See what the inside of Hong Kong apartments known as “anthills” look like

Hong Kong has a very high population density and is therefore growing vertically. Most people live in large buildings, which are known as “anthills”, because of the huge number of inhabitants who live there. Many have seen what buildings look like from the outside, but few know what they look like from the inside.

We, from awesome.club, we found out how Hong Kongers live, and concluded that our own apartments are large and spacious. If you live in an apartment, you will probably have the same reaction. Check out!

The average cost per square meter here is the equivalent of around 119 thousand reais. So that we have a better comparison, the average value of the square meter in Rio de Janeiro (one of the highest in the country) is around 10 thousand reais. Therefore, social inequality is quite pronounced in Hong Kong, and in an “anthill” building there are usually several types of housing, intended for people with different income levels.

More than 20% of Hong Kong’s population — nearly 1.5 million people — live below the poverty line. For these people, the “anthills” are a kind of hostel — rooms with about 20 individual “cabins” measuring 180 by 60 cm. Humble people literally survive in such places and lead their normal lives like that. Such housing is not cheap, even in such inhumane conditions: around 700-800 reais per month. The vast majority of residents are unemployed. Many work at fairs or washing dishes, but still cannot afford better living conditions and live in these places for years.

For this class there are communal apartments. There are normally 5-6 tiny rooms in an apartment, where the kitchen and bathroom are shared with all residents. In the rooms there is only space for a table and a bed. If you’re lucky, you’ll still have space to put a closet, but usually residents tend to hang their clothes on the wall anyway. Renting a room in such apartments costs approximately 2,000 reais per month (values ​​in local currency).

Starting an independent life in Hong Kong is not easy: to rent a property you will need a lot of money. A one-bedroom apartment, for example, in these housing complexes (“formigueiros”), away from the center, will cost around 6,600 reais per month. At the same time, the average salary of men is the equivalent of 9,900 reais, and that of women, 7,700. Therefore, young people usually can only afford very small apartments, which will not offer them much comfort. In a large part of the apartments there is not even a kitchen. On the positive side, such homes are often equipped with lots of clever structures, built-in closets, and furniture with extremely useful features for small spaces.

Relatively successful Hong Kongers who have fulfilled themselves professionally and earn good wages can rent better apartments in the “anthills” or perhaps even have their own apartments with kitchens and bathrooms. Apartments are often still quite small, with a maximum capacity of 4-5 people.

It is common for not all members of a family to have single rooms. So ingenious Hong Kongers try to find a “solution” to this problem. Often they install, for example, futuristic beds (pictured) that end up being, essentially, like separate bedrooms.

Could you live in such conditions? Or is individual space too important in your life? Leave your opinion!