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15 December 2010 Hong Kong People’s Opinion on Property Market and Housing Policy in 2010
The findings from this opinion poll could be summarized as follow: First, most of the respondents, including stakeholders such as property owners, are in support of the Government’s recent measures to curb short-term property speculation. This could be related to the finding that 83.4% of the respondents either agree or strongly agree that the current property prices have exceeded people’s affordability, which is an increase of 8.8% compared to last year’s results. Second, most of the respondents are in favor of home ownership. For example, in the long run, it is better to own a home than to rent, even when there are risks associated with home ownership such as negative equity. In addition, the respondents feel that the most important conditions affecting the decisions on home ownership are affordability (53.3%), followed by Government policies (24.4%), and real estate market cycle (11.6%). The fact that the respondents place less emphasis on the effects of the real estate market cycle reflect their vulnerability towards purchasing their home at the peak of the real estate market, putting them at risk for negative equity. More importantly the measures announced by the Government on November 19th to curb property speculation have not reduced the number of people who planned to purchase their home in the coming two years, when the real estate market cycle is at a peak. This is reflected through the finding that there are no significant changes in the number of respondents who planned to purchase real estate in the coming two years before (15.6%) and after (15.8%) the Government’s announcement of anti-speculation measures. Therefore there is a practical need for the Government to continue to launch measures to stabilize the property market in order to prevent another large scale occurrence of negative equity among people in Hong Kong. Third, 65.5% of the respondents agree that the Government is responsible for resolving the housing issue for people from the lower socioeconomic stratum. Also, 34.1% of the respondents feel that the Government has responsibility to assist the general public to achieve home ownership. In addition, a small portion of the respondents (24.7%) agree that the Government is responsible for assisting newly married couples to purchase their first home. Overall, these findings indicate that the Government’s housing policy should provide assistance to the people according to their needs. However, the respondents do not strongly feel that the Government is responsible to assist the general public who are capable of purchasing their own home, or newly married couples who are purchasing their first home. This could reflect the people’s value on self-reliance. Fourth, people’s opinions towards housing and land policies or measures in the Policy Address reflect significant differences in their evaluation. The policies or measures that receive support from the respondents include urban renewal policies, rezoning of industrial land for residential use, and the use of legislation to control the first-hand sales of private residential flats. On the other hand, the policies or measures that did not receive support from the respondents include reclamation on appropriate scale outside Victoria Harbour to generate more land in the long run, using specific sites on the Application List as the main source of sites for sale by auction or tender supplemented by sites put up for auction by the Government, and the use of “My Home Purchase Plan” to replace the “Home Ownership Scheme” in order to assist home ownership among the sandwich class.
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