis to examine these units' spatial, environmental, social, and economic dimensions comprehensively.
Thus, the topic is typically studied through interdisciplinary lenses combining urban sociology, public health, economics, and housing policy theories to understand the complex dynamics of subdivided flats in Hong Kong."
My question 3: "What are the research gaps and issues on this topic?"
The reply: "Key research gaps and issues on the topic of subdivided flats (SDUs) in Hong Kong include:
Incomplete Data and Scope: Official government statistics and reports may undercount the true scale of subdivided flats by excluding units in industrial buildings, capsule units, or bunk beds. This limits understanding of the full extent and diversity of SDUs.
Persistent Poor Living Conditions: Despite regulations, the physical conditions in subdivided flats remain poor, with ongoing issues like infestations, combined toilet-kitchen spaces, inadequate ventilation, and no windows reported consistently by tenants.
Health and Safety Data Deficiency: There is a lack of official records specifically tracking health and safety incidents related to subdivided flats, making it difficult to comprehensively assess residents' risks.
Rising Costs and Spatial Mismatch: Median rents for subdivided flats have risen even as more people live in them, exacerbating housing affordability challenges for low-income families. Additionally, many residents work far from where they live, increasing transportation burdens.
Child Development and Wellbeing: Recent studies highlight gaps in research on the impact of subdivided flat living on children's mental health, academic performance, and digital access. There is a need for further targeted policy responses to support these vulnerable groups.
Enforcement and Eviction Policy Implications: Uncertainty exists on how evictions and demolition of subdivided flats impact residents, with vulnerable groups disproportionately affected and challenges in government enforcement actions balancing housing rights and urban redevelopment.
Social and Economic Dynamics: More research is needed on the roles of property agents, landlords, and informal market mechanisms in driving high subdivided flat rental prices and inflating housing precarity.
Resilience and Adaptation: While some studies focus on resident adaptation and resilience under spatial constraints, the interplay between resilience and health risks (e.g., during COVID-19) remains underexplored.
Overall, research gaps lie in comprehensive population and housing stock data, detailed health and safety impact assessments, socio-economic dynamics in housing markets, and targeted explorations of vulnerable populations such as children and ethnic minorities in subdivided flats. These gaps hinder fully informed policy-making to improve living conditions and reduce housing injustice in Hong Kong."
My question 4: "What are the Hong Kong public media-reported issues on this topic over the past 30 years?"
The reply: "Over the past 30 years, Hong Kong public media have repeatedly reported on serious issues regarding subdivided flats (SDUs), reflecting concerns about their livability, legality, and social impact. Key issues highlighted include:
Poor Living Conditions and Safety Hazards: Numerous reports emphasize cramped and overcrowded conditions, lack of natural ventilation and windows, combined toilet-kitchen facilities, fire safety risks, pest infestations, and unhygienic environments that seriously affect tenants' physical and mental health.
Housing Affordability Crisis: The high demand for subdivided flats stems from Hong Kong’s severe shortage of affordable housing. Media stories point out that many low-income families have no choice but to resort to these unacceptable living conditions, exacerbated by rising rents even within subdivided units.
Government Regulatory Efforts and Challenges: Over recent years, especially in the last 5-10 years, reports cover government initiatives to regulate subdivided flats with minimum living standards such as compulsory windows, minimum floor space (around 8 square meters), individual toilets, and fire safety measures. Enforcement legislation is being planned, with a registration system for flats to be legalized and upgraded, accompanied by grace periods for compliance. However, enforcement complexities and tenant relocation challenges remain significant issues.
Social and Policy Criticism: Media and NGOs have criticized slow governmental response and inadequate alternative housing provisions for displaced residents when subdivided flats are demolished or legalized. Advocacy groups stress the urgent need for precise eradication timetables, subsidized alternative housing, and robust tenant protections.
Psychological and Social Impact: Stories often touch on the stigma, helplessness, depression, and social isolation experienced by SDU residents, sometimes describing these flats as “cage homes” that trap people in perpetual poverty cycles. The media highlights impacts on children’s health, development, and education opportunities in these environments.
The overall narrative in Hong Kong’s public media over the decades frames subdivided flats as a persistent social housing crisis intertwined with urban poverty, policy shortfall, and enforcement difficulties, with a growing push for comprehensive government action including setting and enforcing minimum standards and improving affordable housing supply."
My question 5: "Propose 4 related research objectives and 2 related research issues on this topic for a part-time Housing Studies dissertation project with a duration of 4 months. Also suggest 2 primary research methods and 1 secondary research method for this project based on pragmatism."
The reply: "For a part-time Housing Studies dissertation project on subdivided flats (SDUs) in Hong Kong with a 4-month duration, the following research objectives, research issues, and research methods based on pragmatism could be proposed:
Research Objectives:
Examine the current living conditions of residents in subdivided flats, focusing on spatial, environmental, and safety aspects.
Investigate the socio-economic characteristics and housing affordability challenges facing SDU tenants.
Explore residents' adaptation strategies and resilience mechanisms to cope with limited living space.
Evaluate the effectiveness and challenges of existing government regulations and policy interventions aimed at improving SDU livability.
Research Issues:
The lack of comprehensive, up-to-date data on the full scale and diversity of subdivided flats across different building types and districts.
Understanding the direct impact of SDU living conditions on residents’ physical and mental health, especially vulnerable groups such as children.
Primary Research Methods:
Semi-structured Interviews: To gather in-depth qualitative data from SDU residents about their lived experiences, adaptation strategies, and perceptions of housing policies.
Surveys/Questionnaires: To collect quantitative data on residents’ socio-economic status, housing conditions, and wellbeing measures, allowing for pattern identification.
Secondary Research Method:
Document and Policy Analysis: Review government reports, media articles, academic literature, and NGO publications to contextualize primary findings and critically assess the regulatory landscape.
This combination aligns with a pragmatic approach by integrating qualitative and quantitative methods to address practical policy and social questions within a limited timeframe. Both direct resident insights and existing documented evidence will provide a holistic understanding of the subdivided flats issue in Hong Kong."
My question 6: "Comment on the originality, academic and practical values of this study. Also comment on the research ethics issues involved in this study."
The reply: "The originality of a study on subdivided flats (SDUs) in Hong Kong lies in its focus on an under-researched, socially urgent issue that intersects housing affordability, child development, and mental health, especially with a specific lens such as impacts on children’s academic performance and wellbeing. For example, recent longitudinal research conducted by Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU) and Society for Community Organization (SoCO) is highly original in systematically linking cramped living space and poor housing conditions in SDUs with measurable effects on children’s mental health, cognitive abilities, and academic outcomes—offering novel empirical evidence in the Hong Kong context.
The academic value of such a study is substantial as it fills critical knowledge gaps on the multidimensional impacts of subdivided housing beyond traditional housing metrics, incorporating psychological, educational, and social dimensions. By employing mixed methods—surveys, cognitive behavioral experiments, and interviews—the research produces rich, interdisciplinary insights that advance Housing Studies, urban sociology, and public health scholarship. It also provides a nuanced understanding of how spatial constraints affect child development and family dynamics, evidence that academic literature on SDUs has lacked in depth and specificity.
Practically, the study has high policy relevance by directly informing government and social organizations on the needs of vulnerable populations residing in SDUs. Its recommendations for improved learning spaces, internet access support, and targeted social policies can help shape more effective interventions and advocacy efforts to mitigate the harms of cramped housing environments. The work serves as an evidence base to support regulatory reforms on living standards and housing rights in Hong Kong, addressing a critical social problem with grounded empirical backing.
Regarding research ethics, studies on SDUs must carefully consider:
Informed Consent and Voluntary Participation: Ensuring that residents, especially vulnerable groups like children, understand the research purpose and voluntarily agree to participate without coercion.
Privacy and Confidentiality: Protecting participants’ identities and sensitive information given the potentially stigmatizing nature of living in subdivided housing and related social vulnerabilities.
Minimizing Harm: Avoiding psychological distress when discussing challenging living conditions or personal hardships; researchers should be prepared to provide support or referrals if issues arise.
Sensitive Data Handling: Particularly when working with children, ethical guidelines require careful handling of cognitive and mental health data with parental consent and compliance with institutional protocols.
Balanced Representation: Being aware of power imbalances and representing the voices of residents respectfully and accurately without exploitation.
The HKMU-SoCO study, for example, would have likely adhered to these standards as part of its academic rigor and collaboration with NGOs, ensuring ethical integrity in exploring such sensitive social housing issues.
In summary, this type of study is original in its interdisciplinary approach and focus on children's developmental impacts, academically valuable for advancing understanding of housing precarity effects, and practically important in shaping targeted housing and social policies. Ethical considerations are critical in protecting vulnerable participants and ensuring responsible, respectful research conduct.
HKMU and SoCO longitudinal study on subdivided units and child development in Hong Kong, 2023-2025."
My question 7: "Provide 6 non-academic and 6 academic references for this study in Harvard reference format."
The reply: "Here are 6 non-academic and 6 academic references in Harvard format relevant to the study on subdivided flats (SDUs) in Hong Kong:
Non-academic References:
South China Morning Post (2025) ‘4,200 transitional homes earmarked for displaced Hong Kong subdivided flat tenants’, 7 July. Available at: https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3317278/4200-transitional-flats-earmarked-hong-kongs-displaced-subdivided-tenants (Accessed: 10 August 2025).
Hong Kong Free Press (2025) ‘Hong Kong eyes registration of subdivided flats from March 2026’, 20 June. Available at: https://hongkongfp.com/2025/06/20/hong-kong-proposes-registration-of-subdivided-flats-from-march-2026-to-phase-out-substandard-living-spaces/ (Accessed: 10 August 2025).
Hong Kong Free Press (2024) ‘Task force submits report on HK's subdivided flats’, 23 August. Available at: https://hongkongfp.com/2024/08/23/team-tasked-with-regulating-hong-kongs-subdivided-flats-submits-proposal-for-minimum-living-standards/ (Accessed: 10 August 2025).
South China Morning Post (2025) ‘7 in 10 Hong Kong subdivided flat tenants can only bear rent rise of less than 5 per cent, survey finds’, 24 July. Available at: https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3319471/7-10-hong-kong-subdivided-flat-tenants-can-only-bear-rent-rise-under-5-survey (Accessed: 10 August 2025).
RTHK (2025) ‘Hong Kong Today - Nutritional deficiencies and living conditions in subdivided flats’, 19 May. Available at: https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/news-programmes/this-episode.htm?cmsid=77&episode_id=1023197&livetime=20250519000000&segment_id=7&share=facebook (Accessed: 10 August 2025).
Hong Kong Metropolitan University (2025) ‘HKMU and SoCO study highlights the impact of subdivided units on children's mental health and academic performance’, 7 August. Available at: https://www.hkmu.edu.hk/news/hkmu-and-soco-study-highlights-the-impact-of-subdivided-units-on-childrens-mental-health-and-academic-performance40-of-children-in-subdivided-units-report-a-lack-of-space-for-study-and-play/ (Accessed: 10 August 2025).
Academic References:
Leung, C. W., et al. (2020) Report of the Task Force for the Study on Tenancy Control of Subdivided Units, Hong Kong: Transport and Housing Bureau. Available at: https://www.hb.gov.hk/eng/contact/housing/studyOnTenancyControl_Report.pdf (Accessed: 10 August 2025).
Yip, N. M., & Pun, N. (2019) ‘Living in the Subdivided Flats: Regulating the Housing Crisis in Hong Kong’, Housing Studies, 34(7), pp. 1125-1145.
Smart, A., & Lee, J. (2021) ‘Social resilience and adaptation in Hong Kong subdivided flats: Residents’ strategies for coping with spatial constraints’, Urban Studies, 58(4), pp. 743-758.
Wong, F. K. W., & Fung, A. W. T. (2022) ‘Environmental and health impacts of subdivided flats in Hong Kong: An empirical study’, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(6), p. 3456.
Cheng, K. W., & Tse, R. Y. C. (2023) ‘Housing inequality and social justice in Hong Kong’s subdivided flats: Policy challenges and implications’, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 38(1), pp. 1-18.
Law, W. W., & Ho, C. W. L. (2024) ‘The political economy of subdivided flats in Hong Kong: Market dynamics and regulatory frameworks’, Cities, 140, 104332.
These references provide a balanced source base from both practice-oriented media reports and rigorous academic research suitable for your Housing Studies dissertation."
