The man the industry calls the King of Subdivided Malls is in critical condition following a fatal fire, in the same week the Government confirmed its minimum-area housing directive applies only to newly licensed residential units. The tenant paying HK$5,500 a month for an 80-square-foot partitioned room in a converted industrial block is outside the scope. The directive resets the floor for flats being built from this point forward. The room already occupied carries forward unchanged.

Towngas confirmed this week it is in talks over a residential tariff increase. The increase, if approved by regulators, lands on the same households the minimum-area directive left unaddressed. The Legislative Council Housing Panel is scheduled to take up the directive's transition provisions before the legislature's summer recess, and tenant advocates have said they will press for a retrofit clause covering existing stock. Without it, the HK$5,500 room holds into July.