Xi Jinping says houses are ‘for living in, not for speculation’. But is Hong Kong listening?

President Xi Jinping’s comment at the 19th party congress, that “houses are for living in, not for speculation”, followed the continued tightening of housing measures across China since March, when cities began to introduce a sales ban. More than 40 cities now have such restrictions, with Xian, Chongqing, Nanchang, Nanning and Changsha having recently tightened controls – most have banned home sales for two to three years after purchase.

In her first policy address, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor focused on the Hong Kong housing crisis and suggested that extending homeownership was going to be at the core of her policy. Lam noted that people have a “rightful expectation” that the government should provide adequate housing, which is also “fundamental to social harmony and stability”.

Last month, Our Hong Kong Foundation unveiled their latest research on housing. The report, “Housing Policy Reform to Narrow Wealth Gap”, is a detailed critique of the imbalances in the government’s social housing programmes. It proposed a new scheme to improve efficiencies in the housing market. More importantly, the aim is to “inject wealth to households through the form of homeownership”, encouraging households to “satisfy their housing demand through the private market”.