Looking around his cramped home, with his family’s possessions piled up to save space, Chan Chuen Bui, 71, recalled that life was not this hard in his younger days. The Hongkonger, who worked in interior furnishing, said he used to earn between HK$20,000 (S$3,500) and HK$30,000 a month in 1997, and lived in a 300 sq ft low-cost public housing.