Concrete Analysis | Hong Kong must intervene as home ownership among city’s youth slips beyond their reach
- Hong Kong is the world’s least affordable housing market for the 11th consecutive year in Demographia survey
- More starter home projects must be set up to assist young families to buy homes by increasing land supply
Many previous studies have investigated the relationship between urbanisation and house prices, which has given rise to heated debate among academics. As corroborated by Demographia’s International Housing Affordability survey for 2021, Hong Kong remained the world’s least affordable housing market for the 11th consecutive year.
Since the early 1980s, the Hong Kong government has continued to release land for development of new towns to cope with the increasing housing demand led by unrelenting population growth. The massive development of public and subsidised housing has helped support lower-income families that cannot afford to buy private homes.
Today, the city’s economic prosperity and education level have generally been greatly improved, providing enormous opportunities for the residents. Having said that, a major challenge presented by such rapid development is the degradation of the quality of life, especially for young adults, whose chances of moving up in society are tapering. The youth are also concerned by the consequences of social stratification and class rigidity, which further deteriorates housing affordability.
For those who can find necessary funds to meet the upfront payment, the large outgoing often creates an additional financial burden for future mortgage payments or other financial commitments. Given the current house price trends and to settle the large deposit payment, most young property buyers either seek financial support from their families or are required to live a frugal life.
