The opinions expressed by authors in these commentaries do not necessarily represent the views of the China Institute or the University of Alberta.
The costs of obtaining a home in Hong Kong have soared to extreme heights over the past two decades, setting a new high that overshadows housing costs known in 1997. Although the overall quality of housing has improved markedly in Hong Kong over previous decades, Hong Kong has a long history of housing shortages that can be traced back to the early colonial era, when the majority of the population of Hong Kong called stout tenement buildings and rooftop or hillside squatter huts home. Hong Kong housing development has been historically constrained by several factors. The area's ruggedly uneven profile naturally restricted building to Victoria Harbour's coastlines, while years of invasion and (civil) war resulted in waves of refugees contributing to rapid population growth.
Major improvements over time wed to resplendent city planning and strategies have led to a quantum jump in term of standards of living and housing. From squatter huts that offered people temporary shelter (average living space per person amounted to some 2.23m2) and feelings of intense anxiety to a bustling metropolis, much of Hong Kong's population can boast a distinctly higher standard of living than years and decades prior, and to an extent, higher standards and costs of living than many Australian, Canadian, European, and US cities.
The Hong Kong home ownership rate averaged 46.47% between 1982 and 2018, reaching an all-time of 53.4% in 2004. Today, the home ownership rate in Hong Kong dips slightly below the 50% mark, leaving millions of people struggling to survive in an unfriendly, even hostile rental market, similar to what can be seen in other popular cities that have turned to aggressive affordable housing strategies. For a large share of Hong King citizens, owning a home has become a mere fantasy. Prices have risen to such an extent that even having a roof over one's head has become a source of deep concern for millions of people and families.
The consequence of the housing prices and living environment for many people in Hong Kong is potentially one of alienation of an entire generation and possibly generations. The average waiting time for public rental housing, according to the Housing Authority, was perched at five and a half years in 2018. Whereas the average waiting time in 1997 was seven years, a sudden dip between 1998 and 2003 led to an eight-year stretch, during which waiting times hovered around two years for general applicants. 2019 presents the longest waiting times for housing in nearly two decades.
Mortgages have the potential to become life-time sentences, capable of consuming a staggering sum of an individual's income and savings, if that individual is fortunate enough to have much in the way of savings. Canadians experience the unpleasant reality of long-term mortgage commitment in Canada and likewise citizens across much of the United States, though the scale is tremendously different. Efforts to improve the home ownership rate in Hong Kong encompass, in part, plans to sell existing rental units to tenants. The Idea involvs offering tenants the opportunity to purchase their existing rental units at significantly reduced prices. If, however, market values of privately-owned homes continue to soar in the coming years and decades, profit and wealth-generation through the sale of properties could potentially place a remarkable burden on future generations. In other words, the housing market would become tighter and opportunities to entire into it would diminish prodigiously.
While young people in Hong Kong continue protesting what they call Beijing's overreach into the semi-democratic realm of their world and Beijing's compression of existing civil liberties, they are also expressing anger over the rapidly rising costs of living and a lingering concern that public housing subsidized by Hong Kong citizens paying taxes will dry up. The result may be heavy private market constraints placed on anyone wanting to enter into the housing market years from now. Such a non-sustainable approach to housing can be viewed as a wellspring of anxiety for the non-elite and younger generation, lacking the necessary financial backing or connections to secure even the most modest of housing.
We can see the convergence two distinct frustrations. Expressions of disillusionment and anger have multiplied for hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong citizens, with some continuing to pack the streets of some of the city's central districts in protest over a proposed extradition law foremost, though fear and hostility extend beyond this issue.
Pushing against Beijing's influence and perceived "meddling" in the normal semi-autonomous affairs of Hong Kong, activists look further than Beijing's proposed extradition bill, setting sights on democratically elected and representative government in their city capable of and willing to support the interests of Hong's Kong's middle and working class, students, and families. Demonstrations that have turned violent are organized around calls for universal suffrage and long-term material well-being of regular Chinese citizens living within the bustling and growing city - a city that carries with it a special character that sets it worlds apart from the rest of China.
China has faced the issue of anger in Hong Kong over the neglect of civil liberties and basic rights before. Many have alleged that the current protests are an extension of protests past - foremost, Occupy Central's 79-day sit-ins in Hong Kong business districts in 2014. One can observe anger over the neglect of other civil liberties and basic rights - the right to a home, a place to live and call home, and a dignified standard of living. The latter might be linked to the perception of opportunity and regard for even modest interests of aspirations of new and emerging generations.
Beijing's foray into Hong Kong applies further pressure on people (not just young people) who face greater difficulty in making ends meet and to support themselves in Hong Kong on a daily basis. Costs of living are therefore treated as constraints on other critical areas of life: having a family, for example, and considering the barriers one might face if living situations were to suddenly change as a result of exogenous shocks.
Policy decisions in general have been depicted as the instruments of individuals situated above general society in Hong Kong, that serve the elite, and leave people in non-privileged positions to find ways to make ends meet. Thus, the rest are left to find ways survive in one of the world's glittering financial hubs. Demonstrators have stated that while opportunity exists for the rich to become even richer, the struggle for others (for example, the non-wealthy) intensifies but with little prospect for upward movement.
Market control by major firms has attracted a great deal of negative attention, likened to the idea of control in general as a major contributing factor to growing frustration and expressed misery. Interviews with 27 individuals in the age range of 20-35 years of age, living in Hong Kong and currently experiencing the housing constraints there, reveal serious concerns. The details of five personal communications are included here, with names altered to protect the identity of those who provided personal accounts of their situation in Hong Kong.
Jenny Chen, a mid-30-year-old business graduate living with two others in her 45m2 divided studio apartment, said she supports the current demonstrations because of the manifold constraints being placed on citizens: "They make every decision for us but barely are any of them good for us. Our living situation stable but delicate. If I didn't have this shared apartment I would have to beg my friends and family to live somewhere".
Tony Li, a freelancer living at home with his parents, characterized the situation as one of "closing windows". Li, who supports his parents also struggles like many people do to put some money away in savings when he can but harbors dense anxiety over what he refers to as "fading opportunities": "We barely are represented now. Even if Lam is taken out of her seat and someone takes over her role, Beijing's purpose here is clear. Lam didn't listen and we cannot keep rising [as individuals]. We're suspended only, wondering when we start to sink".
Michael Huang, a student at a respected university in China argues that the demonstrations are an extension of the "Umbrella Movement" and show that young people in Hong Kong "see an unsettling departure from what we knew of our home". The government's broad and needle-head approach to this city, this society is a recipe for stagnation, or worse. Beijing's moving even faster now than before, working to short-cut the process of integrating Hong Kong into China's system. We can be better because we are not the only city to see some of these issues".
Alice Wu, who works in investment and lives with her family, but who suspended indefinitely her plans to move out in the near future, pointed to the political system the main source of the economic problems in addition to the social problems facing her generation of Chinese people, especially those living in Hong Kong: "The system favors only one image, one vision down the line of Hong Kong. The system has all the luxury: no vote to get in, no chance of people voting anyone [politicians] out. Enormous greed displaces the smallest, simplest dreams."
Wu's friend, a 28-year-old working in the marketing industry sees two options: "Stand and fight or move away. There're opportunities here in Hong Kong, just not for us, for some. Beijing's refusal to change is our diminishing self-realization. When we speak of Hong Kong, no longer might we speak about it as a Chinese subset standing apart from the mainland. The distance that we are very proud of and which was very comforting, that is a risk of disappearing".
Protestors can receive severe punishment in China but are clearly willing to accept the risk to express their feelings over the idea of being "robbed" by Beijing. The connection might be in the form of the seizure of multiple futures for Hong Kong citizens: democratic futures comprised of civil liberty, freedom of choice, and opportunity to pursue a life of dignity. An overarching challenge in all of this is not to push too hard that protestors bring upon them an unwanted overreaction or response from Beijing with a lost sense of proportion.
Hong Kong continues to develop as a high-density metropolis and one of the world's most sophisticated cities megacity. Though attention has been given to the issues of sustainable housing, with the implementation of innovative housing solutions that may quell the housing challenges for a fraction of the population, there are clear cases that point to deep-seated angst and deprivation of young people, the working and middle-class, and vulnerable people of all stripes. Indicators of high standards of living present skewed impressions about the sort of future many people in Hong Kong face. Those same indicators present an uneven picture regarding the standard of living, and system in which many Chinese people in Hong Kong survive, increasingly question, and protest through violent means.
Scott N. Romaniuk is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the China Institute.