Poverty Alleviation
-
Targeted Poverty Alleviation — Hong Kong Needs Data Infrastructure
Hong Kong’s embrace of ‘targeted poverty alleviation’ will remain a slogan without the data infrastructure to track outcomes. The article identifies two gaps — administrative data left unused and the absence of long-term tracking surveys — and sets out how to close them.
-
Tenant Purchase Scheme Stalled — Sandwich-Class Upward Mobility Remains Elusive
Despite growing calls to relaunch Hong Kong’s Tenant Purchase Scheme, the government has once again declined, leaving the sandwich class without a viable pathway up the housing ladder. Three targeted fixes — unit circulation, fair pricing, and retained management — could unlock social mobility for tens of thousands of households.
-
Phasing Out the Cash Allowance Trial Scheme Is the Right Call — On the Necessity of Subsidy Transition from the Perspective of Economic Theory
The HKSAR Government has decided to end its Cash Allowance Trial Scheme for public-housing waitlist applicants on 30 June 2025. Drawing on George Akerlof’s economic theory and the realities of Hong Kong’s housing policy, the authors argue that in-kind assistance — transitional housing and Simple Public Housing — now offers a more precise and more generous way to help those most urgently in need.
-
To Say Goodbye to Subdivided Flats, We Must Never Regulate Starting Rents
Drawing on San Francisco’s experience and Hong Kong’s own history of rent control, the authors argue that regulating starting rents would worsen the subdivided-flat crisis rather than solve it. They propose instead tightening the Well-Off Tenant Policy, expanding the Unpaid-Premium Rental Scheme, and boosting Category B transitional housing to ease the plight of subdivided-flat residents.
-
Hong Kong must Stop Letting the Well-Off Hog Public Rental Housing
Generous income limits and rent subsidies mean well-off households are occupying public housing, forcing the poor to rent from the cutthroat private market. This needs to change.
-
The Way Out for Hong Kong’s Subdivided Housing Problem
This article proposes two policy reforms to resolve Hong Kong’s subdivided housing crisis: (1) adjusting public rental housing rents to be proportionate to tenants’ income, and (2) halving the premium for subsidised home ownership schemes. Together, the reforms would shorten public rental housing waiting times, ease the subdivided housing shortage, and impose no additional burden on the government fiscal deficit.
