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A telephone survey was conducted from 19 to 25 October 2017 by the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) to gauge public views about the housing policies proposed in the recent Chief Executive’s policy address.  731 respondents aged 18 or above were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 37.6%.  The sampling error is + or –3.62% at a confidence level of 95%. 

Major findings are summarized as follows: 

For the housing policies proposed in the recent CE’s policy address, the survey asked the respondents’ opinion on the helpfulness of these policies to resolve the housing problem in Hong Kong. 30.0% of the respondents believed that those policies were quite helpful or very helpful while 42.6% said they were a little bit helpful. Only 6.0% believed that those policies were not helpful at all. Compared with other age groups, those aged 51 or above have a significantly higher percentage (38.1%) of believing the policies were quite or very helpful.

The policy address proposed to introduce a “Starter Homes” Scheme for Hong Kong middle-class families. Around one third (31.3%) of the respondents said this policy was quite helpful or very helpful to solve the housing problem for those families who are not eligible for Home Ownership Scheme (HOS). 45.7% believed that it was a little bit helpful while 10.5% believed that it was not helpful at all. The policy address suggested the upper income limit for this new scheme to be set at not exceeding $68,000 for households with two or more members. 28.3% of the respondent said this upper limit was too high, 44.7% said it was suitable and 7.8% said it was too low. 

The policy address proposed to substantially increase the supply of units under the Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme (GSH) and requested the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HKHA) to regularise GSH. 42.0% of the respondents said this policy was quite helpful or very helpful for public rental housing tenants to become home-owners. 37.2% believed that it was a little bit helpful while 8.8% believed that it was not helpful at all. 

The policy address also proposed HKHA to regularise the Interim Scheme of Extending the HOS Secondary Market to White Form Buyers to allow eligible White Form applicants to purchase HOS flats with premium unpaid. 36.6% of the respondents said this policy was quite helpful or very helpful to allow tenants of private premises more opportunities to become home-owners. 42.7% said it was a little bit helpful while 5.5% said it was not helpful at all. 

The policy address recommended to facilitate the implementation of various short-term community initiatives, such as optimising the use of idle government premises to provide rental housing units, exploring the wholesale conversion of industrial buildings into transitional housing with waiver of land premium and the feasibility of constructing pre-fabricated modular housing on idle sites, to increase the supply of transitional housing. More than half (51.6%) of the respondents believed this policy was quite helpful or very helpful to alleviate the hardship faced by families on the public rental housing waiting list. 31.0% believed it was a little bit helpful while 6.2% believed it was not helpful at all.