You would think that in a city where people can hardly afford apartments that are a postage size, they would have less stuff. Nope. Welcome to Hong Kong where mini storage or 迷你倉 has become the unofficial spare room of the city. Click for source!

These storage spaces are flourishing in-between the cha chaan tengs and the high-rises. It can be blamed on the shoes in the shoebox, the high cost of living, and the culture of wanting to keep everything just in case. Grandma’s porcelain? Keep it. Old iPhone boxes? Probably useful someday.

The interesting fact is that the pace of landscape change is rapid. Gone are the bare warehouses and lit candles. New entrants are high-tech. Access is controlled by an app, doors open like your face, around the clock camera work, some of these units are even smarter than the apartments that people live in.

Old industrial buildings are the treasure trove being snorted by developers as demand increases. That grungy 60s Kwai Chung warehouse? Goldmine. Flip it, fit it, lease it. One equation, but it is changing whole neighborhoods.

Of course, there’s a plot twist. The government has become jumpy on fire safety and zoning. You can not have the dusty sofa of grandma standing in the way of a fire exit anyway. So rules are becoming stricter. Players have to get the chop or line.

Funny enough, there are no more units holding extra lamps and winter coats. They are moonlighting as e-commerce stock rooms, hobby work stations, even silent study booths. One of the men even made it into a small photography shop. Flexibility is the game now.

But the real pressure cooker? Land prices. Each square foot screams the need to have a luxury condo. Mini storage operators are Tetris-ing space even as they attempt to retain rates at a decent level. It is like a juggling game, boxes, balance sheets, bureaucracy.

Nevertheless, the demand is continuing to increase. Hongkongers will not be preparation to Marie Kondo their life. Not entirely. There’s comfort in stuff. Memories, contingency plans, spring cleaning, fall cleaning, summer cleaning, they all should have a place. And because the city is not expanding in any direction, the remaining option is to go up.