A study of the impact of housing tenures on people's perception of well-off tenants policies

Abstract

The public housing programme in Hong Kong is one of the largest in the world and nearly 30% of population i.e. over 2 million people are living in public rental housing (PRH). There are about 740,000 PRH flats in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, still many people are in need of housing subsidy and the PRH Waiting List (WL) applicants were more than 248,000 as at March 2014 (HKHA, 2014). The public housing resources are limited and the housing demand is high, there is growing concern about the effective allocation of public housing resources. As most of the public housing tenants are reluctant to surrender their PRH flats to move into other tenures even they become affordable to purchase their own dwellings, the Government implemented the Housing Subsidy Policy (HSP) and the Policy on Safeguarding Rational Allocation of Public Housing Resources (SRA) in 1987 and 1996 respectively in order to safeguard the rational use the public housing resources. These two policies are commonly known as the Well-off Tenants Policies. The aims of these policies are to cherish the public housing resources and reduce the level of housing subsidy to those better-off tenants whose economic situations have been greatly improved after living in the PRH, then the public housing resources can be redistributed to those in genuine need. During the Long Term Housing Strategy (LTHS) public consultation exercise 2013, there are divergent public views on the Well-off Tenants Policies. The LTHS Steering Committee has suggested the Government to study whether the policies should be maintained, reviewed or tightened, and how the policies may be optimized. (LTHS, 2013) This paper would like to study if there is any impact of the housing tenure status on one’s perception of the Well-off Tenants Policies. The results of the survey revealed that housing tenures do have impact on people’s perception of housing policies. Different tenure groups think differently about the equity, satisfaction and effectiveness of the Well-off Tenants Policies according to their own situation and diverse interests. In the unique political situation of Hong Kong, the politicians tend to support those with more votes. PRH residents are the dominant tenure groups as they account for one-third of the population in Hong Kong, their interests and voices may usually be supported and protected. However, the needs of the grassroots families residing in private rental housing may sometimes be neglected. Undeniably, the Government should open to hear different views and attend to gain the consensus from the general public. However, there are diverse public opinions among different stakeholders and it is sometimes unlikely to balance the interests among all parties. In that case, the Government should acquaint with the main theme of public housing policy that is to provide affordable housing to the low-income families who are unaffordable to private housing. In order to formulate efficacious housing policy to meet its primary mission and public expectation, it is necessary to pay more attention to the views of needy groups. The Well-off Tenants Policies should be further reviewed to sift out the well-off tenants and PRH abusers so that the public housing resources can be allocated to those poor families who are residing in unpleasant private rental dwellings and suffering from unaffordable high housing rents.