Open University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Lutheran Social Service interviewed 15 families living in subdivided flats across Hong Kong to understand their housing problems and living expectations.

The results showed that 93.3 percent of respondents did not accept the concept of “co-living” due to worries of disputes arising from different people's habits.

Two-thirds of the respondents hope that they can stay in transitional housing until they are given public housing flats.

All respondents hope that the rent of the transitional housing can be set below HK$5,000, and wish to have a spacious area to live in. They also expect greater privacy, improved safety and hygiene, and transportation nearby different community facilities will be available.

It came as the government announced the transitional housing projects in 2018, but relevant studies on the residents' needs for transitional housing are very limited.

It also stemmed from the background that people living in the flats face problems such as insufficient space and expensive rent. Nearly half of the respondents rated their current living units as unsatisfactory.

“Grassroot citizens have to face with high rent and unsatisfactory living environment,” said Professor Lam Kwan-sing, the President of OUHK. “We hope that the findings can be served as a valuable reference for the government to plan the transitional housing in the future.”

The research team suggested that the living area per person for transitional housing should be at least 12.6 square metres, and the rent should be less than one-fourth of the household income.

The researchers urged the government to consider all possible options to increase land supply. They also believed that the government should implement tenancy control on subdivided flats, and illegal subdivided housing should be banned or regulated.