Shenzhen to use Hong Kong’s public housing system as a model for retaining talent
The innovation hub plans to designate 300,000 new homes as affordable housing for “talent”, but analyst says the new policy may create unfairness
The government of Shenzhen, southeast China’s economic powerhouse which has the fastest growth in residential property prices worldwide, will try to “learn from Hong Kong’s public housing system” in a bid to prevent the best talent from leaving the city.
The city is exploring ways to build a housing welfare system similar to that in Hong Kong, providing homes to people on middle and low incomes, the mainland-based 21st Century Business Herald reported, quoting unnamed officials at Shenzhen’s housing planning authority.
A key feature of Shenzhen’s proposed system is that a considerable proportion of the public housing provided would be specifically aimed at “talent”.
Shenzhen, the mainland’s innovation hub, has become the centre of attention in China, held up by the authorities as a role model of economic transformation and wealth accumulation.
It is pretty hard to define who is a talent and who is not
Many observers, however, have questioned the city’s ability to attract and retain young talent - innovators, entrepreneurs and tech startups - as costs become increasingly unaffordable.
According to an official document issued jointly by the local authority and the Communist Party’s Shenzhen commission at the end of July, in the next five years the city will build 400,000 property units as social housing, of which 300,000 will be earmarked to accommodate “talent”.