Francis Neoton Cheung

Opinion | Hong Kong needs common prosperity too, starting with affordable housing

Financial Secretary Paul Chan’s call for Hong Kong to support Beijing’s drive for greater equality is long overdue in a city dominated by property elites

The subsidised housing scheme recently launched by New World Development should push other developers to prioritise social impact over financial gain

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Skyrocketing rent and property prices have contributed to rising inequalities in Hong Kong. Photo: Bloomberg

Francis Neoton Cheung

Published: 7:00pm, 11 Dec 2021

As Beijing continued its common prosperity push at the Chinese Communist Party’s sixth plenum last month, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po almost simultaneously asserted that Hong Kong must “make the cake bigger” to achieve the national goal.

Though firmly on message, Chan’s realisation was long overdue for a local government that has for so long paid little attention to public grievances about the domination of property developers.

It was in the late 2000s that Hong Kong experienced a palpable shift in public mood as discontent grew over the iron grip of conglomerates on every aspect of the city’s day-to-day life.

A few tycoons had achieved towering wealth and political influence, thanks to their control of private housing, retail, utilities and public transport. Meanwhile, skyrocketing rents and home prices put affordable housing out of reach for many, especially the young.

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The intricate workings of the property elite were expertly captured in Alice Poon’s bestseller Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong, which detailed how a lack of competition and cartel-like behaviour had concentrated power and land in the same entities. The book, first published in 2005, sparked an awakening among the public to the ills of Hong Kong’s political economy.