Can Hong Kong’s next leader John Lee fix the city’s housing crisis?
- Years of policy paralysis have set Hong Kong on its way to an entrenched housing crisis, with homes growing smaller but more expensive
- New political landscape offers the best chance to succeed where past administrations have failed
Zoe But said it was the luckiest day in her life when she and her fiancé were chosen in the ballot to buy a subsidised home 25 years ago.
“We were really lucky. Without the flat, we would have had no way of having a home of our own to start a family,” said But, now 59. “Although paying up the mortgage was hard – you couldn’t travel as much as you like or eat whatever you wanted – it was worth it.”
But and her fiancé, both merchandisers, married not long after getting the new 590 sq ft flat in Charming Gardens, Mong Kok in 1998.
They shared the three-bedroom flat with her husband’s younger sister and parents. The siblings had previously lived with their parents in a public rental flat which was slated for redevelopment.
But, her husband and sister-in-law paid for the flat, sharing equally to shell out HK$2.35 million over 22 years.
In 2008, the couple paid HK$2.1 million for a second home, a 505 sq ft flat in the same estate, for themselves and their two children. Having benefited from the subsidised scheme once, they had to pay the full market premium for the second-hand property.
“If we had not bought it, there would have been no more chance later as homes only got more and more expensive in Hong Kong,” she said. “Our next generation is not as lucky.”
