Insufficient supply of land and housing has led to a shortage of affordable housing in Hong Kong. Low-income earners, new immigrants and many others cannot afford high rents, so they seek accommodation in the Subdivided Units (SDUs). The living conditions in most of illegal subdivided houses are poor, there are issues such as sanitation, fire safety and structural issues. Also, lot of landlords take advantage of low-income people’s demand for subdivided units to overcharge utility bills and rent. Although the government has implemented the new rent control law in Part IVA of the Landlord and Tenant (Consolidation) Ordinance in early 2022, it has not been able to help the tenants of SDUs to solve the problem of overcharging. This study aims to explore how to improve the new rent control law of subdivided units by coordinate with policy to ease the financial burden of subdivided units’ tenants. Archival Research, Policy Delphi and Government Inquiry are used in this study to find out the improvements of the new rent control law.
Insufficient supply of land and housing has led to a shortage of affordable housing in Hong Kong. Low-income earners, new immigrants and many others cannot afford high rents, so they seek accommodation in the Subdivided Units (SDUs).”The living conditions in most illegal subdivided houses are poor, with issues such as sanitation, fire safety, and structural concerns. Additionally, a lot of landlords take advantage of the demand for subdivided units among low-income individuals by overcharging for utility bills and rent. Although the government implemented the new rent control law in Part IVA of the Landlord and Tenant (Consolidation) Ordinance in early 2022, it has not been able to help SDU tenants solve the problem of overcharging.This study aims to explore how to improve the new rent control law for subdivided units by coordinating with policy to ease the financial burden on SDU tenants. “Archival research, Policy Delphi, and government inquiry are used in this study to identify improvements to the new rent control law.
