published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Housing managers and researchers in the related field are interested in the study of lifestyle as a contributing factor to understanding the management of the housing estates in Hong Kong. Traditional studies in housing management are related to enhancement of building functions and design, improvement of service delivery and introduction to a variety of quality systems. However, these studies were limited by not acknowledging the key to housing management: the residents. Instead of a client-owner relationship, residents should be treated as part of the living environment of the housing estate, as their behavior is deeply embedded in the living place. They are “living in the place”, which is a type of lifestyle choices that is fostered by the living environment, and it is particularly the case for elderly residents. This study aims to fill the gap in the literature by using a sample of 300 elderly residents residing in two public rental housing estates in Hong Kong, namely Ming Wah Dai Ha and Oi Tung Estate. In order to examine the relationship between frequency of participating in activities that take place at home, at estate common area, or activities that are organized by the management offices, and the lifestyle of elderly residents, this study uses descriptive statistics and comparisons by tables, with primary data collected in questionnaires and interviews. The survey results indicate that certain extent of correlations exists between the lifestyle of elderly residents and the living environment including living spaces, facilities, and the management of the estate itself. Different attributes of the housing estates lead to different behavioral patterns of the elderly residents. Lastly, recommendations will be given as to reinforce the social network established in the living environment and to promote “new” lifestyles through housing management practices. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Ageing population has been an urging problem all over the world. Planners from the respective governments are thus requested to review the existing housing provisions to cater for the increasing housing demand of the elderly persons. With almost 19.5% of the total population are classified as persons over the age of sixties in year 2011, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the Government) has been taking proactive measures to plan for this group of the silver-haired. With public rental housing and other scheme like the Home Ownership Scheme being offered in the market by both the public and private sectors, it was noted that the housing need for the middle income group elderly persons was often left unattended. More than that, housing units provided with necessary health care service are required to fulfill the requirement of “health ageing”. In this respect, the Hong Kong Housing Society (the HKHS) has introduced a program named the Senior Citizen Residence Scheme (the SEN Scheme) a decade ago. Currently there are two housing estates, offering hundreds of housing units, with purposely built housing design. This type of residential care development with health service is planned to target the housing need of elderly persons from the middle income group. Not only their housing demand is addressed, the requirement for medical and nursing care services is also entertained. This paper is then written to study the various aspects of the SEN Scheme, from both the hardware and software perspectives. Based on the comments received from the questionnaires distributed to the elderly persons residing in the two housing estates, recommendations will then be given for future improvement of the program. With the number of recommendations to be given, the problems of the SEN Scheme could be addressed and make it more comprehensive and appealing to the elderly persons. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

This thesis uses Hong Kong’s empirical data to refute “Olson’s conjecture,” which stated that it is harder for a smaller group than a larger group to disintegrate. It investigates the rise and fall of the civil servants’ co-operative building society, which was a special form of housing arrangement for civil servants in Hong Kong that began in the 1950s. The focus is on the voluntary dissolution of civil servants’ co-operative building societies. Members of a society have a choice to maintain the status quo or opt for dissolution to potentially increase the value of their properties. Olson’s group theory (Olson 1965) and neo-classical economics factors were adopted to evaluate the decision time (i.e., from 1985 until the dissolution date) of the co-operative building society. Group size, land value, the real option value of redevelopment, and the overall housing market sentiment were significant factors that affected the timing of the dissolution of each co-operative building society. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

In Hong Kong, the population of the elderly are even growing with longer expectation of life. In the past decade, Chinese elderly have their traditional preference to live with their children and children take up the responsibility to care of the elderly during the late adulthood. The Government’s elderly policy also encourages elderly are the best living with their children by launching housing policy to promote this concept. But challenges come from the ever-changing preference of the elderly in living arrangements. More of them are prefer to live alone or with their couples in order to avoid conflicts with the younger generations or being the financial burden of their children. In the situation that the increasing number of elderly to choose to live as singletons or with couples, the housing needs are increasing as well. This study is then conducted to understand the livability of elderly housing in Hong Kong, in order to investigate how the living environment affecting the physically and psychological conditions of the elderly and review of the existing housing policy in Hong Kong. In the past, there are many study had reviewed the policy of the public rental housing provided by the Government. We could only find few studies on reviewing the housing conditions of the private housing for the elders. It was because they are being considered having stable financial conditions as owning private properties. However, we could easily find out the elders who have suffered from great pressure on living although they have having own properties in Hong Kong. It might greatly relate to decreasing earning power in late adulthood, without a viable retirement protection and demanding responsibility of being owners in maintaining the housing conditions. With the conditions of deteriorating physiological and psychological on the elderly, they have great difficulties to cope with the situation. We would like to find out how the livability of housing conditions and living environment of the elderly in private housing in Hong Kong, after going through all over the chapter in this research study, a conclusion would be made in which recommendations on further housing policy could be summarized on providing better support to the elderly and secure that they could enjoy the living during the late adulthood. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Anti-social behaviour (AS B) in social housing is a major social concern. Because it destroys the living environment and ruins the quality of life, the need for intervention is never disputed. In the UK and Australia, strategies instituted against ASB are either prevention- or enforcement-focused. In Hong Kong, with the rapid development of the public rental housing (PRH) programme and the fast growth of PRH estates since 1953, pure reliance on the provisions of the tenancy agreement to arrest ASB has proved futile. Given the diverse backgrounds of the PRH tenants and the ever-surging PRH population, the Hong Kong Housing Authority seized the outbreak of SARS in 2003 as an opportune time to launch a new set of ASB control - the Marking Scheme (MS) - in the hope of improving the living environment and producing such social outcomes as civic responsibility and neighbourliness amongst its tenants. As a penalty-paint-driven system leading to tenancy termination, the MS is built on several key social-work and psychological concepts/theories including direct social control, broken window theory, conditioning and social learning, all aimed to induce behaviour change amongst the PRH residents. Notwithstanding the 10-year history of the MS, studies of this mode of ASB control mechanism are few. The handful of studies now available in the academia focuses only on the fairness, justifications and effectiveness of the MS. There is no study of whether it can bring about behaviour change. This research serves to fill the gap. By analyzing the survey results collected from a couple of young and old estates in a "City of Sadness" - Tin Shui Wai, it has found that the greatest impact of the MS on controlling ASB is its capability of inducing behaviour change. It is this capability that makes it tick. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Housing has ever been the major concern of Hong Kong people. The housing prices of Hong Kong have fluctuated up and down largely in the past two decades. Housing prices reached a new record high in December 2013. Although the housing prices slide down slightly in recent months, they remain at very high level. Private housing became more and more unaffordable to Hong Kong people including the middle class. Many Hong Kong people resort to public rental housing (PRH) to meet their housing needs. As at the end of 2013, there were about 122,200 for non-elderly one-person applicants under Quota and Points System (QPS) and that were even more than 121,100 for general waiting list applicants. This reflects the large housing needs of young singletons for one-person household flats and alarms the public and the government of the serious shortage of housing for young singletons. The housing needs and aspirations of young singletons have ever been marginalised by the government that can be indicated by the housing policy carried out in Hong Kong. Singletons aged 21 or over have only been allowed to apply for PRH since 1985. However, the priorities of allocating PRH are given to family households, elderly and the disadvantaged. The successful housed number of non-elderly one-person applicants in permanent public rental housing increased from only 125 in 1996/1997 to 3,700 in 2004/2005. The implementation of QPS since 2005 has greatly restricted the access of PRH by young singletons because the allocation of PRH is mainly on the basis of age and subject to the annual maximum allocation quota of 2,000 units. On the other hand, singletons have only been allowed to apply for purchase of subsidised sale flats and home purchase loans for purchase of self-occupied flat since 1998. All these are restricted by limited quota, size of flats to be purchased and half of the loans granted to general family applicants. Following the cease of various subsidised sale schemes and home purchase loans from end of 2002, the assistance to singletons to purchase their self-occupied flats also has stopped. From the perspective of housing policy in developed countries, government interventions in the housing market have been reduced for the past few decades especially after Asian Financial Crisis and Global Financial Tsunami. Governments of western countries and developed countries of Asia have shifted to adopt more market oriented housing policy and to encourage homeownership since 1990s. Governments emphasize provision of social rental housing to those in need. People living in social rental housing have then been stigmatized. Consequently, housing prices in these countries have been fluctuating up and down largely and supply of housing has not been matched by the needs of people. Accessibility to social rental housing by young singletons is dampened. Shortage of affordable housing affects young singletons seriously. Many young singletons tend to stay longer at parental home as what Yamada (1999) described as “parasite” single. Mckee (2012) finds that it is an international phenomenon of reducing self-occupied homeownership rates for young people as more young people staying with their parents, studying longer, having difficulty in getting employments, facing restriction on accessing state welfare benefit and in changing household formation. In acknowledging the housing needs and demands of young people, governments of Asian countries tend to adopt policy promoting self-occupied homeownership to assist young people in meeting their housing aspirations. Singapore government adopts housing policy encouraging homeownership by introducing different schemes to meet varied needs and aspirations of Singaporeans at different stages of life-cycle. In recognition of the housing aspirations and contribution of singletons, Singapore government has provided housing benefits of singletons aged 35 years or over to buy resale Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats in HDB estates and since 2013 they has been allowed to buy new flats of particular size in non-matures estates from HDB. In South Korea, the previous LEE Myung-bak administration introduced new housing policy to assist newly married couples by providing long-term self-occupied home financing with low interest rates and increasing supply of self-occupied homes for low-income newly married couples to solve the housing problems of young families. The Australian government has introduced various measures to deal with the housing affordability problem including a first self-occupied home owner savings account, a notional rental affordability scheme, national housing affordability fund and establishment of a land supply council. Many researches have found that housing pathways of young people in developed countries are similar in following a sequence that individuals move from the parental self-occupied homes through sharing accommodation, private rental housing and into self-occupied homes. Young singletons have different tenure preferences that may vary according to the educations levels, income levels, security of jobs, family backgrounds, gender, views on marriage and stages of life cycle. This paper attempts to understand the housing needs and aspirations of young singletons in Hong Kong, the reasons causing them to have different needs and aspirations and their expectations on the government in meeting their housing needs and aspiration. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted to obtain the general information and views of young singleton respondents by questionnaires survey and to have better understanding of the relationship of young singleton’s backgrounds, reasons for moving out from parents, their preferences and affordability fro housing and expectations on government by in-depth interviews. The results indicate that nearly half (44%) of young singleton respondents had no plan to buy their self-occupied flats and chose renting and only 56% of young singleton respondents had plan to buy their self-occupied flats. To a certain extent, young singletons of Hong Kong change their housing needs and aspiration according to their stages of life-cycle. After leaving parental home, young singletons would choose sharing accommodation in private rental housing. They plan to buy their self-occupied flat when they get older or married. Factors such as age, education levels, income levels, gender, Chinese traditions, household size and present housing tenures of young singletons as well as government policy affect their housing needs and aspirations. Young singletons expect the government to provide them with more in-kind and in-cash housing subsidies in order to assist them meeting their housing needs and aspirations. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

As at March of 2014, there are over 168 public housing estates and 766,300 public rental housing flats under the Hong Kong Housing Authority portfolio, it accommodating a total of more than two million people. The estate management and maintenance services are important for government to maintain social cohesion. Housing Department started to outsource property management of public rental housing to property services agents on 1 October 2000 by tender out. After 13 years run for the program, there are about 100 estates (60%) of public rental housing managed by property services agents. Recently, there is criticized that Housing Department outsource too many estates, it should be in-source the management back to itself. It is a chance to review the cost effectiveness and efficiency of outsourcing. This paper is trying to analyze and evaluate the outsourcing of property management of public rental housing in Hong Kong. A comparison on the services performance of public rental housing estates’ tenants by the property services agents and Housing Department. Also secondary data will be used to evaluate the cost effectiveness by outsource the estate management and maintenance services. The objective is achieved by using tenant’s survey. Result from this analysis show that the performance of property services agent provide a better services than Housing Department. It is no doubt that the performance of them is satisfactory and they are more cost effective. However, it does not imply that their services are far better than Housing Department, especially in repair and maintenance aspects. Recommendations are then made to help to review the problems of outsourcing and how to solve it. It is hope the finding can give the direction to Housing Department to use which management mode in new developed estate. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Since the hygiene condition and medical services improved in the past few decades, the expectation of life has been lengthened generally. With the baby boom effect, the mass increase in fertility following the World War II result in the problem of ageing population around the world nowadays. The phenomenon alerts the governments of global countries to solve the anticipated ageing problem by catering the needs of the elderly. In addition, the needs of the elderly are changing with the improvement of education level and affluence level. It contributes to elderly in middle-class occupying a larger proportion of the elderly in Hong Kong nowadays. Even though the government has introduced various kind of social policies to deal with the increasing demand and changing needs of the elderly, it is still not enough to satisfy the rising aspiration of the middle-income elderly. In order to fill the market niche for the elderly in the middle-income group, the Hong Kong government invited Hong Kong Housing Society to undertake a tailor-made housing scheme for the elderly on a basis of leased-for-life. Under the Senior Citizen Residence Scheme (SEN), it aims to provide an affordable and quality accommodation with integrated service for the middle-income elderly. As the SEN scheme is built upon the concept of "ageing-in-place" and "continuum of care", it seeks to strike an excellent to enhance the quality of life for the elderly residents. Since the SEN scheme is a pilot project, it would be considered as a relatively new and initiative development of elderly housing project comparing to the overseas' housing development. It is valuable to carry out a comprehensive assessment on the achievement of the SEN scheme. As the scheme is developed upon the concept of "ageing-in-place" and "continuum of care", this paper will focus on assess the effectiveness of the scheme in facilitating the concept of ageing-in-place in various aspects. Also, it will investigate the effectiveness of the scheme in affecting the expectation on the future housing arrangement of the elderly. The result of the assessment would be provide a reference for the authority to foresee whether there is any improvement for further development of ageing-in-place policy. As a result, it believed that the assessment of this paper is significant to gives a recommendation for the development of the upcoming project to build a quality living place for the elderly to age-in-place.iii / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management