Housing as an Intergenerational Project: Parental resources, Parental strategies, and the Housing Opportunities of Young People in Hong Kong : Final Report: 房屋的跨代計劃 - 父母的資源、父母的策略與香港年青人的房屋機會

The project has three policy implications to the current Hong Kong housing condition and the broader society.

(1). There exists an inequality of social and housing opportunities across generations, meaning that parents generally tend to be more resourceful than their adult children in current Hong Kong. This unequal opportunity structure creates a novel social landscape of intergenerational dependency that extend children dependency on parents for housing transition. This social change pose further financial burden to parents who are approaching retirement or have been retired already. Furthermore, old-age parents are expected to be more self-reliant on their oldage care.

(2). The extreme difficulties of the younger generation to enter independent living could translate into a broader social trend of delayed marriage and declined fertility rate. These changes of family formation could also have broader implications of Hong Kong’s demography and oldage care provision under the current ageing condition.

(3). The project shows that resourceful families are more likely to provide corresponding financial housing supports to their children. This implies that adult children from less resourceful families face more difficulties in transiting to marriage or enter homeownership for wealthaccumulation. As a result, social and housing inequality of the younger generation could be
further widening because of the discrepancy of them in receiving parental financial housing supports.

In view of these social issues, the research team proposes the following recommendations to address the concern of over-reliance on old-age parents’ financial support and the intergenerational production of housing inequality. (1). Expand the Subsidized Homeownership Scheme: Tenant Purchase Scheme (TPS) and Homeownership Scheme (HOS) were very successful in providing affordable housing to the younger generation in the past and achieving asset-based wealth accumulation and upward social mobility. These schemes were suspended in early 2000s and the annual supply remain extremely limited despite their re-launching in recent years. An increase of TPS and HOS supply could help provide more affordable housing options other than entering the extremely difficult private housing market and reduce the financial burden of parents for housing support.

(2). Rebuild the Housing Ladder: Given the coupling of TPS and HOS to the private housing market, TPS and HOS are still inaccessible to some younger people without family help, especially those living as PRH tenant at the moment. PRH is however extremely limited for these young population in the short run at the same time. On the other hand, those young people with tertiary education background or in professional occupations might be earning income higher than the eligibility limit and thus are not eligible for PRH. They also find extreme difficulties in entering the highly unaffordable private housing market. The housing ladder is thus remaining highly inaccessible to young people at different income groups. As such, the government could revise the discount rate, the eligibility criteria, and the restrictions of resale of TPS and HOS regarding when to pay the premium, in order to rebuild the housing ladder and opportunities for housing mobility to the younger population.

本研究項目對了解當前香港的居住狀況和社會狀況有三個政策的含意。
(1). 現時香港存在跨代社會和房屋機會不平等。因為社會機會結構的變化，不少香港父母都比成年子女擁有更多財富累積的機會及財政資源。這種不平等的機會結構創造了一種新的跨代依賴社會格局，擴大了成年子女對中老年父母的房屋過渡依賴。這種社會變化為即將退休或已退休的父母帶來了進一步的經濟負擔。此外，因為社會機會結構的改變，年輕人亦需用更長時間積累資金解決居住需要，普遍家長因而開始減少對子女照顧自己老年需要的期望。相反，更多家長相信未來要自行解決老年護理的需要及開支，變相進一步加劇年長父母的經濟負擔。
(2). 在難以單靠自己以置業方式解決獨立居住需要的情況下，年輕一代的住屋困難可能會轉化為更廣泛的遲婚和生育率下降的社會趨勢。在當前老齡化情況下，這些家庭組成的變化將可能對香港的人口結構和安老服務產生更廣泛的影響。
(3). 本研究發現資源豐富的家庭往往有更大機會向其子女提供相應的房屋財政資助。這意味著來自資源較少家庭的成年子女在過渡到婚姻上，或在透過利用置業而積累財富上，將面對更大困難。而由於年輕一代能否獲得父母房屋資助通常取決於父母的經濟背景，同代年輕人之間的經濟或房屋不平等有可能因為跨代的資源不平等而進一步擴大。

針對這些社會現象，研究團隊提出以下建議，嘗試處理年輕人過度依賴老年父母的經濟支持和跨代房屋資源不平等的的問題
(1). 擴大資助置業計劃：租者置其屋計劃 (TPS) 和居者置其屋計劃 (HOS) 為過去香港人，包括年輕家庭，提供了不少可負擔房屋，令他們以單靠自己的方式，實現以資產為基礎的財富積累和上向社會流動。然而它們在 2000 年代初暫停。儘管計劃於近年重新啟動，但每年供應仍然極其有限。研究團隊認為透過增加TPS和HOS的供應量，將可為年輕人提供更多可負擔房屋的選擇，減輕普遍中老年父母在協助成年子女以置業方式解決獨立居住生活的經濟負擔。
(2). 重建房屋階梯：鑑於現時TPS和HOS價格與私人住房市場的耦合，部分沒有家長資助年輕人，特別是居住在公營租住房屋的年輕人，未必有足夠能力購入TPS和HOS。同時對於這些年輕人口而言，於短期內成功獲配公共房屋的機會仍極為有限。另一方面，對於擁有高等教育或專業的年輕人，他們可能因為其收入而不符合PRH的申請資格。然而，他們卻難以負擔現時樓價非常高昂的私人房屋市場。換言之，現時香港不同收入的年輕群體仍然很難進入各類型資助房屋。因此政府可以考慮修改資助房屋的貼現率、申請資格標準以及關於何時支付溢價的轉售限制，以向年輕人重建居住階梯和加強房屋流動的機會。