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The View | Let’s build smaller public housing, not bigger – and hurry up and kick-start privatisation

Homes offered through Hong Kong’s welfare housing programme are getting bigger, while units offered through private development are shrinking. We need to reel back these distortions

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A far more radical change in housing policies must be contemplated, writes Richard Wong. Photo: Winson Wong

In recent months, if not years, there has been an unending stream of shrill press reports about housing prices scaling new heights, and the size of new private housing units shrinking to new lows. The small size of the units is an interesting question for economics.

The trivial answer is that Hong Kong simply has a huge housing shortage that is expected to remain for some time, due to local and regional economic growth, favourable global macroeconomic conditions (like low interest rates), and a restrictive supply of housing and land.

But causal factors can also be found in the structure and history of our housing market and policies.

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