Hong Kong’s home prices are the world’s highest. Can the city fix it?
A housing market that has become the world’s least affordable seven years in a row now stands atop the list of policy imperatives of the city’s chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.
When Far East Consortium International, a Hong Kong developer valued at one-36th of the city’s biggest builder, won a tender to build 10,000 homes in Manchester, it did so neither by the heft of its order book, nor by the size of its financial war chest: it was a comprehensive master plan that beat out five global bidders in an open tender.
The £1 billion (US$1.3 billion) project - equivalent nearly to Hong Kong’s Taikoo Shing township in size and scope - will be jointly developed with the Manchester City Council over the next decade, emphasising on design quality, sustainability, open space, with walking and cycling routes. The city council described the plan, which cover 120 hectares (296 acres) of an area littered with industrial sites, as the most ambitious housing-led regeneration project ever undertaken in Manchester.
The success by Far East in punching above its weight is one example of how developers can balance their shareholders’ interest with social needs to arrive at a happy medium, where homes can be built with quality, but at prices affordable by medium-income families.
The example is particularly pertinent for Far East’s home base in Hong Kong, where a housing market that has become the world’s least affordable seven years in a row now stands atop the list of policy imperatives of the city’s chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.