Page 14 - ENGLISH_Housing

Secondly, the present layout of HOS and TPS units is unfair.
Unlike private owners who pay 100% of the maintenance fee and can
subsequently enjoy 100% of the appreciation in value associated with the
units, the owners of HOS and TPS units who are paying the full amount of
maintenance fee will only be able to enjoy the capital appreciation minus
the unpaid land premium. Thus, in the case illustrated above, owners
of HOS units will only be able to enjoy 70% of the capital appreciation
associated with any improvements of the properties.

2.3 The ‘Haves‘ and the ‘Have-nots’

The issue of bona fide vs quasi homeownership is not the only
concern with property ownership in Hong Kong.

Figure 2. Trend in homeownership rate (%), 2000-2015

Source: Census and Statistics Department.

As Figure 2 shows, similar to the divide between the public and
private sector of household dwellings, the distribution of households by
tenure of accommodation, i.e. whether they are owners or renters of
the properties, is also approximately equal. While homeownership in
Hong Kong constitutes a slight majority in the population, the trend of
homeownership rate has been decreasing since the mid-2000s from
its peak in 2004. This is most probably due to declining affordability of
homeownership because of high property prices.

This has produced the gulf between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots',
as well as the 'quasi-homeowners' and 'bona fide homeowners', which
has been widening since the mid-2000s. Disturbingly, this is connected to
an array of malign issues, including and not limited to (a) an unequal and
inequitable allocation of public housing; (b) the increase in rate of divorce
and family breakdown; (c) low intergenerational mobility and poverty; and (d)
social injustices. The Report will explore in detail each of these aspects in

19