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00:00Hong Kong is sweltering under one of its hottest summers on record. It's hard to stay cool
00:06even when there's a breeze. So imagine what it's like to be holed up in a home like this.
00:12There are 15 individual flats in this 33-square-metre apartment.
00:16There's no escape. You can't move around. That's how it is.
00:24Sixty-eight-year-old Chan Ji Yong has no job and no pension. He relies on government aid
00:29to afford this flat. His rent is around 275 euros a month.
00:35With nowhere to go, lately he's passed most days watching the Olympics.
00:39I watch from the start of the day to the very end because I enjoy it.
00:45There are more than 100,000 subdivided flats in Hong Kong. This month, local leaders are
00:51set to review housing standards to crack down on the worst of these dwellings, sometimes
00:56known as coffin homes.
00:59There are different standards. Some will be very poor, 1.4 square metres, just a bed,
01:03or even smaller ones. Then there are the 9 to 18 square metres, but of course the price
01:08is different.
01:09Any regulation to improve the conditions of these flats face months of public debate.
01:15One key issue, how to ban poor quality housing without making tenants homeless.
01:23We also hope that the government will succeed. But residents are concerned about whether
01:28there is a suitable alternative plan.
01:32Local authorities have promised that 50,000 new units of social housing will be ready
01:37by 2027. But by last April's count, there were more than 220,000 people on the waiting
01:44list.