Hong Kong’s housing crisis: with fewer and smaller flats, quality of life will only worsen
- Land and housing supply has lagged behind targets for years and the overall situation is now dire
- The government must expedite all major land supply initiatives, especially the New Development Areas, and streamline procedures for housing development
A person’s living environment plays a pivotal role in their physical and mental well-being. In Hong Kong, despite the economic prosperity the city has enjoyed over the past few decades, a segment of society may feel they have not benefited, especially in terms of housing and living space.
On its current trajectory for housing development, Hong Kong will soon be caught in a situation of “triple lows”, in which land supply, new housing numbers and quality of life will all deteriorate. Fewer – and smaller – flats will be built, and developing small sites, rather than large-scale towns, will become the norm.
We believe the government has been striving to allow most people to own their own home and live in a comfortable-sized apartment. Yet, such developments will take us further away from these planning ideals.
Hong Kong has long suffered from a lack of good-quality land for housing, given that large-scale development has been absent over the past two decades, and the stock from existing new towns is close to exhaustion.
Along with the reduction in quantity has come a decrease in quality. In the government’s land sale programme, for example, the proportion of development sites providing fewer than 100 flats has increased from 10 per cent in 2015/16 to 40 per cent in 2021/22.
