One Hong Kong developer is offering half-price flats in the world’s most expensive residential market. Others have donated sprawling farmlands for public housing. And the scion of a property empire says it’s time to put the city’s betterment above profits.
Two years after street demonstrations rocked Hong Kong and Chinese authorities pointed a finger of blame at sky-high home prices, the city’s tycoon developers are under pressure to help ease its housing crisis. Asia’s pre-eminent financial hub isn’t just expensive, it’s also one of the world’s most densely populated, squeezing most of its 7.5 million dwellers into tiny flats, or worse into smaller "cage” or "coffin” homes.
Attention from Beijing has made questions of equity and affordability an urgent concern for developers who’ve long profited off Hong Kong’s unbalanced market. On the mainland, Xi Jinping’s crackdown on housing speculation and monopolistic business practices has brought numerous billionaires to heel. In Hong Kong, Carrie Lam’s government has accelerated seizures of vast land banks held by local magnates and diluted their political power. The message is clear: better to be seen as part of the solution than the problem.