Research On The Government’s Role In Affordable Housing Construction In HK And Its Revelation To Mainland China

Affordable housing generally is refers to the housing resources which governmentprovides to the families have difficulties to solve their housing problem since low income.These housing resources are always of the standard size, price or rent.“The InternationalCovenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights” restricts that every resident should haveplace for living in, which can be seen as kind of basic human being rights. If someone can notafford a living place since low income, the government has obligation to provide it for them,that’s what we say affordable housing. The report of the eighteenth National Congress of theCPC point out that accelerating the housing construction, establishing the combination ofaffordable housing system of market and government allocation, and strengthening theconstruction of and management to meet the basic needs of low-income families are of greatsignificance. During recent years, the mainland real estate industry is on the initialdevelopment step, local governments can not really recognize the importance of suchlivelihood issues. Which lead to a result that as the condition of market economy developmentis not yet mature, the market has afford the liability of affordable housing which supposed tobe dominated by the government. While the governments have involved into the interferenceof his own interests, the public service functions lag, which leads to a lack of relevant policiesand measures. To ensure every family has housing for living in, the first task of thegovernment is clarifying his own role in the construction of affordable housing.Since Hong Kong has a highly developed market economy, the government has alwayspursued a non-intervention policy, however, the problem of residents’ housing living hasnever be solved by market mechanism. The government macro-controls the private housingmarket through kind of land policy and public housing policy, solves nearly half of theresidents’ housing problem over the establishment of double-track mechanism. Therefore,studying the role definition of Hong Kong government in affordable housing during differentperiods will provide significant countermeasures and reference to the government of mainlandChina in constructing affordable housing system.Five chapters consist of this dissertation as following:Chapter1"Introduction" introduces the origin idea and significance of the selected topic, analyzes the relevant research results from both domestic and overseas, puts forward theresearch purpose, the research content, the research ideas and the main methods of thisdissertation,.Chapter2"Basic theory outline" classifies relevant theories of affordable housing,analyzes the role of government in housing construction.Chapter3"The role of Hong Kong government played in the affordable housingconstruction "reviews the development of affordable housing in Hong Kong with analyzingthe role of Hong Kong government played and its function in this area deeply and reviewsvarious roles Hong Kong government has played during nearly70years in the area ofaffordable housing.Chapter4"The international comparison of the role of government in the construction ofaffordable housing ". Through comparative analysis of the United States, Singapore, Germanyand Japan and other countries, it can be found that the role of governments in affordablehousing construction depends on the specific circumstance，politic regulation and thegovernment’s value orientation in public policy of each country. All the governments play incommon that the governments should take charge of the bottom line of responsibility eventhough under different system and conditions, while the different part reveals the basic rulesof good policy must be close to the actual.Chapter5"The experience and enlightenment from Hong Kong government’sparticipation in affordable housing ". Government role from essentially depends on thegovernment’s own policy orientation and function method. These characters itself is notemerge at the same time, but the result of the incessant development of the government’sexploration to solve the problem of affordable housing. The variety of characters shows thedevelopment of both the construction and management of affordable housing, and also alsoreflects Hong Kong government’s exploration and reform in social management and publicservice. The politic exploration forms the system of such role, which contains theintrospection and summery via theory.Through the anatomy of Hong Kong experience and comparation with internationalexperience, some inspirations are drawn that the mainland government should give full playto promote and take the leading function in the construction of affordable housing which is of significant social livelihood issues. The government should be active to bear, constantlyimprove the decision-making ability, and control the risk of decision-making. And also givefull play to coordinate and organize, fully absorb all kinds of social resources into affordablehousing construction and management, participate and input to fulfill managementresponsibilities. We should intensify the supervision and mechanism construction, mainlycontrol the quality of the housing and allocate the resource fairly through both the internal andexternal administrative institutions’ supervision. We should also actively explore thefinancing channels, providing long-time financial support through commercial facilities andother measures, and keep free land transfer direction, combines the construction of affordablehousing into the overall layout of urban development.