31st January 2023 – (Hong Kong) In recent years, nano apartments have flooded the market, but their rents are not cheap at all. Recently, an owner, Zhang advertised on Facebook to rent out his 169sqf studio unit at the 4-year-old One Prestige, North Point. The apartment looks like a subdivided flat, but the landlord is asking for a monthly rent of HK$10,800 which many netizens described as too high. Some even said that the total size is smaller than a car park and described it as depressing for someone to live in a modern tiny cage as such.
It is believed that the owner anticipates the property market to recover by increasing the rent to protect the value of his property. Except for the top-floor special units, the floor area of all other units in One Prestige is around 164 to 208 square feet.
In order to attract tenants, the owner emphasised that apartment has a luxurious foyer, new clubhouse facilities and his unit is fully furnished with furniture and electrical appliances. However, after two weeks later, the landlord took the initiative to reduce the price by $900, and the rent is now HK$9,900.
In the past two years, the property market in Hong Kong has been hit by the COVID-19 epidemic, and nano flats in various districts in Hong Kong were among the hardest-hit areas. Taking One Prestige as an example, a 194sqf unit was sold for HK$3.8 million in October last year, and the original owner lost HK$600,000 in book value in five years. Meanwhile, a 227sqf apartment in Artisan House, Sai Ying Pun was sold for HK$5.3 million this month, a loss of HK$1.6 million in four years.
Most of these nano flats were purchased by investors for rental purposes. With the reopening of the border with Mainland the property market is expected to recover. It is believed that some owners will take the opportunity to rent out at high prices to increase the rental value of the return on investment.
