published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

After the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, the economy of Hong Kong has not fully recovered but the housing prices in Hong Kong market have been rising strongly after 2009. In the late of 2008, Hong Kong’s housing prices started to rebound and began to surge since early 2009 surpassing the peak in 1997. Government senior officials have issued their warnings for the increasing risk of a bubble forming in the housing market. In accordance with my study, the causes of the rapid growth in the housing prices could be generalized from three major factors which are 1) low interest rates, 2) Government housing policy and 3) hot money. It is found that the scenarios and backgrounds have resemblance to the Japan’s bubble economy in 1989. The bursting of the ‘Bubble Economy’ has led Japan’s economy to a serious recession of more than 20 years. In order to prevent the bursting of the housing bubble after the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, the Hong Kong Government has implemented a series of preventative measures to eliminate the boom of bubble in the housing market. Those measures are first started in 2009 and in 2010, other concerned measures have been released by Government continuously after the following years. However, the housing prices still ascending in the past few years. Mr. John Tsang, the Hong Kong Financial Secretary warned that the price of secondhand flats on Hong Kong Island hit record levels, surpassing the peak reached during the 1997 housing bubble. Nowadays, Hong Kong is facing the downturn of world economy and the bad debt problems in Europe which will weaken the people’s confidence on the housing market. In fact, the bursting of the housing bubble could be triggered by any adverse news or scandals. It will cause the housing prices begin to decline. The descending of the housing prices will further deteriorate the confidence of the people. It will generate a consequence so called the ‘The Herding Effect’ and will cause a huge amount of capital including the foreign investments retreated from the housing market within a very short period of time. The consequence will led the housing prices further collapse and trigger the bursting of housing bubble. In order to avoid the collapse of the Hong Kong housing market, the Government shall take much and more effectiveness preventative measures to tackle the booming of the housing bubbles. Otherwise, coupled with the consequence from ‘The Herding Effect’ and the continuously booming on the housing prices, once there is any adverse news or crashes come from internal or external, the housing bubble will be burst. The overall economic and financial stability in Hong Kong will face another serious impact and the Hong Kong Government, the home owners as well as the non-home owners have to experience another painful and bitter lesson since 1997 again. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

This thesis explores the impact of housing rights jurisprudence on Chinese legal and policy frameworks in the housing sector, examines the key related issues, and assesses whether current practices are in line with international best practice. The thesis considers three major questions, viz. 1 What are housing rights? 2 What is the significance of housing rights in the Chinese context? 3 Given the features and nature of housing rights, and China’s transitional societal background, how could housing rights be implemented? By looking at the jurisprudence and jurisprudential development of housing rights in international law and related humanitarian jurisprudence, this thesis proposes a three-layer framework of housing rights, which encompasses property and resource dimensions. While the property dimension requires the state to refrain from interfering in property interest in housing, the resource dimension establishes a set of principles for directing governmental duties in utilizing and redistributing resources. The governments should enable equal and equitable access to housing and housing-related resources, and ensure housing development is a human-centered, sustainability-oriented process. China is a transitional society, where the Constitution shows a trend towards strengthening property rights protection, but institutional constraints on property rights remain. There are also transformative schemes in the housing sector that take the form of land reform and public housing programs. An overview of the housing regime in China identifies three primary limitations: an incoherent legal framework of Chinese takings law related to the property dimension of housing rights; problems with equal and equitable access to land resource as reflected by the urban-rural divide in the land tenure system; and the lack of a sustainability vision in public housing development. It is, therefore, argued that implementing housing rights involves enshrining values and principles related to housing rights in the domestic constitution. This can take the form of reinterpreting the Chinese constitutional property according to the three-layer framework of housing rights. Such a reinterpretation sheds further light on how to resolve the key issues in the current housing regime. This study concludes that housing rights require Chinese constitutional property to strike a balance between protecting existing property-holdings and the transformative schemes in the housing sector. For the property dimension of Chinese constitutional property, housing rights help to construct a coherent jurisprudence for Chinese takings law. The resource dimension of housing rights serves as an assessment tool for the policy framework to guide both the utilization and redistribution of land resources and the development of public housing programs. This facilitates the legal and policy framework in the housing sector to be informed by humanitarian jurisprudence and be in line with international best practice. The pioneering nature of this thesis lies in its exploration of humanitarian jurisprudence which is new to Chinese constitutional reasoning, and the extension of jurisprudential discussion of housing rights to public policy formulation. It is also innovative in proposing the three-layer framework of housing rights. Some of the findings from the discussion of international jurisprudence may be extended not only to the Chinese setting but also to other transitional economies which face similar housing issues and concerns in their policy-making. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Sub-divided units (SDU) and the similar type of tiny accommodation namely cage home and cubicle apartment have been existed in Hong Kong for a long period of time. Despite the factthat the living condition of those flats is usually undesirable, there are views in the community that there is demand in the market because these flats can provide affordable urban accommodation to those who are not eligible for Public Rental Housing (PRH) or those who wish to live in the urban area which is closer to their workplaces or their children's place of study at a cheaper rent. The repeated fire incidents happened in the tenement buildings consisted of SDU causing number of casualties has widely aroused the public concern about the safety of SDU. Although the HK government has been implementing measures since 2011 to tackle the problems of SDU, the number of people living in SDU has still greatly increased from 53,000 in 2007 to 171,300 in 2013, accounting for 2.4% total population of Hong Kong. In fact, the increase of SDU not only reflects that many low-income group cannot afford the high housing rent, but also many households are being forced into inappropriate or sub-standard accommodation. J Pynoons, R Schafer, C Hartman (2012) stated that the quality and location of housing affect the security, happiness, and stability of families, and have serious implications for the economic and social wellbeing of our urban areas. The problems arising from SDUs not only affect the individual of tenants, but also impose hazard to the building management, fire safety, building structure and social order. Due to speculation and limited land supply, the problems of SDUs were still remained unsettled and the housing price has still been escalating to a higher recorded price causing shortage of adequate housing supply and thus the increase of rental price on housing. With rents escalating and Housing Authority waiting lists lengthening, low income households, particular the households who were not eligible to or awaiting for PRH were forced into inappropriate and sub-standard accommodation. Although the government has formed a long Term Housing Strategy (LTHS) Steering Committee to look into the housing problems of grassroots families, it would not see the proposed measures shall immediately solve the housing problems, particularly in relation to SDUs within a short period of time. All the proposed measures require number of years to plan, discuss and compromise with different parties. The goal of this dissertation is to review the phenomenon of SDU and to study the reasons of trend of such phenomenon. Without a thorough understanding on the phenomenon of SDU and the reasons of trend, no proper measures shall be implemented to tackle the problems of SDU. The phenomenon of SDU shall be deemed to be the result of number of reasons relating to land supply and housing demand. The ever rising housing price, the attitude and direction of property developers, the housing policy towards affordable housing and the high cost of living are the factors affecting the supply and demand of affordable housing whereas decreasing vacancy in the private rental market, lack of funding, lack of private development of affordable housing, increasing rent prices, lack of long-term affordable housing planning and the absence of a comprehensive housing policy cause the supply of affordable housing cannot meet the increasing demand. Besides, the attitude of people who worried that affordable housing will increase traffic, reduce their property values and lack of safety in their communities, no one wants to be near or to have additional affordable housing in their communities. These attitudes further make the government difficult to find suitable locations for affordable housing. Besides, various articles and news revealed that many people living in SDU are single parenthood, mental illness, disable and addiction to drugs and drink. However, there is no survey to reflect or indicate the real situation. Government should look into the real situation and to effect proper measures to tackle the problems of the above people. / 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 / Urban Studies / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Urban Studies / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Urban Studies / Master / Master of Social Sciences