Hong Kong plans to ban substandard tiny apartments. Low-income families fear higher rents

HONG KONG (AP) — Jimmy Au’s world shrinks to about the size of a parking space whenever she gets home.

Her cramped Hong Kong home is one of four units carved out of what was once a single apartment. Most of the space is occupied by the bunk bed she shares with her husband and son, and their sleep is often disrupted by neighbors returning late or heading out early. Au’s son often gets bruises bumping into things. Privacy is limited, with only a curtain separating the bathroom from the kitchen.

But what troubles Au most about her home is that she might lose it. Hong Kong's government is planning to crack down on what it calls inadequate housing in subdivided apartments, mandating a minimum size and other baseline standards for homes like Au's. A public consultation period ended on Monday, and the government is aiming to pass the rules into law this year.

The proposed rules leave many low-income residents like Au uncertain about their future in one of the world’s most expensive housing markets.

Au, a homemaker who moved from mainland China nine years ago, said her family pays about $460 a month in rent, about half of the income her husband makes from irregular renovation jobs.

“I’m afraid the rent will get so high we can’t afford it,” Au said, sitting on the bed's lower bunk, surrounded by clothes, a fan and plastic storage drawers.

Housing is a sensitive issue in Hong Kong, one of the world's least affordable cities. Some 7.5 million people live in a small territory that's mostly made up of steep slopes. Just 7%, or 80 square kilometers (30 square miles), of the city's total land is residential. The average price of an apartment of less than 40 square meters (430 square feet) last December ranged from about $13,800 to $16,800 per square meter, depending on the district.

Beijing, which sees the city’s housing problems as a driver of the 2019 anti-government protests, wants the city to phase out subdivided units by 2049. The government is also boosting the public housing supply, aiming to provide 189,000 flats over the next five years.

But some 220,000 people rely on subdivided units, including migrants, workers, students and young professionals.

Most subdivided homes are not far from the standards, the government said, but an estimated 33,000 units would need major renovations to meet them.

The proposed rules would mandate a minimum size of at least eight square meters (86 square feet), a bar the government says it meant to leave room for low-priced housing. Every unit will also need to have a window, a toilet exclusively for the occupants' use, and a door to separate the toilet from other parts of the home, among other criteria.

Landlords will have a grace period to renovate. After that, violations could lead to up to three years' imprisonment and a maximum fine of about $38,500.

Security guard Fafa Ching has lived in multiple subdivided flats for over a decade. Her current unit costs about $490 per month and lacks even a bathroom sink, forcing her to collect water from the showerhead with a basin to wash her face. Her home will need renovation to meet proposed requirements for fire safety and separate electricity and water meters.

Ching worries that upgraded homes will be too expensive for her.

The government has said if necessary, it will offer assistance such as helping affected tenants to find other private accommodation or directly providing temporary shelter. A top official told the city’s public broadcaster that transitional housing apartments are ready and assured that large-scale enforcement will happen only when proper resettlement arrangements are available.

Chan Siu-ming, a professor at the City University of Hong Kong’s social and behavioral sciences department, welcomed the government’s taking steps to set minimum standards, but said its resettlement plans are inadequate.

Chan said the impact could be wider than officials expect, and the city’s supply of public and transitional housing may not meet needs. Low-income residents may also need help shouldering the cost of moving house, he said.

As of last September, the average waiting time for a public flat is five and a half years, but it can take even longer than that. Ching said she's waited for eight years.

In an emailed response to questions from The Associated Press, the government said it does not expect significant surges in rent as demand will drop with the increasing public housing supply. It reiterated that the rules will be implemented gradually to avoid causing panic.

Chan added that some single people may be forced into even smaller dormitory-like “bed spaces,” which are not covered by the proposed rules. Bed spaces are widely considered to be Hong Kong's worst form of housing — partitioned areas in which residents get barely enough space to fit a single bed and some belongings. They are currently regulated under another law, the government said.

Sze Lai-shan, the deputy director of the Society for Community Organization, a non-government organization, said some people have already been asked to move out of subdivided homes as landlords anticipate the policy.

She suggested the government start registering substandard flats before the legislation comes into force to assess the residents’ needs and consider expanding the eligibility for transitional housing. She also hoped the policy would eventually cover those living in tiny bed spaces.

“It’s difficult to explain to people that Hong Kong has two sets of housing standards,” she said.

In Sham Shui Po, one of the city’s poorest districts, bed space resident Law Chung Yu said he doubts that landlords will be able to comply with the rules.

Law, who can’t work due to a health problem and rents one layer of a bunk bed, pays around $280 in monthly rent for the bed space, about 30% of what he gets from the government subsidies he lives on. He shares a bathroom with neighbors in an apartment infested by lice.

“It’s basically an armchair strategy, I don’t see it having much impact in reality,” he said.

Au's never measured her unit, and isn’t sure if her unit meets the minimum size. But with her neighboring units falling short of the minimum size requirement, she knows her home would probably be gone too. She hopes the government will help resettle affected households into places that cost the same as their current rent.

Her landlord hasn’t discussed the issue with her yet. For now, all she can do is wait.

“I’m taking it day by day. It’d be worse if I think about it so much I develop mental problems,” she said.

Resident Tsang Mei Qin sits at her subdivided flat in Sham Shui Po district of Hong Kong, on Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

A resident rests in his bed space in Sham Shui Po district of Hong Kong, on Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Sze Lai-shan, the deputy director of the Society for Community Organization, center, and her colleagues visit residents in the subdivided flat in Sham Shui Po district of Hong Kong, on Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

A resident rests in his bed space in Sham Shui Po district of Hong Kong, on Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

A resident rests in his bed space in Sham Shui Po district of Hong Kong, on Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

A homeless person sleeps on a street in Sham Shui Po district of Hong Kong, on Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

A general view of the residential area in Sham Shui Po district of Hong Kong, on Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Sze Lai-shan, the deputy director of the Society for Community Organization, walks on her way to visit residents in the subdivided flat in Sham Shui Po district of Hong Kong, on Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Residential buildings are seen through a window of a bed space in Sham Shui Po district of Hong Kong, on Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Resident Law Chung-yu sits in his bed space in Sham Shui Po district of Hong Kong, on Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Resident Law Chung-yu has dinner in his bed space in Sham Shui Po district of Hong Kong, on Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Resident Chung Shing-sun stands near his bed space in Sham Shui Po district of Hong Kong, on Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

A toilet and kitchen are located in the same area of a subdivided flat in Sham Shui Po district of Hong Kong, on Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

A resident adjusts the curtains over a bed at her subdivided flat in Sham Shui Po district of Hong Kong, on Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

A resident who gave his name as Chiu watches television at his subdivided flat in Sham Shui Po district of Hong Kong, on Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Housewife Jimmy Au pulls back a curtain to reveal her toilet at home in a residential area of Prince Edward district in Hong Kong, on Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Kanis Leung)

Housewife Jimmy Au stands in her kitchen at home in a residential area of Prince Edward district in Hong Kong on Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Kanis Leung)

NEW YORK (AP) — Zohran Mamdani became mayor of New York City on Thursday, taking over one of the most unrelenting jobs in American politics with a promise to transform government on behalf of the city's striving, struggling working class.

Mamdani, a Democrat, was sworn in at a decommissioned subway station below City Hall just after midnight, placing his hand on a Quran as he took his oath as the city's first Muslim mayor.

After working part of the night in his new office, Mamdani then returned to City Hall in a taxi cab around midday Thursday for a grander public inauguration where U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of the mayor’s political heroes, administered the oath for a second time.

“Beginning today, we will govern expansively and audaciously. We may not always succeed, but never will we be accused of lacking the courage to try,” Mamdani told a cheering crowd.

“To those who insist that the era of big government is over, hear me when I say this: No longer will City Hall hesitate to use its power to improve New Yorkers' lives," he said.

Throngs turned out in the frigid cold for an inauguration viewing party just south of City Hall on a stretch of Broadway known as the “Canyon of Heroes,” famous for its ticker-tape parades.

Throughout the ceremony, Mamdani and other speakers hit on the theme that carried him to victory in the election: Devotion to using government power to lift up the millions of people who struggle with the city's high cost of living.

"I was elected as a democratic socialist and I will govern as a democratic socialist,” Mamdani said. “I will not abandon my principles for fear of being deemed ‘radical.’”

Before administering the oath, Sanders told the crowd that most of the things Mamdani wants to do — including raising taxes on the rich — aren't radical at all.

“In the richest country in the history of the world, making sure that people can live in affordable housing is not radical,” he told the crowd. “It is the right and decent thing to do.”

In opening remarks, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Mamdani would be a mayor dedicated to the working class.

“It is the people of New York who have chosen historic, ambitious leadership in response to untenable and unprecedented times. New York, we have chosen courage over fear. We have chosen prosperity for the many over spoils for the few," she said.

Mamdani was accompanied on the stage by his wife, Rama Duwaji. The previous mayor, Eric Adams, was in attendance, sitting near another former mayor, Bill de Blasio.

Actor Mandy Patinkin, who recently hosted Mamdani to celebrate Hannukah, sang “Over the Rainbow” with children from an elementary school chorus. The invocation was given by Imam Khalid Latif, the director of the Islamic Center of New York City. Poet Cornelius Eady read an original poem called “Proof."

In addition to being the city's first Muslim mayor, Mamdani is also its first of South Asian descent and the first to be born in Africa. At 34, Mamdani is also the city’s youngest mayor in generations.

In a campaign that helped make “affordability” a buzzword across the political spectrum, Mamdani ran on a focused platform that included promises of free child care, free buses, a rent freeze for about 1 million households and a pilot of city-run grocery stores.

Mamdani insisted in his inaugural address that he will not squander his opportunity to implement those policies.

“A moment like this comes rarely. Seldom do we hold such an opportunity to transform and reinvent. Rarer still is it the people themselves whose hands are on the levers of change. And yet we know that too often in our past, moments of great possibility have been promptly surrendered to small imagination and smaller ambition," he said.

But he will also have to face other responsibilities: handling trash and snow and rats, while getting blamed for subway delays and potholes.

Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, the son of filmmaker Mira Nair and Mahmood Mamdani, an academic and author. His family moved to New York City when he was 7, with Mamdani growing up in a post-9/11 city where Muslims didn’t always feel welcome. He became an American citizen in 2018.

He worked on political campaigns for Democratic candidates in the city before he sought public office himself, winning a state Assembly seat in 2020 to represent a section of Queens.

Mamdani and his wife, Rama Duwaji, are departing their one-bedroom, rent stabilized apartment in the outer-borough to take up residence in the stately mayoral residence in Manhattan.

Mamdani inherits a city on the upswing, after years of slow recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Violent crime has dropped to pre-pandemic lows. Tourists are back. Unemployment, which soared during the pandemic years, is also back to pre-COVID levels.

Yet deep concerns remain about high prices and rising rents in the city.

He’ll also have to deal with Republican President Donald Trump.

During the mayoral race, Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from the city if Mamdani won and mused about sending National Guard troops to the city.

But Trump surprised supporters and foes alike by inviting the Democrat to the White House for what ended up being a cordial meeting in November.

“I want him to do a great job and will help him do a great job,” Trump said.

Still, tensions between the two leaders are almost certain to resurface, given their deep policy disagreements, particularly over immigration.

Several speakers at Thursday's inauguration criticized the Trump administration's move to deport more immigrants and expressed hope that Mamdani's City Hall would be an ally to those the president has targeted.

Mamdani also faces skepticism and opposition from some members of the city’s Jewish community over his criticisms of Israel’s government.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. administers the oath of office to Mayor Zohran Mamdani as Rama Duwaji holds the Quran during Mamdani's inauguration ceremony, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Mayor Zohran Mamdani reacts after speaking during his inauguration ceremony, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, center, arrives with his wife Rama Duwaji for a swearing-in ceremony, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in New York. (Amir Hamja/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

People wait in the cold near City Hall before Zohran Mamdani's inauguration as mayor on Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Mayor Zohran Mamdani reacts after arriving for his swearing-in ceremony as Rama Duwaji looks on, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., right, greets New York Attorney General Letitia James before the swearing-in ceremony for Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, left, and his wife Rama Duwaji, arrive for Mamdani's public swearing-in ceremony on the steps of City Hall, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

New York Attorney General Letitia James, left, prepare to administer the oath of office to mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani takes the oath of office during a swearing-in ceremony in the Old City Hall subway station, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Zohran Mamdani reacts after being sworn in as mayor of New York inside the the Old City Hall subway station, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks after taking the oath of office, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

New York Attorney General Letitia James left, prepares to administer the oath of office to mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani as Rama Duwaji, looks on, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, center, arrives with his wife Rama Duwaji for a swearing-in ceremony, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

New York Attorney General Letitia James, left, administers the oath of office to mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, center, as his wife Rama Duwaji looks on, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)