Page 5 - ENG_Housing_ES

inequality and poverty. Not only can families stay together and children are
benefited, the elderly population can also tap into the property asset as a
form of retirement protection. With a home, a reverse mortgage can allow
the elderly population to use the home equity for their retirement.

Furthermore, if we allow a market to exist, then less well-off
households gain a share of the value of the land that would otherwise be
lost, and in so doing they put the land resources to better use and raise the
incomes of everyone. It is a win-win scenario. The outcome will be socially
just. The SHS would allow for a more just society where resources are
yielded for all, allowing people to have greater freedom of choice, and build
a better community.

7. Concerns

A major concern about the privatisation of PRH and HOS units is
that it may lead to a flood of new housing units into the market and trigger
property prices to go down. However, the experience of the privatisation of
social housing in the UK and our empirical findings suggest that granting
more households the full property rights to their housing units does not
necessarily lead to a drop in home prices.

Another major reservation to the SHS is the perception of
unfairness, that public tenants will receive a ‘double benefit’ of a low rent
and a discounted price from the government. However, under the SHS, the
subsidised price will be repaid in full in the future. In effect, the government
will merely be providing the financing which may be inaccessible for lower-
income families, and the SHS would recover the full market price of the
unit as the buyers pay the downpayment and service the mortgage loan,
and upon their settling of unpaid premium, which would no longer be
fluctuating with market value under the SHS.

8. Conclusion

Due to globalisation and technological advancement, wealth and
income inequality is a worldwide phenomenon and is not constrained to
Hong Kong alone. Governments from all over the world have sought to
tackle this problem with little headway. Fortunately, the future of Hong
Kong is more optimistic than others. Due to the fact that nearly half of the
population of Hong Kong resides in public housing, this provides a golden
opportunity to mitigate the unequal distribution of capital by providing
homeownership and therefore an asset, possibly the most valuable form
of capital, for the relatively lower-class citizens living in public housing.

Therefore, the Report is optimistic that the SHS will bring about
positive externalities for the society of Hong Kong as a whole. An increased
homeownership rate would narrow the disparity in asset distribution and
hence the gap between the "haves" and "have-nots". The pursuit of a more
equal and unified Hong Kong could be acheived.

11