Housing, Crises and Interventions in Hong Kong

Abstract

Hong Kong shares many common features in social policy development with its East Asian neighbours within the ‘productivist’ welfare regime (Holliday, 2000). In these contexts — where social policy has been employed to achieve economic objectives — family and kinship are the major contributors to social welfare, whereas state provision largely acts as a supplement, filling gaps in welfare delivery. In housing, state support for homeownership often constitutes a financial welfare pillar for most families: as a contingent source of financial assistance, as an income in-kind for non-mortgaged owner-occupiers and as a material basis for intergenerational exchanges (see Doling and Ronald, 2010; Ronald and Doling, 2010). Recent socioeconomic and demographic changes, however, have had a profound impact on the welfare systems of most East Asian countries, with Hong Kong at the forefront of many such changes. For instance, the country has achieved one of the lowest fertility and highest longevity rates in the world, with these changes having knock-on effects on housing and social policy.