'Trapped' in Hong Kong's Hyper-dense Cityscape

'Trapped' in Hong Kong's Hyper-dense Cityscape

Least Affordable Real Estate Market in the World
No doubt, it's incredibly expensive to stay in Hong Kong than anywhere else in the world. Hong Kong has ranked as the world's least-affordable housing market in the world. The housing prices are now almost 20 times more than annual income. It means that an average household income of RM 50,000 annually would  be looking for a house that cost up to RM 1,000,000. It's absolutely difficult to own a home in Hong Kong. 

The Coffin/Cage Home

Coffin Home

Most residents of Hong Kong with low income have no choice but to squeeze into incredibly small units, the so called Coffin Home. The size of a typical Coffin Home is ranging from 75 sqft to 140 sqft, which is not bigger than a parking space (typical parking lot in Malaysia is 135 sqft). Basically, the room just able to fit one person and their belongings. And units basically stacked on each others in a room in order to fit as many people as they can in the room. Such limited space is described as a coffin home which definitely traps and constraints the people's habits and activities.


Is Land Scarcity the Culprit of High Prices Housing?
Land Use Map of Hong Kong

Is it really that Hong Kong is running out of lands? By referring the land use map of Hong Kong, it's showing that the very densely developed urban landscape but yet there's still 75% of non-built-up area which is not developed. Again the question, is the pricey housing in Hong Kong result of the land scarcity? The answer is NO.

From the research, the problem of such high price housing isn't the shortage of land but the bad land management. The truth is, there's just 3.7% out of all the land in Hong Kong is zoned for urban housing due to the inefficient policy. With such scarce and valuable urban housing land zones, more and more competitive developers from mainland China bid in the auction process, and ends up the land is leased out with astronomical prove.

  Percentage of Government Revenue related to Land Leases in Hong Kong

Besides, the other reason is the low taxes policy in Hong Kong. It's a great place to do business in Hong Kong because of its low corporate taxes, no sales tax and free market economics. The government of Hong Kong isn't getting revenue from taxes, which means that they have to get it from somewhere else. The study shows that lots of the government revenue is driven by land revenue and it's about 30% of government public financing income. 

The way the government zones and leases the land, as well as the low taxes policy allows them to make tons of revenue and proud to be top of the ranking of world's freest economy. However, I think it's really less human-centered for Hong Kong citizen and missing of sense of home for the people. Hopefully, the government of Hong Kong should look into less profitable solution and zoning reform, and put the interest of people above interest of market to be socially sustainable!



reference:

Alan Taylor. (2017). The 'Coffin Homes' of Hong Kong. The Atlantic. Retrieved from: https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/05/the-coffin-homes-of-hong-kong/526881/

Look What’s Hiding Inside Hong Kong’s Cage Homes. Bright Side. Retrieved from: https://brightside.me/wonder-places/look-whats-hiding-inside-hong-kongs-cage-homes-795235/