Opinion | Hong Kong’s government must wrest back control of the housing market – or risk the city’s breakdown

Affordable housing is becoming an Achilles’ heel in cities worldwide, but nowhere more so than Hong Kong. The city’s rising housing prices and living costs are juxtaposed against stagnating wages and stark socioeconomic inequality. More than ever, resolving the housing crisis is a matter of national security.

In an article published in the research journal Asian Affairs, former Royal Hong Kong Police officer Martin Purbrick writes that a significant driver of the anti-extradition bill protests last year was dissatisfaction with housing access and costs.

Housing woes have also begun to echo in the upper echelons of government. In her policy address last year, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced initiatives to increase housing supply, noting that “adequate housing … is also fundamental to social harmony and stability”.

We are running out of time. Hong Kong’s housing situation is rapidly approaching a flashpoint. According to the Global Real Estate Bubble Index released last week by Swiss bank UBS, Hong Kong’s risk of a property bubble is higher than that of Tokyo, Los Angeles and San Francisco – and triple that of New York.