Thanks to escalating home prices, an increasing number of HK citizens are feeling hopeless.
The skyrocketing home prices in Hong Kong are making its citizens miserable, with two-thirds of the residents saying the city is not a good place to reside, reported Forbes citing a Civic Exchange research.
This is far lower compared to Singapore’s 13 percent and Shanghai’s 16 percent. Furthermore, 42 percent of Hong Kong residents indicated they would leave the city if they were free to stay anywhere else in the world.
Their pessimism is mainly driven by the city’s soaring real estate prices. In its 2016 report, economic group Demographia listed Hong Kong as the world’s toughest place to buy a home. The report found that a home in Hong Kong costs 19 times the median household income, far ahead of second-placed Sydney at 12 times the median household income.
This affects young people the most. Faced with the prospect of being unable to buy a house without the help of their families, 79 percent of people aged 18 to 29 said Hong Kong has become a worse place to live; 61 percent of 60- to 65-year olds concurred.
Notably, the higher their level of education, the more likely Hong Kongers are to feel despondent over the situation.
Cheryl Marie Tay, Senior Journalist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories, email cheryl@propertyguru.com.sg
