Yue Chim Richard Wong
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888208654
- eISBN:
- 9789888313044
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208654.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Hong Kong is one of the world’s most densely populated cities. Land supply, property values, and housing provision are inextricably linked with the city’s economic growth and questions of economic ...
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Hong Kong is one of the world’s most densely populated cities. Land supply, property values, and housing provision are inextricably linked with the city’s economic growth and questions of economic equality. In Hong Kong Land for Hong Kong People, Yue Chim Richard Wong traces the history of Hong Kong’s postwar housing policy. He then discusses current housing problems and their solutions, drawing on examples from around the world. Wong argues that housing policy in Hong Kong, with its multiple, often incompatible objectives, and its focus on supply over demand, can no longer satisfy the needs of a diverse and dynamic population. He recommends three simple low-cost policies to promote homeownership and social mobility: sell public rental housing units to the sitting tenants; make subsidized homes more affordable; and reform the public housing program along lines adopted in Singapore, where government-built housing may be resold or leased in a free market. This is the second of Richard Wong’s collections of articles on society and economy in Hong Kong. The first, Diversity and Occasional Anarchy, published by Hong Kong University Press in 2013, examines the growing contradictions in Hong Kong’s economy predicament in historical context.Less
Hong Kong is one of the world’s most densely populated cities. Land supply, property values, and housing provision are inextricably linked with the city’s economic growth and questions of economic equality. In Hong Kong Land for Hong Kong People, Yue Chim Richard Wong traces the history of Hong Kong’s postwar housing policy. He then discusses current housing problems and their solutions, drawing on examples from around the world. Wong argues that housing policy in Hong Kong, with its multiple, often incompatible objectives, and its focus on supply over demand, can no longer satisfy the needs of a diverse and dynamic population. He recommends three simple low-cost policies to promote homeownership and social mobility: sell public rental housing units to the sitting tenants; make subsidized homes more affordable; and reform the public housing program along lines adopted in Singapore, where government-built housing may be resold or leased in a free market. This is the second of Richard Wong’s collections of articles on society and economy in Hong Kong. The first, Diversity and Occasional Anarchy, published by Hong Kong University Press in 2013, examines the growing contradictions in Hong Kong’s economy predicament in historical context.
Yue Chim Richard Wong
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888208654
- eISBN:
- 9789888313044
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208654.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
The most important issue in designing public housing policy is to have a functioning market that allows households to choose housing tenure, between tenancy and homeownership. This is especially ...
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The most important issue in designing public housing policy is to have a functioning market that allows households to choose housing tenure, between tenancy and homeownership. This is especially important in developing economies with weak institutions that are experiencing rapid urbanization and industrialization, because the choice of housing tenure matters on both economic and social grounds.Less
The most important issue in designing public housing policy is to have a functioning market that allows households to choose housing tenure, between tenancy and homeownership. This is especially important in developing economies with weak institutions that are experiencing rapid urbanization and industrialization, because the choice of housing tenure matters on both economic and social grounds.
N. D. B. Connolly
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226115146
- eISBN:
- 9780226135250
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226135250.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter examines how black people pursued suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s as part of new efforts at racial integration and long-time efforts to realize and showcase class-distinctions within ...
More
This chapter examines how black people pursued suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s as part of new efforts at racial integration and long-time efforts to realize and showcase class-distinctions within segregated black communities. Black support for suburbanization must be understood as part of more general residential trends in metropolitan development, this chapter shows. African American and black Caribbean suburbanization also served, however, as uniquely important engines for a political culture that continued to privilege property ownership as the most durable marker of respectability and equal citizenship. Commitments on the part of white city officials and developers to maintain a degree of racial segregation in housing – post-Jim Crow – made South Florida’s new color line harder to see, and thus more impervious to legal challenge. And commitments among many entrepreneurs to continue profiting from racial segregation ensured that black suburbs in South Florida would suffer much of the same unequal treatment and infrastructural development that had plagued Jim Crow’s tenements over the previous century. The resulting downward mobility of South Florida’s black suburbs and the attendant frustrations among black Miamians, by the late 1960s, sparked a most dramatic break in Miami’s fragile racial peace – the Liberty City riot of 1968.Less
This chapter examines how black people pursued suburbs in the 1950s and 1960s as part of new efforts at racial integration and long-time efforts to realize and showcase class-distinctions within segregated black communities. Black support for suburbanization must be understood as part of more general residential trends in metropolitan development, this chapter shows. African American and black Caribbean suburbanization also served, however, as uniquely important engines for a political culture that continued to privilege property ownership as the most durable marker of respectability and equal citizenship. Commitments on the part of white city officials and developers to maintain a degree of racial segregation in housing – post-Jim Crow – made South Florida’s new color line harder to see, and thus more impervious to legal challenge. And commitments among many entrepreneurs to continue profiting from racial segregation ensured that black suburbs in South Florida would suffer much of the same unequal treatment and infrastructural development that had plagued Jim Crow’s tenements over the previous century. The resulting downward mobility of South Florida’s black suburbs and the attendant frustrations among black Miamians, by the late 1960s, sparked a most dramatic break in Miami’s fragile racial peace – the Liberty City riot of 1968.
John Arena
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677467
- eISBN:
- 9781452948102
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677467.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
Chapter 4 analyzes how federal public housing policy was “neoliberalized” in the 1990s, the embrace of “reform” by New Orleans developers and public officials, and how federal initiatives were worked ...
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Chapter 4 analyzes how federal public housing policy was “neoliberalized” in the 1990s, the embrace of “reform” by New Orleans developers and public officials, and how federal initiatives were worked out at the neighborhood level.Less
Chapter 4 analyzes how federal public housing policy was “neoliberalized” in the 1990s, the embrace of “reform” by New Orleans developers and public officials, and how federal initiatives were worked out at the neighborhood level.
John Arena
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677467
- eISBN:
- 9781452948102
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677467.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
Chapter 6 looks at the struggle to defend New Orleans public housing communities, and the role that nonprofits played in undermining those efforts, post-Katrina.
Chapter 6 looks at the struggle to defend New Orleans public housing communities, and the role that nonprofits played in undermining those efforts, post-Katrina.
N. D. B. Connolly
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226115146
- eISBN:
- 9780226135250
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226135250.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Building on discussions of interracial alliances and conflicts outlined in the previous chapter, “A Little Insurance” explores how Jim Crow’s rental owners and property managers made use of the hard ...
More
Building on discussions of interracial alliances and conflicts outlined in the previous chapter, “A Little Insurance” explores how Jim Crow’s rental owners and property managers made use of the hard power of the state and the soft power that came from building community in colored neighborhoods during the late 1940s and the early 1950s. In particular, in focuses on how landlords utilized the mortgage insurance programs of the Federal Housing Administration 1) to keep slum clearance movements at bay and 2) to convert much of Greater Miami’s wooden tenements into concrete, low-rise housing projects. Concurrent with these efforts, white homeowners, frustrated with their inability to control land condemnation powers for the sake of preserving Jim Crow, resorted to a series of bombings, believing that racial terrorism, as in years prior, would protect their property values from the apparent “blight” of having black neighbors. The dangers that racial terrorism raised for Greater Miami’s tourist economy in the 1950s inspires local government officials to re-invigorate public housing programs. Government containment of black residents, by way of public housing, seemed a more effective means of maintaining the racial peace. To the view of some housing reformers, it also promised improved housing conditions for Negro renters.Less
Building on discussions of interracial alliances and conflicts outlined in the previous chapter, “A Little Insurance” explores how Jim Crow’s rental owners and property managers made use of the hard power of the state and the soft power that came from building community in colored neighborhoods during the late 1940s and the early 1950s. In particular, in focuses on how landlords utilized the mortgage insurance programs of the Federal Housing Administration 1) to keep slum clearance movements at bay and 2) to convert much of Greater Miami’s wooden tenements into concrete, low-rise housing projects. Concurrent with these efforts, white homeowners, frustrated with their inability to control land condemnation powers for the sake of preserving Jim Crow, resorted to a series of bombings, believing that racial terrorism, as in years prior, would protect their property values from the apparent “blight” of having black neighbors. The dangers that racial terrorism raised for Greater Miami’s tourist economy in the 1950s inspires local government officials to re-invigorate public housing programs. Government containment of black residents, by way of public housing, seemed a more effective means of maintaining the racial peace. To the view of some housing reformers, it also promised improved housing conditions for Negro renters.
Yue Chim Richard Wong
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888208654
- eISBN:
- 9789888313044
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208654.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
A crucial question in the discussion on housing is whether most households in the public housing sector are on the whole poorer than those in the private sector. Or, does the distribution of ...
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A crucial question in the discussion on housing is whether most households in the public housing sector are on the whole poorer than those in the private sector. Or, does the distribution of household income among public housing occupants and private housing occupants overlap significantly or minimally? A well-known result from the economics of housing demand is that households with higher incomes prefer or demand bigger homes, and the size of accommodation is expected to be positively related with income. Given the large difference in the median size of the housing units between the private and public housing sectors (about 40%), an efficient or optimal housing arrangement would require that there be very different income levels between the occupants of these two sectors.Less
A crucial question in the discussion on housing is whether most households in the public housing sector are on the whole poorer than those in the private sector. Or, does the distribution of household income among public housing occupants and private housing occupants overlap significantly or minimally? A well-known result from the economics of housing demand is that households with higher incomes prefer or demand bigger homes, and the size of accommodation is expected to be positively related with income. Given the large difference in the median size of the housing units between the private and public housing sectors (about 40%), an efficient or optimal housing arrangement would require that there be very different income levels between the occupants of these two sectors.
Yue Chim Richard Wong
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888208654
- eISBN:
- 9789888313044
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208654.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
How do we know the proportion of unsatisfied households is very large? The answer is in the inequity of the public housing program. The distribution of household income between public and private ...
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How do we know the proportion of unsatisfied households is very large? The answer is in the inequity of the public housing program. The distribution of household income between public and private renters overlaps enormously. The housing demands of many public housing tenants cannot be substantially lower than those of private renters. Policymakers in Hong Kong simply fail to appreciate this absolutely important fact. Their ideas about public housing are based on gross misunderstanding. Since public housing tenants are not allowed to exercise choice over their housing units, the value they attach to their units must be lower than the true worth of their unit or its worth to another person. The only way you can get a well-off person to accept or tolerate a small unit is to offer a huge discount. The housing unit is only undervalued to the person who is occupying it. If a market exists and the occupant can rent out this unit to anyone on the market, its true value would be realized.Less
How do we know the proportion of unsatisfied households is very large? The answer is in the inequity of the public housing program. The distribution of household income between public and private renters overlaps enormously. The housing demands of many public housing tenants cannot be substantially lower than those of private renters. Policymakers in Hong Kong simply fail to appreciate this absolutely important fact. Their ideas about public housing are based on gross misunderstanding. Since public housing tenants are not allowed to exercise choice over their housing units, the value they attach to their units must be lower than the true worth of their unit or its worth to another person. The only way you can get a well-off person to accept or tolerate a small unit is to offer a huge discount. The housing unit is only undervalued to the person who is occupying it. If a market exists and the occupant can rent out this unit to anyone on the market, its true value would be realized.
John Arena
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677467
- eISBN:
- 9781452948102
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677467.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
Chapter 1 provides a demographic profile of the St. Thomas and the collective efforts residents mounted to address their grievances.
Chapter 1 provides a demographic profile of the St. Thomas and the collective efforts residents mounted to address their grievances.
Yue Chim Richard Wong
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888208654
- eISBN:
- 9789888313044
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208654.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Every person who grew up in Hong Kong has been taught that, after a 1953 Boxing Day fire in Shek Kip Mei, which left 53,000 immigrants homeless, the government initiated a policy to develop ...
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Every person who grew up in Hong Kong has been taught that, after a 1953 Boxing Day fire in Shek Kip Mei, which left 53,000 immigrants homeless, the government initiated a policy to develop Resettlement Estates to house these stranded people. The program continued until eventually more than 200,000 such units were built. It is easy to conclude that a Christmas fire triggered the greatest humanitarian policy initiative in postwar Hong Kong. This is, of course, part of the urban myth we all grew up with. At the very most, the Christmas fire was only one of many relevant reasons for this building program.Less
Every person who grew up in Hong Kong has been taught that, after a 1953 Boxing Day fire in Shek Kip Mei, which left 53,000 immigrants homeless, the government initiated a policy to develop Resettlement Estates to house these stranded people. The program continued until eventually more than 200,000 such units were built. It is easy to conclude that a Christmas fire triggered the greatest humanitarian policy initiative in postwar Hong Kong. This is, of course, part of the urban myth we all grew up with. At the very most, the Christmas fire was only one of many relevant reasons for this building program.
Yue Chim Richard Wong
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888208654
- eISBN:
- 9789888313044
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208654.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Chapter 2 considers how Hong Kong got to where it is today. The history of Hong Kong’s housing strategy in the postwar era—and the one we still pursue—is best described as a massive attempt by ...
More
Chapter 2 considers how Hong Kong got to where it is today. The history of Hong Kong’s housing strategy in the postwar era—and the one we still pursue—is best described as a massive attempt by government to provide rental shelter and homeownership for the population. Most people in Hong Kong are so accustomed to this provision that they hardly stop to think about what the government’s role in housing should be. The author believes that Hong Kong’s long-term housing goal should be to provide a mixture of public and private units so that at least 80% of permanent residents can become bona fide homeowners.Less
Chapter 2 considers how Hong Kong got to where it is today. The history of Hong Kong’s housing strategy in the postwar era—and the one we still pursue—is best described as a massive attempt by government to provide rental shelter and homeownership for the population. Most people in Hong Kong are so accustomed to this provision that they hardly stop to think about what the government’s role in housing should be. The author believes that Hong Kong’s long-term housing goal should be to provide a mixture of public and private units so that at least 80% of permanent residents can become bona fide homeowners.
Yue Chim Richard Wong
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888208654
- eISBN:
- 9789888313044
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208654.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Both public rental housing and HOS housing in Hong Kong are financed through monetizing part of the land values of the HOS units. The land values are not fully monetized because part of the land ...
More
Both public rental housing and HOS housing in Hong Kong are financed through monetizing part of the land values of the HOS units. The land values are not fully monetized because part of the land premium is still unpaid and not wholly settled with the Housing Authority. It would make good sense today to develop a single subsidized housing program so the units are available for both rent and purchase, tenants having the option of renting first and purchasing later, as in the case of Singapore’s public housing scheme. Our low-income households would be more than willing to purchase these units if they were priced at an affordable level for them. As long as they are priced to cover at least full development costs, the government would be able to finance the entire cost of providing subsidized housing through monetizing land values. These low-income households would be able to benefit at nobody else’s expense. This would drive government spending on housing down to zero and would help reduce government spending pressure enormously, making scarce government revenues available for other uses.Less
Both public rental housing and HOS housing in Hong Kong are financed through monetizing part of the land values of the HOS units. The land values are not fully monetized because part of the land premium is still unpaid and not wholly settled with the Housing Authority. It would make good sense today to develop a single subsidized housing program so the units are available for both rent and purchase, tenants having the option of renting first and purchasing later, as in the case of Singapore’s public housing scheme. Our low-income households would be more than willing to purchase these units if they were priced at an affordable level for them. As long as they are priced to cover at least full development costs, the government would be able to finance the entire cost of providing subsidized housing through monetizing land values. These low-income households would be able to benefit at nobody else’s expense. This would drive government spending on housing down to zero and would help reduce government spending pressure enormously, making scarce government revenues available for other uses.
Yue Chim Richard Wong
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888208654
- eISBN:
- 9789888313044
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208654.003.0027
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
People today see property as more than a form of shelter. They desire to own property as an asset to insure against an insecure future, yet they know that a private sector home is unaffordable for ...
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People today see property as more than a form of shelter. They desire to own property as an asset to insure against an insecure future, yet they know that a private sector home is unaffordable for many of them. That is why they try to climb through the PRH and HOS public housing ladder. But here their aspiration is constrained, because that ladder leads only to a compromised future of partial and incomplete property ownership, where they cannot sell their unit on the open market without paying the exorbitant land premium. Should this be the ultimate prize that the people of Hong Kong have to look forward to? More importantly, can Hong Kong afford to allow this situation to continue?Less
People today see property as more than a form of shelter. They desire to own property as an asset to insure against an insecure future, yet they know that a private sector home is unaffordable for many of them. That is why they try to climb through the PRH and HOS public housing ladder. But here their aspiration is constrained, because that ladder leads only to a compromised future of partial and incomplete property ownership, where they cannot sell their unit on the open market without paying the exorbitant land premium. Should this be the ultimate prize that the people of Hong Kong have to look forward to? More importantly, can Hong Kong afford to allow this situation to continue?
John Arena
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677467
- eISBN:
- 9781452948102
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677467.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
Chapter 3 continues a focus on political strategy by addressing how and why the St. Thomas residents and their advisors undertook a dramatic political reversal by forging a partnership with the ...
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Chapter 3 continues a focus on political strategy by addressing how and why the St. Thomas residents and their advisors undertook a dramatic political reversal by forging a partnership with the city’s most powerful real estate mogul to redevelop their community and surrounding area.Less
Chapter 3 continues a focus on political strategy by addressing how and why the St. Thomas residents and their advisors undertook a dramatic political reversal by forging a partnership with the city’s most powerful real estate mogul to redevelop their community and surrounding area.
John Arena
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677467
- eISBN:
- 9781452948102
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677467.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
In the early 1980s the tenant leaders of New Orleans St. Thomas public housing development and their community activist allies were militant, uncompromising defenders of the city’s public housing ...
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In the early 1980s the tenant leaders of New Orleans St. Thomas public housing development and their community activist allies were militant, uncompromising defenders of the city’s public housing communities. They led sit-ins, spoke out at public hearings, and denounced attempts by developers to seize their homes and disperse their communities. Yet ten years later, the St. Thomas community leaders and their activist allies forged a partnership with the city’s most powerful real estate developer to privatize the development and create a new racially integrated, “mixed-income” community that would drastically reduce the number of affordable apartments. From protesting federal and local government initiatives to scale back public housing, tenant leaders and advisors were now cooperating with a planning effort to privatize and downsize their communities. Arena argues that the insertion of radical public housing leaders and their activist allies into a government and foundation-funded non-profit-complex is key to understanding this unexpected political transformation. The new political allegiances and financial benefits of the non-profit model moved these activists into a strategy of insider-negotiations that prioritized the profit-making agenda of real estate interests above the housing and other material needs of black public housing residents. White developers and the city’s black political elite embraced and cultivated this new found political “realism” because of the legitimation it provided for the regressive policies of poor people removal and massive downsizing of public housing.Less
In the early 1980s the tenant leaders of New Orleans St. Thomas public housing development and their community activist allies were militant, uncompromising defenders of the city’s public housing communities. They led sit-ins, spoke out at public hearings, and denounced attempts by developers to seize their homes and disperse their communities. Yet ten years later, the St. Thomas community leaders and their activist allies forged a partnership with the city’s most powerful real estate developer to privatize the development and create a new racially integrated, “mixed-income” community that would drastically reduce the number of affordable apartments. From protesting federal and local government initiatives to scale back public housing, tenant leaders and advisors were now cooperating with a planning effort to privatize and downsize their communities. Arena argues that the insertion of radical public housing leaders and their activist allies into a government and foundation-funded non-profit-complex is key to understanding this unexpected political transformation. The new political allegiances and financial benefits of the non-profit model moved these activists into a strategy of insider-negotiations that prioritized the profit-making agenda of real estate interests above the housing and other material needs of black public housing residents. White developers and the city’s black political elite embraced and cultivated this new found political “realism” because of the legitimation it provided for the regressive policies of poor people removal and massive downsizing of public housing.
Mark Hampton
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719099236
- eISBN:
- 9781526104373
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719099236.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
Coexisting with the laissez-faire discourse described in chapter two, British accounts of Hong Kong—including official ones—also emphasized modernization. Above all, this meant containing the ...
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Coexisting with the laissez-faire discourse described in chapter two, British accounts of Hong Kong—including official ones—also emphasized modernization. Above all, this meant containing the disorder of the overcrowded areas, and filling in the “empty” rural areas of the New Territories. Such discourse often juxtaposed modernity with Chineseness, implying not only that the British were the effective agents of modernity, but that it was an inherently non-indigenous import. To an extent, the tropes of order and modernization contradicted the idea of a free-wheeling capitalist economy, because it cited deliberate planning. Yet because such top-down planning focused on infrastructure projects and public housing that would facilitate cheap labour, it can be seen as a complementary pro-business discourse. The British discursive imposition of order and modernization was displayed, above all, in zoning regulations, in the development of public housing (accelerating after a massive 1953 fire at Shek Kip Mei), in the creation of planned New Towns such as Tsuen Wan, Tuen Mun, and Sha Tin, and in major infrastructure projects including the Plover Cove reservoir and the Chek Lap Kok airport.Less
Coexisting with the laissez-faire discourse described in chapter two, British accounts of Hong Kong—including official ones—also emphasized modernization. Above all, this meant containing the disorder of the overcrowded areas, and filling in the “empty” rural areas of the New Territories. Such discourse often juxtaposed modernity with Chineseness, implying not only that the British were the effective agents of modernity, but that it was an inherently non-indigenous import. To an extent, the tropes of order and modernization contradicted the idea of a free-wheeling capitalist economy, because it cited deliberate planning. Yet because such top-down planning focused on infrastructure projects and public housing that would facilitate cheap labour, it can be seen as a complementary pro-business discourse. The British discursive imposition of order and modernization was displayed, above all, in zoning regulations, in the development of public housing (accelerating after a massive 1953 fire at Shek Kip Mei), in the creation of planned New Towns such as Tsuen Wan, Tuen Mun, and Sha Tin, and in major infrastructure projects including the Plover Cove reservoir and the Chek Lap Kok airport.
Yue Chim Richard Wong
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888208654
- eISBN:
- 9789888313044
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208654.003.0011
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Public pressure on government to reintroduce the HOS reappeared after 2010. When the US Federal Reserve announced a policy of quantitative easing to jumpstart the US economy. American funds flowed ...
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Public pressure on government to reintroduce the HOS reappeared after 2010. When the US Federal Reserve announced a policy of quantitative easing to jumpstart the US economy. American funds flowed into the emerging economies in the world, and in Hong Kong rising home prices in the private market reignited concern among middle-income households that their aspirations for homeownership were being frustrated. It is obvious there is an enormous desire within this community for people to own their own homes. The past 30 years have convinced the people of Hong Kong that property prices are highly volatile but will rise, and those caught without a flat to call their own will have much to regret later in life.Less
Public pressure on government to reintroduce the HOS reappeared after 2010. When the US Federal Reserve announced a policy of quantitative easing to jumpstart the US economy. American funds flowed into the emerging economies in the world, and in Hong Kong rising home prices in the private market reignited concern among middle-income households that their aspirations for homeownership were being frustrated. It is obvious there is an enormous desire within this community for people to own their own homes. The past 30 years have convinced the people of Hong Kong that property prices are highly volatile but will rise, and those caught without a flat to call their own will have much to regret later in life.
Yue Chim Richard Wong
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888208654
- eISBN:
- 9789888313044
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208654.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Both Singapore and Hong Kong have massive public sector housing programs on a scale that is unprecedented in free market capitalist economies. Approximately four-fifths of Singaporeans and half of ...
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Both Singapore and Hong Kong have massive public sector housing programs on a scale that is unprecedented in free market capitalist economies. Approximately four-fifths of Singaporeans and half of Hong Kong residents live in government-provided subsidized housing. But the two programs are critically different because of their different policies on homeownership and tenancy rights. Singapore has allowed for the establishment of an active market in public sector housing for rental and for purchase and sale. But in Hong Kong, restrictions have made the market for such units nonexistent and nonfunctional, with grave consequences for matters beyond housing issues. To consider a way out of this morass, it is useful to study the case of Singapore.Less
Both Singapore and Hong Kong have massive public sector housing programs on a scale that is unprecedented in free market capitalist economies. Approximately four-fifths of Singaporeans and half of Hong Kong residents live in government-provided subsidized housing. But the two programs are critically different because of their different policies on homeownership and tenancy rights. Singapore has allowed for the establishment of an active market in public sector housing for rental and for purchase and sale. But in Hong Kong, restrictions have made the market for such units nonexistent and nonfunctional, with grave consequences for matters beyond housing issues. To consider a way out of this morass, it is useful to study the case of Singapore.
Yue Chim Richard Wong
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888208654
- eISBN:
- 9789888313044
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208654.003.0018
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
There was no compelling reason to believe the market was failing or that government intervention to curb speculation was warranted. Speculative activities improve economic efficiency. A better ...
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There was no compelling reason to believe the market was failing or that government intervention to curb speculation was warranted. Speculative activities improve economic efficiency. A better appreciation of the mechanism behind the presale arrangements would lead to a more enlightened view about regulating the market for presale housing units. However, this has not happened. In the past 20 years the government has repeatedly intervened in the market to curb speculation whenever there is a public outcry against property price surges.Less
There was no compelling reason to believe the market was failing or that government intervention to curb speculation was warranted. Speculative activities improve economic efficiency. A better appreciation of the mechanism behind the presale arrangements would lead to a more enlightened view about regulating the market for presale housing units. However, this has not happened. In the past 20 years the government has repeatedly intervened in the market to curb speculation whenever there is a public outcry against property price surges.
Yue Chim Richard Wong
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888208654
- eISBN:
- 9789888313044
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208654.003.0025
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Reforming public sector housing will go a long way towards reviving the natural ebb and flow of life of half the city’s population. It will make inhabitants freer and less frustrated, encourage ...
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Reforming public sector housing will go a long way towards reviving the natural ebb and flow of life of half the city’s population. It will make inhabitants freer and less frustrated, encourage people to move around, and reactivate their natural economic instincts to build and create. It will end the labeling effect of living in the public housing sector. At the very least, the place they now live in will become a community that they will call their home and start investing in rather than treat as a public asset they do not own. A population policy that seeks to attract more talent to Hong Kong can only be beneficial for all if economic growth results from dynamic externalities produced by human capital. To date, there has been more talk than substance. With an aging population knocking on the door, we clearly should be planning for a much larger and better population mix and seek to attract migrants and contracted non-local workers based on their capacity to produce and innovate, rather than merely the assets or spending power they command.Less
Reforming public sector housing will go a long way towards reviving the natural ebb and flow of life of half the city’s population. It will make inhabitants freer and less frustrated, encourage people to move around, and reactivate their natural economic instincts to build and create. It will end the labeling effect of living in the public housing sector. At the very least, the place they now live in will become a community that they will call their home and start investing in rather than treat as a public asset they do not own. A population policy that seeks to attract more talent to Hong Kong can only be beneficial for all if economic growth results from dynamic externalities produced by human capital. To date, there has been more talk than substance. With an aging population knocking on the door, we clearly should be planning for a much larger and better population mix and seek to attract migrants and contracted non-local workers based on their capacity to produce and innovate, rather than merely the assets or spending power they command.
