Page 16 - Accelerating Research and Impact - Issue 7

Financial assistance
for adult children to live independently
Acknowledgment:
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ACCELERATING RESEARCH AND IMPACT
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
Accommodation for young people in Hong Kong has long been at the top of the policy agenda. Recent research conducted by Lingnan University (LU) and the City University of Hong Kong on the younger generation’s housing opportunities finds that 26% of parents who responded expect to subsidise their adult children when they buy a property. Findings also suggest reliance on the family is now increasingly frequent, and important to young adults who wish to live independently and have a choice.
Prof Maggie Ka Wai LAU, Research Associate Professor of LU’s Institute of Policy Studies, said the survey results indicate that family housing support is now heavily depended upon for housing mobility in Hong Kong. Sociologically, lack of independent living could translate into a broader social trend of delayed marriage and declining fertility rates, which may have broader implications to Hong Kong’s demography
and old-age care provisions.
Many parents tend to describe their financial support as the ‘entry ticket’ to marriage or parenthood, a way out of being ‘slaves to mortgages’, a ‘stepping-stone’ to upward mobility or a better life, or the ‘last present’ or ‘life gift’they can offer their children,”Prof Lau said.
She suggested the HKSAR Government to revise the discount rate and eligibility criteria as well as increasing the supply of Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme flats to rebuild the housing ladder.
The affordability of housing for young people is an international issue, and a topic of discussion at the LU webinar “Housing as an Intergenerational Project” that formed part of the Cities and Governance series.
This research project (2019.A3.017.19B) is funded by the Public Policy Research Funding Scheme from the Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office of The Government of the HKSAR.