published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

The ageing population is growing rapidly in Hong Kong. In addition, the distribution of the elderly concentrates to live in the old urban districts including Central and Western, Wan Chai, Eastern, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon City, Wong Tai Sin, Kwun Tong and Yau Tsim Mong. In order to provide care services for elderly people, the principle of “ageing of place” is adopted by the government aim to the elderly live in a familiar environment. In order to provide a suitable living environment for the elderly, the government has implemented a series of policies on housing, recreational facilities and social elderly services for the elderly who live in the old urban districts. In order to understand whether the elderly are satisfied with the services to be provided by the government, three districts including Central and Western district, Eastern district and Wan Chai district are picked up as target of study which are a high proportion of the elderly living in. Opinions are demanded from the elderly and the representatives of Owners’ Corporation who live in these districts in order to investigate the perception of existence living environment, the recognition of the financial incentive schemes, the most important facilities and elderly services for them in daily life, the satisfaction level of the recreational facilities and the social elderly centre and the importance of maintenance of relationship with neighbours in the old urban districts. The paper finally raised several recommendations for improvement of living environment and elderly services in the old urban districts. They are providing better facilities for the elderly, increasing amount of financial incentive providing more funding for the non-government organization, providing sufficient place for the social elderly centre, providing more recreational facilities and enhancing service delivery. With the better living environment and sufficient of elderly services, the elderly can maintain a healthy life in the old urban districts. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Aging problem is continually increasing and fertility rates are declining in Hong Kong. The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (“The HKSAR Government”) concerns on the long-term care for elderly people. To compare with other developed countries, the retirement protection for elderly people in Hong Kong needs more comprehensive improvement on long-term care expenses. Actually, not many appropriate options of long-term care expenses are seemed available in Hong Kong. Revere mortgage (“RM”) is a way to unlock home equity into regular cash flows without moving out of the house. Reverse mortgage is an emergency financial tool in Hong Kong. The rationale of reverse mortgage is to help the elderly homeowners to convert housing equity to improve their living standard in retirement. Although the Mandatory Provident Fund (“MPF”) was launched in Hong Kong since 2000 and has been operating for more than 10 years, the overall performance of the MPF is less than general expectation of participants that have negative impacts on their retirement plan. The majority of Hong Kong people including the elderly homeowners may not enjoy sufficient protection from MPF after retirement. Similar reverse mortgage programmes have been practicing in the United States, Great Britain, Australia, India, Korea, Japan and Singapore. In contrast, reverse mortgage market is newly growth in Hong Kong. On the other hand, reverse mortgage programmes are tried out in Singapore, India and Korea. In the research, experience of those countries can provide comprehensive and valuable information for references in order to understand more the benefits and drawbacks of reverse mortgage to Hong Kong. Therefore, this dissertation is conducted in several perspectives in Hong Kong in order to show the feasibility of reverse mortgage programme in Hong Kong. It is worth to study whether reverse mortgage could become long-term care expenses for the upper-class housing elderly homeowners, whose residential property has high market value, in Hong Kong. In the dissertation, it is showed that the potential applicants have expectation on reverse mortgage assisting them to overcome their financial burden in the long-term care. The majority of housing values in Hong Kong are adopted to refinance for the upper-class housing elderly homeowners after their retirement. Furthermore, examination of the alternative housing options is whether to be considered for the upper-class housing elderly homeowners. On the other hands, risks and benefits of potential providers of reverse mortgage programme are examined in the dissertation. Further studies on the HKSAR Government in relation to social responsibility, financial issues and regulation issues are conducted. Based on this analysis from different views and aspects, the dissertation is tried to study the feasibility of reverse mortgage whether become long-term care expenses for the upper-class housing elderly homeowners. In addition, it is to understand not only reverse mortgage can whether overcome financial burden for the upper-class housing elderly homeowners, but also understand the perspectives of society, banks and government on reverse mortgage. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

As the world advances and communications keep improving, most people understandably are looking for better living qualities instead of merely a 'shelter'. These include not only the middle or upper classes but also those residing in government subsidized public housing such as the ones in Hong Kong. Although public housing estates are only meant to offer a very low-cost environment meeting basic accommodation needs, people still wants to enjoy daily living in terms of community harmony, friendly and helpful neighborhood, mutual interaction, and common social activities. Thus, in Hong Kong, research studies have since been proposed to determine the possible factors that can increase the life quality for public housing, given that these budgeted estates do not carry much commercial values and are limited in space, location, and architectural merits. The term "tenant participation", introduced by Linneman and Megbolugbe, refers to the active participation of tenants in well-organized manner to influence and improve their own living conditions. Tenants will be able to seek more rights and involvement in the healthy and pleasant development for their own estates. In 1995, the Housing Authority launched the Estate Management Advisory Committee (EMAC) Scheme to address the rising aspiration of tenant participation. An EMAC estate allow tenants to participate in local management matters, design of housing units, provision of facilities, and partnering arrangements. Consequently, it is expected that tenants there will develop a stronger sense of belongings, foster a more harmony neighborhood, and enhance neighborly interaction. For non-EMAC estates, tenant participation would be weak due to lack of resources in organizing interesting activities, relatively less community attachment, and shorter length of resident period. The purpose of this research work aims to qualify and quantify the degree of tenant participation for EMAC estates, versus the non-EMAC ones. And hence we will be able to make recommendations to enhance neighborly interaction. Our research approach first depends on a survey exercise in three selected public rental housing estates. The survey is specially-designed to serve two purposes: 1) identifying the factors affecting neighborly interaction for both EMAC and non-EMAC estates; and 2) evaluating the degree of tenant participation in affecting neighborly interaction in three categories – EMAC with members taking active involvement, EMAC with less active involvement, and finally the non-EMAC. Approach next is to substantiate the survey findings with explanation by considering three orthogonal aspects: 1) the change of policy on EMAC Scheme, on EMAC funding arrangement, and on the enhanced partnering arrangement among EMACs and NGOs; 2) the design of housing blocks and community facilities provided in EMAC and non-EMAC estates; and 3) the sociological impact which considers the residents' aspiration and feeling on living environment as well as their desire on community building activities. Applying the above statistical approach on our targeted population, we have obtained reasonable sample sizes of normal distribution spanning working and non-working classes, genders, and various age groups. By analyzing the results, we have confirmed our hypothesis and further been able to make recommendations to strengthen neighborly interaction for our public rental housing estates. In concluding the research, we are putting forward three specific recommendations: 1) on top of establishing EMACs, we should extensively promote and facilitate the enhanced partnering arrangements jointly with NGOs, Voluntary Agencies (VA), and Residents Associations (RA); 2) for an estate which is still not EMAC-ready, we should help and fund to establish a local community service and activity task force to build up effective and attractive tenant participation; and 3) we should allow higher flexibility in the use of EMAC funding according to specific needs of an estate as some may demand more improvement works while some may want more partnering functions and activities due to dynamic population fluctuation. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management