The Pulse：Greater Bay Area & the rise of nano flats

Hong Kong’s property prices are notoriously high. The annual US-based Demographia global housing affordability survey has ranked it as ‘terrible’ for the seventh consecutive year, and ranks Hong Kong as the world’s least affordable urban centre in which to buy a home. And no, it’s not an illusion, those homes really are shrinking. The average living area per person in Hong Kong has shrunk by almost 30% from 67.6 square feet to 47.8 square feet. And if the old shoeboxes were not snug enough, we now have the so-called nano flats.
The people who run the government have however come up with a new housing solution: they’re saying if Hongkongers can’t afford Hong Kong, they should go live in the mainland, or more precisely the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area. That’s the advice from outgoing Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and Financial Secretary Paul Chan. With us in the studio are Lau Ping-cheung non-official member of the Economic Development Commission, and chairman of the Liberal Party, Felix Chon.