Home ownership aspiration in Hong Kong : a case study of family financing in home owning

Abstract

Many studies focus on the housing decisions of younger generation mainly on the households’ individual level such as affordability, house prices, income, interest rate and the relative costs of owning. However, the family financing is also another indispensable factor to affect the decision of home-owning. The home buyers save for several years to accumulate the down payment, but it will be nibbled up by the rising of home prices. Such rapid increases in house prices will make home-owning more difficult for home buyers, especially for first-time buyers. They may seek a loan from a family member to use as part of the down payment in order to achieve homeownership. Forrest and Murie (1995) noted that family support in home owning may take an important contribution in home-ownership sphere. Moreover, many scholars pointed out that family financing is particularly important where housing prices are high, financial institutions are unwilling to provide mortgage loans or requiring high-ratio of down payment and government subsidies are not available. (Barrios, Colom and Moles, 2013; Engelhardt, 1996; Engelhardt and Mayer, 1994; Forrest and Murie, 1995; Meen, 2013; Mulder and Wanger, 1998; Ost, 2012). In Hong Kong case, parents give a finance support to their children for paying the down payment can be easily found in mass media. More significantly, the number of cases for parents getting direct involvement in helping children for home owning are largely increasing. Looking at the house price was increased 15% in average annually during the period of 2010-2012. Many parents have expectations that the house price will keep rising. If you do not buy it now, then you may not possible to afford this very soon. In this paper, we will explore how importance the family support for home-owning, the kind of financing modes are adopted for the parent and the reasons for the parent to provide financing support in helping their children’s homeownership.