The Housing Problem in Hong Kong

The main issue with housing difficulties is mainly income. In this society, money has more value than it did in the past, but it is still not enough to live the glorious “American Dream” we are all pining for. Even jobs that require backbreaking work, such as a janitor or a maid, do not provide enough to pay the numerous amount of bills that quickly accumulate. This issue can assuredly force someone and their family onto the street. With such a large population in the United States, it is possible that there won’t be enough space in the country to benefit the many lives that are contributing to its creation. This country is full of hardworking people who are struggling to make ends meet due to either financial issues, discrimination issues or simply not enough room to keep them in a proper living

“Gentrification” captures class disparities and injustices created by capitalist urban land markets and policies. This in turn can cause an increasing house expense encumbrance for low-income and working-class households, and the associated personal catastrophes of displacement, removal, and homelessness, are symptoms of a set of institutional arrangements (private property rights and a free market) that support the creation of urban environments to serve the needs of capital accumulation at the expense of the social needs of home, community, family. Displacement from home and neighbourhood can be a shattering experience. At worst it leads to homelessness, at best it impairs a sense of community. Public policy should, by general agreement,

These areas are “prime moneymaker[s] for those who saw ripe opportunity in land scarcity, housing dilapidation and racial segregation” (259). The strong demand for housing in these relatively cheap areas, allows them to charge inflated rent for inadequate housing, ensuring that the lower class they target can never afford to leave these areas. Legally, landlords were allowed to rent out units not up to code if they were honest about it (73) and continued this process because renters can easily be replaced. Heavy dependence on welfare makes them more likely to miss payments, leaving them constantly vulnerable to the threat of eviction. Landlords have resources at their disposal to constantly fill their properties with this lower class. For example, Belinda managed resident’s welfare, relieving the possibility of missed payments and brought her clients to landlords, like Sherrena (cite). This relationship between tenant and landlord subsides when eviction becomes the most cost effective solution, because landlords take financially losses personally (cite), like when renters demand repairs, violate nuisance property ordinance or start looking for better housing- all of which pose a cost or fine to the landlord. For example, one family bypassed Sherrena in order to get repairs. Another example is when Crystal called the police for help

Housing is a big concern of every family because it is where the family established. Most of families are willing to spend most of their income to own a house. However, the housing markets are not always fair and reasonable for normal people. Rich people are buying more than 1 house, but a lot of hardworking wage-earning classes cannot even afford 1 small apartment. Since the real estates are the rigid demand and a good way to keep value, too much money flow into the real estate markets. Sometimes it makes the housing price too high for normal people to afford.

In recent years, what can only be described as extremely rapid growth has occurred in the London property market. With a present average house price of £458,283 compared to £179,492 for the rest of England and Wales (Land Registry, 2015, pp. 3-5), London is an interesting case study for analysis due to a consistent 9.8% ten year growth average (Knight Frank , 2014). Something demonstrated in Figure 1, which shows property price percentage increase from the twelve months prior to December 2014. With such levels of growth, it is easy to conceptualise London’s attractiveness to investors, particularly that of foreign origin from less stable countries.

the building portrayed a message of wealthier residents moving into the area and driving out the

Chinas housing market has undergone cataclysmic shifts over the last century. The most important one being the move towards a market based housing system, from a welfare based housing system. As China’s economy has boomed the demand for housing has been explosive while the supply of affordable housing has been lacking. In this essay, I plan to discuss the rising cost of housing in China as well as the lack of affordable housing for low income households. In addition, I will talk about why this is a major social problem of significance and what are some possible solutions.

Did you know “Of the city 's 55 neighborhoods, the report classifies 15 as "gentrifying" and analyzes how their housing and population have changed over the past two decades.” ("Report Analyzes New York City’s Gentrifying Neighborhoods and Finds Dramatic Demographic Shifts." Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 May 2017.). That is roughly a fifth of NYC’s neighborhood, which is a lot of people! Gentrification is the process of improving or renovating a neighborhood so that it can conform to middle-class taste. Because of this process there is thousands of people being kicked out of their homes, and their neighborhoods

However, much of this work has done little for most of our neighbourhoods because there has been little or no construction of these built forms within most of our neighbourhoods. This is in part because Toronto’s Official Plan strictly applies “stable” and “healthy” Neighbourhoods policies which label the addition of housing units as a threat, although the Plan and zoning by-law permits bungalows to be demolished and redeveloped into two storey single family

Housing demand includes household growth, real incomes, real wealth, tax concessions to both owner-occupied and rental housing, concessions to first homebuyers, returns on alternative investments, cost and availability of finance for housing and the institutional structure affecting housing finance provision (Yates, 2008). The growth in the number of households and in real income results in the increased pressure on housing demand.

Certainly, there is very strong demand for affordable housing and for alternative housing forms. Recent research (an online survey, a series of interviews and social media analysis) has shown tiny houses appeal strongly to a wide demographic, particularly to single-person or couple households.

Those who rent from private landlords do not only tend to, on average, pay almost double the rent of a person living within social housing but also are twice as likely to live in a residence the Government would class as a “non-decent home”, a residence in disrepair and one that does not meet health and safety standards (Jonathan Owen, 2014). The undisputable growth of private renting sector is not limited to England but is also noticeable in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In wales the private rental sector represents 14% of total housing, the private rental sector in Scotland has doubled over the last ten years as more than three hundred thousand properties have been sold and in Northern Ireland private landlords own more properties than councils and housing associations combined according to national figures provided in 214 (Jonathan Owen, 2014).

This research topic is significant to the current property market in Singapore and its sudden increased demand for houses despite the economic downturn, exploring deeper as to whether the government policies were the real influential causes to this boom in property demand. It has relevance to the economic concepts of demand and supply, elasticity, inflation and monopolistic competition. This topic is worthy of investigation because it is a hot media topic in Singapore, and is widely debated in the country because it’s the most expensive household asset.[2]

China is one of the major economical players in today’s international market. China’s economy is the “seconds largest in the world after the United States” (Joseph, 63). This is a striking achievement due to fact that China is a “developing country”. China has achieved a great amount of success through the collaboration of political and economical regimes. The economical growth in China led to “one of the biggest improvements in human welfare anywhere at anytime” (Kristof, 15). Currently, China is experiencing a real-estate bubble. This eventually will hit a climax, disrupting the real-estate market within China. This real estate bubble that China is undergoing is considered one of the "biggest housing

This report examines the housing affordability crisis in Auckland, the current situation of the housing market, and extent of this problem. Auckland is in a deficit of houses due to the difference in demand and supply factors. The demographic and economic factors are the main reason for the increase in demand for houses. The supply side is not performing up to the mark to satisfy the demand in the market. The first home buyers are finding difficulties to make choice on their housing needs. The median households are struggling with the high rentals in Auckland market. Lower income households with faces a greater affordability pressures than those are living outside Auckland. There is a shortage in land and houses that are affordable for lower income households. The report suggests some new factors that can be considered to solve the affordability crisis.