According to the Long Term Housing Strategy Consultation Document (2013), the non-elderly one-person applicants over the age of 35 should be accorded higher priority under the QPS because of the general low education level attained by such group, and the lower opportunity for their upward mobility (Long Term Housing Strategy Steering Committee, 2013). However, among the non-elderly one-person applicants, 67% of them are aged 35 or below. Under the QPS, maximum 2,000 units are allocated to non-elderly one-person applicants each year. Shortage of public housing for the young singletons is significant. The population with age among 20 - 34 was about 1.54 million as at the end of 2013. They account for about 21.5% of the total population. The median age at first marriage for male and female is 31 and 29 respectively. Many young singletons will be marginalized by the government even after the review of Long Term Housing Strategy 2013. So my target group of study is young singletons aged 18 to 34 both sexes in Hong Kong.
4.3 Methodology
Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were adopted to collect required
data and information from young people.
4.3.1 Quantitative method
A quantitative research method was adopted to collect the general views of the young people. A questionnaire survey, with closed-ended questions, is adopted to collect information from young people concerning their educational background; social background; income levels; present living condition; housing needs; reasons of living independently from their parents; any plan to buy self-occupied flat or not, reasons for their choice to buy or to rent; ideal housing services for single person units; proportion of income to be spent on their own housing; views on different government measures, such as:
QPS in Waiting List application, the proposed youth hostels, the cooperation of the government and private organization to provide housing for young people, varies housing subsidies schemes in kinds or in cash.
The questionnaire is composed of five parts. The first part is to understand the young singleton respondents’ present living conditions, intention to move out from parents and application details for PRH so as to diverge the respondent to different subsequent parts of the questionnaire. The second part is to collect views on government public rental housing policy from the respondent who has applied PRH. The third part is to understand the housing aspirations of the respondent. The forth part is to collect views on government housing policy and measures by all the respondents. The fifth part is to understand the respondent’s social and economic background.
The findings of the questionnaire survey are analysed to understand their housing needs and aspiration as well as their expectations on the government in helping them to meet their housing needs and achieve their housing aspirations.
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4.3.1.1 Sampling of questionnaire survey
The samples are collected by simple random method because the individual is chosen by chance which will reduce the bias of information collected. The individual is chosen randomly near MTR stations in different districts in Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and New Territories in order to obtain information from the public in general. MTR is the most popular public transportation taken by people in Hong Kong. There are a lot of passengers getting in or out of the MTR stations daily. Passengers are from all walks of life. MTR stations near mixed developments of public and private housing, university and shopping malls were selected. A total of twelve MTR stations were selected in Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and New Territories as follows: Kowloon Tong, Lok Fu, Wong Tai Sin, Kowloon Bay, Sham Shui Po, Hung Hom, Chai Wan, Tai Wai, Pok Hong, University, Fanling and Yuen Long.
The survey was conducted in the period from 6 April 2014 to 6 May 2014 after office hours from 19:00 to 21:00 during weekdays; at the time from 11:00 to 16:00 during weekends and holidays and one week day from 10:30 to 16:00. Young persons near the above selected MTR stations were chosen to complete the questionnaires.
4.3.1.2 Limitation of questionnaire survey
After the survey, 110 questionnaires were completed. Owing to the limited resources and time, the sampling size was small in relations to the large population of young singletons in Hong Kong. Moreover, the responsive rate of young people with low income and age over 30 was low. Most of the young people willing to complete the questionnaires were university students or university graduates. Therefore, the findings of
the survey may not be representative views of the general young singletons in Hong Kong.
However, it will be served as an insight into the views of part of young singletons in Hong Kong.
4.3.2 In-depth Interviews
In order to have better understanding of the relationship of young singletons’
backgrounds, reasons for moving out from parents, their preferences and affordability for housing and expectation on government, in-depth interviews were conducted during the period from 4 May to 19 May 2014. Four interviewees were selected with the help of a volunteer of a non-governmental organisation which organises youth activities periodically.
Equal number of students and working youngsters were interviewed in order to obtain insight views from them. They were selected because one respondent has moved out from parental home and rent a flat in Sai Ying Pun with another young person; one respondent is going to move out from the parental home; one respondent has applied for PRH and the other respondent is going to apply for PRH.
The interviews were in the form of semi-structured open-ended questions to allow the interviewees to express freely what they thought about each question. Such qualitative approach enabled better understandings of the backgrounds and views of young singletons.
Separate interviews, which lasted for about 30 minutes, were made with each of the respondents separately. All interviews were conducted with their prior consents and they were promised to protect their anonymity so as to keep his identity confidential.
4.3.2.1 Limitation of in-depth interview
There is limitation of this in-depth interview study because small sampling size and
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restricted sampling method were adopted because of limited time and resources. The respondents might not be representative of all young singletons but they provided good insight to the reasons why young singletons wanted to move out from parental home and why students apply PRH; and to the views of young singletons on their preferences and affordability for housing.