Page 4 - LanHse_full_report_eng

Foreword

Today, the one livelihood issue on the top of Hong Kong people’s
agenda is the shortage of land and housing, which has caused escalat-
ing property prices, and in turn hindered Hong Kong’s development and
international competitiveness. To provide a long-term solution to this
predicament and to enable the whole community to enjoy comfortable
accommodation, Our Hong Kong Foundation (OHKF) has identified "Land
and Housing" as its first area of research focus.
This research focuses on enabling the underprivileged to own their
property with appropriate policy support, given the resources that we
have today. In the long term, we hope they can share the wealth gener-
ated from Hong Kong’s economic prosperity. On the other hand, we strive
to maximize the creation of land at the lowest cost and with minimum
impact, so as to resolve the various issues arising from land shortage,
with an aim to materializing the city’s masterplan for the next century.
The shortage of housing supply has led to a wide array of social issues.
First and foremost is the soaring property prices, dividing society into peo-
ple who own properties and people who do not, further widening the gap
between the rich and the poor, as it is very difficult for the salaries and
savings of the non-property-owners to catch up the rise in property pric-
es. With half of the population comprising non-property-owners, the con-
tinually soaring property prices would intensify the anxiety, contradictions
and conflicts in society, resulting in further polarization of the population
and a fiasco in the administration of Hong Kong.

After in-depth exploration and analysis, the research on "Land and
Housing" led by OHKF advocates that the Government should implement
a "Subsidized Homeownership Scheme" that enables public housing res-
idents who cannot afford to buy property to acquire their own residence
through government subsidies.

The key objective of the "Subsidized Homeownership Scheme" is to
satisfy the people’s need for accommodation and property ownership, so
that more needy families can become property owners. This will create a
new rung in the property ownership ladder, and alleviate the disparity in
asset ownership between the rich and the poor. The land value could be
released if public housing can gradually become privately owned, allow-
ing the Government to reclaim the value of the relevant land resources.
In this manner, public resources will be augmented, and the pressure on
public finances alleviated.