Privatising Public Housing in Hong Kong: Its Impact on Equity

Three processes are examined to assess the impact on equity of policies to privatise public housing in Hong Kong. These are changes in the inter-sectoral distribution of subsidies, changes in the quality and quantity of public rental housing, and changes in access to public housing. It is found that housing subsidies have remained concentrated in the public rental sector, and the quantity, quality and amenity of housing in this sector has actually increased. The Hong Kong Government has not sought to reduce eligibility for and access to public housing; the lengthy waiting list to join this tenure reflects increases in demand since the privatisation policy was introduced. Thus, unlike the experiences of many other countries, the Hong Kong Government's policy to privatise public housing has not had a notably adverse impact on housing equity to date.     

Private Rental Housing in Hong Kong

This paper examines selected aspects of housing policy and its influence on private rental housing in Hong Kong. Its ambitions are modest, in part because so little research has been conducted on the sector, as a consequence of the small size of the sector as well as the concentration of socio-political, economic and policy analyses on the other major housing sectors, namely public renting and home ownership. It is argued that a fundamental function of private renting, to provide a functional substitute and counter-balance to distortions in the market for private home ownership, has been systematically undermined in Hong Kong. In spite of its historical importance in meeting Hong Kong people's housing needs, the sector's decline has been steep and it can now be fairly described as a marginalised tenure, despite incomplete structural adjustment post- Asian Financial Crisis. It is suggested that a fundamental reason for the decline of the private rental sector has been the impact of government policy, which undermined the private rental sector and thus an important element of the market mechanism in housing provision. The government's ideology of home ownership has also functioned to transfer lower middle-income families into the owner occupied sector. Although the Hong Kong government has not been as overtly hostile to this sector as governments have been elsewhere, it nevertheless also seems to envisage no real role for the private rental sector in a housing delivery system molded by policy preference for home ownership, rather than fostering viable economic competition by also facilitating an efficient private rental sector.     

Residential mobility of Chinese immigrants: An analysis of housing conditions and tenure structure

For a long period of time, immigrants have played an important role in the development of Hong Kong. With an influx of over 50,000 immigrants from mainland China on a yearly basis, this is truer than ever in Hong Kong. The behavior of these immigrants is a worthwhile topic for researcher. This study focuses on various aspects of housing, ranging from the tenure choices and housing conditions to the residential mobility of new Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong. Thus far, the literature has rarely explored situations that arise when immigrants have the same racial background as the people in the host cities. This research is intended to fill this gap in knowledge. Our findings reveal that Chinese immigrant households tend to start off overwhelmingly as private renters in the housing market. They also tend to live in inferior housing. However, as the duration of their residence in Hong Kong lengthens, the types of tenure become more diverse and the quality of their housing improves, indicating an upward mobility in terms of housing conditions.     

海外公共租赁房租金管理经验及对我国的启示

发展公共租赁房,为城镇中低收入家庭、新就业职工以及外来务工人员等“夹心层”住房困难群体提供基本住房保障,对完善我国住房保障体系,实现住有所居目标、扩大内需和促进经济平稳发展具有重大意义。该文借鉴美国、英国、日本、香港等发达国家或地区公共租赁房的租金管理经验,对比分析当前我国公共租赁房租金管理方面的做法及存在的问题,提出完善我国公共租赁房租金管理的合理建议。     

Housing Tenure Preferences in the Post-privatisation Period: The Case of Slovenia

The privatisation of social housing transformed many transitional countries in Central and Eastern Europe into societies with predominant homeownership and a marginalised rental sector. The case of Slovenia shows that, despite a low level of government support of homeowners, the homeownership rate has remained at its unsustainably high level and households continue to express strong preferences for homeownership. The paper explores factors explaining current homeownership preferences in Slovenia. A comprehensive model of housing preferences is built. The model follows the proposition that tenure preferences are strongly influenced by general cultural norms and factors characterising the social, economic and political environments. The model is tested using structural equation modelling based on a survey of Slovenian households. The results reveal that the strong preferences for homeownership in Slovenia can be explained by the firm perceptions of the financial advantages of homeownership and by the lack of available rental alternatives.     

Path Dependence and Critical Junctures in Irish Rental Policy: From Dualist to Unitary Rental Markets?

Ireland is categorised as an example of the dualist rental system in From Public Housing to the Social Market—Kemeny's (1995) landmark comparative study of rented housing. This article, which examines the historical development of public subsidisation of housing and regulation of tenants' occupancy rights in Ireland, argues that contrary to Kemeny's (1996) assumption, the dualist model has recently unravelled in this country and been replaced by an embryonic unitary rental model. This is evidenced by increasing tenure neutrality of government housing subsidies; equalisation of the secure occupancy rights and minimum standards regulations across most of the rented sector and the recent decline of home ownership and expansion of renting for the first time since records began. Using ‘path dependence’ and other concepts from the historical institutionalist literature, the reasons for these developments are explored as are their implications for Kemeny's (1995) thesis.     

Movement Into and Out of the Private Rental Sector in England

The private rental sector in England is often regarded as a largely transitional tenure. It is seen as forming the lower rung of a hierarchical tenure ladder, up which households move over time on the way to an ultimate destination of owner occupation or, failing that, social rented housing. It has been recognised, however, that households may 'fall out' of the two main tenures and return to private renting. Drawing on data from the 1996-97 Survey of English Housing, this paper examines the characteristics of households that had moved into or out of the private rental sector in the previous 12 months. Although the sector remains a net exporter of households, it was found that only part of the reverse flow back into private renting could be accurately described as a process of 'falling out' of the two main tenures. A significant share of the movement from social housing into private renting was due to households who had moved in order to live in a better house or neighbourhood. The paper outlines the reasons for this phenomenon and discusses its implications for the role of private renting in England.     

Is private rental an option for urban housing provision in Hungary?

By 1998, 91 percent of all housing units in Hungary were occupied by owners –an extremely high percentage by international standards. Today's Hungarian housing politicians, whose anti-rental convictions stem from the experience of the previous regime, tend to disregard arguments about the consequences of this bias: the negative impact on mobility, the creation of a rigid housing market (lack of adaptability to the housing market), hardships in addressing social problems, conflicts between generations (obligations borne by elder generations) as well as the `compulsory' purchase of housing by younger generations and the drain of subsidies. There is extensive evidence that current Hungarian regulations are hostile to rental housing. With subsidies channeled to the ownership sector (housing construction benefits, interest subsidies, local subsidies, employer subsidies) as well as tax relief (purchase of privately owned housing, savings-linked subsidies, imputed rents), it is more expensive for households to rent than to buy or build housing. This leads to a distorted economic structure and a distorted use of society's resources. A housing policy based on modern economic theory pursues neutral subsidy and tax policies concerning ownership. Thus, from an economic point of view, there is no reason to prefer owner-occupied housing to rental housing. This paper explains why the private and public rental sectors are so small. But at a deeper level, the question is why private rented housing exists at all. The paper also explores related questions: who tend to rent out their units, why, for how long and how much; and who tend to rent these units, why do they rent them, and at what prices? The key policy issue is to define the basic impediments to the sector's expansion. On this basis, a new housing policy program can be formulated.     

Changing directions in Australian housing policies: The end of muddling through?

From the post‐war period through to the 1980s, Australia's housing system was dominated by tenure‐based policies directed towards home ownership and the provision of public housing. Private tenants were virtually excluded from housing assistance of any form. The 1990s, however, have seen an apparent U‐turn in housing policies with elimination of explicit home ownership policies, the withdrawal from direct involvement in public housing funding and a rapid expansion of rental assistance for private tenants. Australia is about to follow its New Zealand neighbour in undertaking a wholesale shift away from direct intervention in the production of housing and moving towards consumer subsidies which rely on the effective operation of the private sector in meeting housing needs. This paper provides a brief overview of changes in policies towards home ownership, public rental and private rental, a framework for interpreting these and an assessment of the appropriateness of the directions currently being followed in light of current economic trends.     

The housing careers of black middle-class residents in a South African metropolitan area

Under apartheid, black African households could not own land or homes in most major urban centres in South Africa. This limited residential mobility and locked many households into state rental accommodation in townships. Homeownership for all South Africans was restored in the mid-1980 s and the Group Areas Act was repealed in 1991. Democracy opened up economic opportunities previously unavailable to black people. This paper investigates the effect on black middle-class South African households’ residential mobility and housing careers. A retrospective cross-sectional survey of 244 such homeowners in the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality determined their last five housing states. Changes in housing state indicated a steady improvement in housing quality, but tenure changes were not necessarily unidirectional—some had reverted to rental. More than 85% of the study participants had used mortgages to finance their housing career. Very few had financed their housing using own savings, an inheritance, or sale of a previous house, and not many had used the government subsidy. We found that housing careers are bridging the historical spatial racial divide in this municipality.     

Housing starts and subsidized loans

This paper discusses how the total number of housing starts is affected by the presence of a system of subsidized governmental loans. More than 60 per cent of the housing starts in Norway since the Second World War have been financed through The State Housing Bank. The interest on these loans has been subsidized by the State. A cross-section analysis of loans given in 1993 is used to estimate the short-run effect on housing starts. Many households with loans at HB have total debt-to-income ratios in excess of three and loan-to-value ratios exceeding 80 per cent. I find that more than every second household which got a loan from HB in 1993 would not have been granted loans by private banks. The number of housing starts does not seem to be very sensitive to the size of subsidies; accessibility to credit seems to be more important. The paper concludes that the loans provided from a government agency have a substantial effect on the total number of housing starts. Viggo Nordvik is a research economist at the Department of Housing Research at the Norwegian Building Research Institute. His main interests are modelling of private and public rental housing markets and studies of effects and effectivity of housing policy.     

Tracking mobility in the housing choice voucher program: a household level examination in Florida,USA

Previous research on the housing choice voucher (HCV) program has focused on neighbourhoods where voucher holders reside at one point of time. Little is known about mobility of voucher households during their tenure in the program. Using an administrative dataset that spans 11 years for the state of Florida, this study evaluates how often voucher households move and their mobility outcomes, measured by the change of neighbourhood poverty. Findings reveal that HCV households moved frequently beginning in the early years of program participation. Between 2007 and 2013 there was a notable decrease of voucher presence in high-poverty areas. Regression analysis further suggests that rental housing market conditions are significantly associated with mobility outcomes. White, non-Hispanic households and those with higher incomes were more likely to move to lower poverty neighbourhoods, whereas disabled and formerly homeless households moved more frequently and were not as successful in accessing lower poverty areas.     

Commercial rented housing: two sectors in the Netherlands

This contribution analyses the different developments and roles of two commercial rented sectors in the Netherlands: rented dwellings owned by individuals (private landlords) and rented dwellings owned by institutional investors. Characteristics of properties and households are specified in relation to tenure. An analysis follows of household characteristics of non-movers and movers to, from and within the commercial rented sector. Some policy issues are dealt with, which are relevant for the commercial rented sector. The commercial rented dwellings owned by persons are predominantly pre-war, small, cheap dwellings with a modest quality. They form part of the urban renewal problem. The owners are small-scale landlords, mostly not professional, who do not invest in ambitious renovation or new dwellings. For this sector the future is not very bright. For starters on the housing market and elderly people, this urban sector may have a limited function. The commercial rented dwellings owned by institutions are predominantly post-war (built after 1960), spacious, expensive dwellings with a high quality. The owners are pension funds and insurance companies which sell their properties often after 15 to 20 years when conditions are favourable. This sector has a strategic function at the upper side of the rental market where rents are decontrolled. Well-to-do households in a flexible urban labour market and elderly people are the most important target groups for this sector. This sector demonstrates how a free rental market functions and enriches the whole housing sector with relevant market signals. Hugo Priemus holds the chair in housing at Delft University of Technology, where he is also managing director of OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies.     

基于动态贝叶斯博弈的市场化租赁住房的三方协调监管研究

结合住房租赁市场的现状和特点,从租赁住房利益相关者的角度对政府、住房租赁企业和消费者之间的关系进行研究,有利于加强对租赁住房市场的监管。根据三者掌握的租赁住房信息的严重不对称性,创新性地建立了动态贝叶斯博弈模型,通过求解精炼贝叶斯均衡策略分析影响各方策略选择的因素。结果表明：政府加强检查、加大对住房租赁企业的惩罚力度和增加对低质量住房的补贴,减少消费者选择租赁住房的成本或增加其选择高质量住房的收益,降低住房租赁企业提供低质量住房的收益等措施均有利于提高租赁住房的质量。利用Matlab进行模拟仿真分析,为提高租赁住房的质量提出针对性建议。     

Combined space cooling and water heating system for Hong Kong residences

The combined space cooling and hot water preheating system that utilizes the rejected condenser heat is considered one of the most cost effective energy conservation measures. However, simultaneous consumption characteristics are absent in public domain. Questionnaire surveys have been conducted to obtain the relevant information from 126 households residing in high-rise public rental residential buildings in Hong Kong, achieving a confidence level of 95%. The candidate households were selected by a convenience sampling approach, and the questionnaire was constructed using either forced-choice format or in numeric response format. The data obtained were verified by correlation analysis. Data collected includes the occupancy pattern, the installed air-conditioner and water heater characteristics, and the utilization pattern of air-conditioning and hot water. Based upon the collected data and site measurements, hourly, daily and monthly heat recovery and hot water heating demand profiles were established, as well as the correlation between tap water and outdoor air temperatures. The combined profiles enable the evaluation of the feasible use of the combined system, and for future sizing of hot water storage tanks. The potential energy and fuel cost saving associated with the use of the proposed combined system for typical public rental housing in Hong Kong was estimated to be 50%.     

Setting rent with reference to tenants' affordability: Public housing rent policy in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of the housing systems inwhich public tenants' affordability has beenincorporated in the rent-setting mechanism inwhich the median rent-to-income measurement isemployed as an explicit indicator ofaffordability. However, contravening policiesin the public housing sector make such a simplerent-setting formula complicated. A moredetailed analysis of the rent-setting mechanismalso reveals that the arbitrarily picked upreference ratio is incapable of catering forthe wide variety of circumstances amongtenants. At the same time, there is also someinconsistency in adopting a unifiedaffordability standard in different aspects ofrent setting. Lastly, the endorsement ofaffordability as an overarching principle inrent setting is prone to introducecontradictions in the system. The level of rentmay bear a close relation to the circumstancesof the occupants but not to the conditions ofthe dwelling. Affordability as amarket-oriented principle would also weaken thelegitimacy of the public rental sector as abasically supply-side oriented regime.     

The future for private rental housing: Surviving niches or flexible markets?

Private rental housing has had a mixed experience of growth and decline across the advanced economies over the postwar period. Patterns of the tenuer’s significance have been driven by policy rather than economic growth and public housing provision, home-ownership subsidies and inflation have been as significant as rent controls. Sectors now comprise well-defined segments or niches and there are both commonalities and contrasts in units provided, ownership and occupancy. A more stable macroeconomic environment and the mobility and fiscal stringency consequences of global competition appear to facilitate a more expanded role for the sector which also requires scrutiny in relation to the housing requirements for successful European Monetary Union.     

From renting to owning: Life course and housing market circumstances

Moving from a rental dwelling to owner occupation is an important event in the housing career of a household. The literature shows that considerations of housing consumption, related to household circumstances, play a dominant role in the decision to rent or to buy a dwelling. The analysis in this article substantiates again that family status must have reached a certain stability, and prospects of a substantial permanent income must be good, before the move from renting to owning is considered. But general economic circumstances which manifest themselves into changes in housing market conditions, also have measurable influences on the decision for renting or owning. In the Netherlands, the propensity for renters to buy a dwelling were low between 1978 and 1982 when prices of owner occupation were falling, mortgage interest rate was high and income prospects were uncertain. Government policy certainly has an influence on the decision of households to rent or to buy a dwelling. In the long term government promotion of one particular tenure sector over a long period may well stimulate household preference for this sector. And by consistently building large parts of new construction in one tenure, opportunities of moving in or into this sector are increased as this article illustrates for Randstad Holland.     

Gentrification in a Residential Mobility Framework: Social Change,Tenure Change and Chains of Moves in Stockholm

Studies of the impacts of gentrification have traditionally taken a relatively narrow view, focusing on the gentrifiers who move in and those who they displace. This paper seeks to apply the broader framework of residential mobility, using the vacancy chain concept to examine the knock-on implications across the entire housing market. Taking the case study of Stockholm, it is shown that tenure conversions from rental to co-operative ownership are of limited direct significance for gentrification. However, the indirect effects of this process, through the linked chains of household moves initiated, serve to reinforce other gentrification mechanisms operating within the rental sector, such as allocation mechanisms for rental housing. Therefore, the impacts of gentrification can be significantly underestimated if the wider effects on the housing market are ignored. It is suggested that this residential mobility approach is particularly important if the displacement effects of gentrification and the plight of any losers are to be fully appreciated.