City Beat | Hong Kong’s biggest headache is not only finding land, but also building affordable housing
City’s problem of soaring property prices cannot be solved just by supplying more land, and public consultations are unlikely to reach an easy consensus
What is the most haunting nightmare for our government? Not independence advocacy, not even those always critical pan-democratic politicians, but housing, perhaps.
The city’s housing shortage is an obvious political time bomb which can cause serious damage, socially and politically, if not properly defused. It is also a key benchmark Beijing now uses to assess the competence of the city’s administrative team.
The sky is the limit for runaway property prices in Hong Kong. To make matters worse, while building micro flats has become the new trend under the excuse of making housing more affordable, the hard truth is that prices per square foot actually keep soaring.
Affordability has become an illusion for many, especially young people.
It doesn’t make much news nowadays when a studio-style flat measuring less than 200 sq ft can cost more than HK$4 million or HK$5 million. Prices for relatively luxurious flats can be as high as HK$40,000 to HK$50,000 per square foot, depending on their location.
Construction of Hong Kong’s ‘shoebox’ flats soars along with prices
But it gets worse if you find the private property market unaffordable and turn to the supposedly cheaper alternative of government-subsidised housing meant for low-income groups.