SISTEMA DE VENTILACIÓN

5.4.1 Reasons for moving out from parental home and housing needs

The first in-depth interview respondent, Mr. D, aged 23 and became a computer programmer after graduation from a university degree course in Computer Science in 2013.

His monthly income was between $14,971 and $19,820. His parents’ home was self-owned and about 800 square feet in GFA with three bedrooms. In the past, he lived

with parents in the flat. He moved out from his parental home in Ma On Shan once he got a programming job in Central because he wanted to have a quiet place to do his programming projects after office and to live closer to his working place in Central.

Moreover, he got use to live independently from parents in university hostel when he was studying in a university in Kowloon. Actually, he wanted to have higher privacy and autonomy. He rented a flat in Sai Ying Pun with about 250 square feet in GFA. Since the rent was expensive about $9,500 per month, he had to share the flat with another young person to reduce the rental expenditure.

The second in-depth interview respondent, Mr. E, was studying Project Yi Jing in Kowloon and living in a PRH in Tin Shui Wai. He was 22 years old. He wanted to move out from the present accommodation because his living environment was congested and provided no privacy for five members in a flat with only about 47 square meters and two bedrooms. He shared a partitioned room with his eldest brother. He got two part-time jobs to support his own living: one in Kwai Fong and one in Yuen Long. His monthly income was less than $9,670, so he could not afford a separate private accommodation and stayed with his parents currently. He was going to apply for PRH in order to solve his long term housing problem because he thought that he could not afford private housing even after he finished studying Project Yi Jin.

The third in-depth interview respondent, Mr. S, was a Year 2 business student of a university in Kowloon. He was living in a rented small house flat in a Tai Po village with 700 square feet in GFA. He had five members in his family and shared a room with his younger cousin. He had part-time jobs with monthly income less than $9,670. He had no plan to move out from parents currently but had applied for PRH so as to take a queue

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first when he was eligible. If he was allocated a PRH flat, he would move out from parents in order to improve living environment.

The fourth in-depth interview respondent, Mr. C, was a graduate from a post-secondary institution and became a graphic designer. He was 25 years old and was living with parents, grandmother and brother in a three-bedroom flat in Tuen Mun. The flat was about 800 square feet in GFA and owned by his parents. He shared a bedroom with his younger brother. As he had to do graphic design until very late inside the bedroom frequently, it caused grievances from his younger brother who could not sleep well because of the light. Although he had planned to move out in order to get privacy and not to disturb his brother, he could not afford private accommodation as his average monthly income was in the range of $14,971 to 19,820. So he had to continue living in the congested environment but he was worried about the deteriorating relationship with his younger brother.

5.4.2 Housing aspirations and expectations on government

The two working interview respondents, Mr. D and Mr. C, had homeownership aspirations because they wanted to have long term secure homes just like their parents owning self-occupied flats. They wanted to rely on their own to solve their housing problem first before asking for assistance from parents or the government. They planned to take about ten years to save the down-payments for purchase of self-occupied flats. Mr. C hoped that he could own a flat just before marriage.

They both agreed with the government’s proposal of Youth Hostel Scheme for young singletons who could not afford private renting, so that they could live independently in

youth hostels and paid discounted rent. Moreover, Mr. D expected the government to take initiative to introduce some kind of loan schemes for first-time young singleton buyers to assist them in buying a flat earlier. For example, the government could provide loans of 15% of the purchase price as down payment to eligible young singletons. Therefore, young singletons could purchase their first home earlier. On the other hand, if 70% loan-to-value was relaxed, he was afraid that the mortgage risk of the bank would be increased that would affect the financial stability of Hong Kong when the economy turned bad. Mr. C believed that the Mortgage Insurance Programme, allowing banks to provide up-to 90%

loan-to-value of the property to homebuyers who paid the issuance premium, would help young singletons to become homeowners earlier. Therefore, he hoped the government to provide financial assistance schemes to assist young singletons in accumulating savings and reducing housing expenditure, such as tax allowance on rental payments and Youth Hostel Scheme. Both of them thought that they would apply to live in youth hostel because they could live independently at affordable rent.

Furthermore, both of them thought that the government should increase provision of subsidised sale flats to young singletons directly by increasing HOS quota and building more small size flats for young singletons. So, they could buy their first flats at affordable price and take a first step on the housing ladder easier. In addition, they expected that the government could co-operate with private developers to build more flats for young singletons. The co-operation should benefit the general public and avoid transferring benefits to private developers. For example, Mr. D suggested that the government could increase plot ratio of the land to be developed by private developers and require the private developers to set aside a proportion of small size flats for eligible young singletons to buy at discounted price

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The two student respondents, Mr. S and Mr. E, had no plan to buy their self-occupied flats because of high housing price and long term mortgage commitment. They both hoped that they could be allocated PRH units. They supported the implementation of QPS in order to limit the allocation of PRH to eligible non-elderly singleton and to allocate PRH according to the age of the non-elderly singleton applicants. Nevertheless, they hoped that the HKHA could increase production of small size flats and increase the maximum annual PRH allocation quota to non-elderly singleton applicants. Both of them agreed that young singletons should fulfill seven years residence rule and live in Hong Kong most of time because of scare public housing resources. They also supported the building of youth hostels for working young persons with discounted monthly rent. For example, Mr. S expected that the rent should be 50% of market rent; while Mr. E suggested that it should be equivalent to the relevant building and operating expenses excluding land premium.

They both thought that the maximum term of tenancy should be 10 years so that they could have longer time to save money for future long term accommodation. They both thought that the government should co-operate with NGOs to operate the youth hostels as NGOs have related experience. Mr. S thought that he would apply to live in youth hostel as it would let him live independently at affordable rent. Mr. E had reservation in applying for youth hostel because it might reduce his chance to be offered a PRH flat.

5.4.3 Desirable one person flat

All the in-depth interview respondents thought that the desirable flat for one person should be self-contained with individual toilet and bath room, individual kitchen and partitioned bedroom. The two respondents living in private rental flats, Mr. D and Mr. S, thought that a flat with 150-200 square feet was enough for a young singleton as first home.

Mr. E living in PRH flat wanted to have a bigger flat with 250-300 square feet for a young

singleton so that he might not have to move out once get married. Mr. C living in parents’

own flat thought that the desirable flat size should be 201-250 square feet.

5.4.4 Desirable location of the flat

All of in-depth interview respondents thought that the flat should be near the working or studying place so as to shorten travelling time and cost to work or to study. Therefore, they could work over time without affecting much of their sleeping time and save travelling expenses.

In sum, according to the findings of the in-depth interviews, their main reasons for moving out from family were to live independently from parents, to have privacy, to improve living environment and to live closer to working/studying place. They wanted to have their own spaces and own living styles. In addition, the reasons for the students to apply PRH were low income, low rent of PRH and the hope that queuing first might get some benefits when their turns came. Furthermore, they supported the government to build youth hostels so as to let working young persons have more chances to live independently from parent at affordable rent than. They expected the government to introduce more measures to assist young singletons in reducing housing expenditures for rental accommodation, saving money, building more youth hostels, providing first-time buyers loans and providing more subsidised flats for rental and for sale. Their housing aspirations were varied so the government has to devise different housing measures to assist them accomplishing their aspirations.

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