Mike Rowse

Opinion | With housing, Hong Kong’s not letting the best be the enemy of the good

The government is building more flats for the future while offering temporary public housing and trying to improve conditions in subdivided flats

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Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu visiting Shun Lee Estate in Kwun Tong on November 15 last year. Photo: Jelly Tse

Mike Rowse

Published: 4:30pm, 30 Jun 2024Updated: 5:39pm, 30 Jun 2024

A favourite expression of Hong Kong’s former chief secretary David Akers-Jones was: “Don’t let the best be the enemy of the good”. What he was trying to tell us junior administrators was that we should not let the search for perfection, which might take a long time, deter us from implementing something which could be done quickly if it would benefit people.

French philosopher Montesquieu is first credited with articulating the sentiment in his 1726 writings: “The best is the mortal enemy of the good”. Some put the origin even further back to Aristotle in ancient Greece.

It was undoubtedly in this spirit that Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, in his policy address last October, announced plans to improve the situation of subdivided housing. An estimated 220,000 people live in 110,000 such premises, many of which offered undesirable living conditions. He has established a task force to produce, by August, recommendations on minimum standards in terms of living space, building and fire safety, hygiene requirements and other aspects of dealing with the problem.

The task force, led by Deputy Financial Secretary Michael Wong Wai-lun, held its first meeting last November. It has since invited views from interested parties, and in May the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors held a press conference to outline its suggestions. It recommended a minimum unit size of 100 sq ft, including the kitchen and bathroom, which should be separate.

There were also proposals on the minimum door and corridor width and ceiling height, and annual inspections for fire safety. The institute estimated that around 30 per cent of Hong Kong’s subdivided units – some 30,000 – were smaller than its recommendations.

For those not previously familiar with the situation, these are sobering numbers. There cannot be many subscribers of this newspaper with a kitchen and bathroom of less than 100 sq ft in total. The idea that such an area should include both of these facilities and living space is almost beyond comprehension.