The Hong Kong government has proposed allocating up to 180 “spare units” of transitional housing to tenants evicted due to the shoebox housing reform.
Victor Tai, the undersecretary for housing, said on Monday that the spare units would only be provided in “very exceptional circumstances”, such as tenants evicted by landlords who share flats and those in urgent need of housing.
The spare units will only come from transitional housing projects in urban or “extended urban” areas such as Tung Chung, Sha Tin and Tseung Kwan O, according to at a briefing on policies submitted by the Bureau of Housing to the Legislative Council (LegCo) panel on housing.
Speaking at the panel, Tai said the units will be reserved for three months only. If the units were not allocated to anyone, they would become available again to other transitional housing applicants.
“Our goal is to have some reserve units in urban and extended urban areas ready to provide immediate support,” Tai said in Cantonese.
Elaine Chik, a lawmaker from the Democratic Alliance for the Improvement and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), raised concerns that the 180 reserve units may fail to meet demand.
In response, Tai said that many current tenants of the detached units were themselves applicants for public housing or in transition, and that the amount of spare units should be sufficient for those in urgent need of temporary housing.
According to the briefing paper, those wishing to move to reserve units must undergo a review by one of six government-appointed District Service Teams “to verify their immediate housing needs”.
Another Housing Bureau team will review applications before allocating units for a three-month lease.
The policy is expected to take effect next month.
Hong Kong passed Ordinance of Basic Housing Units in Septemberforcing the owners of the detached units to meet living standards set by the government. These include a floor area of at least 86 square meters, a ceiling height of 2.3 meters, as well as windows and an individual toilet.
The law, which came into effect in Marchalso requires that the owners of register their units if they want to continue renting them out legally.
Authorities estimate that more than 220,000 people in the city live in “shoe-flat” housing, about a third of which are in need of major renovation.
According to in the Housing Bureau, as of April 2026, there were 19,100 transitional housing units operated by NGOs and subsidized by the government.
