First published in 1999, this volume examines the issue that, in the last two decades, the housing system in Hong Kong has witnessed a slow but consistent transition from a tenure dominated by public rental housing to one dominated by private home ownership. This book seeks to explain the unique social organization of home ownership in contemporary Hong Kong. Specifically, the book deals with the genesis of home ownership from three areas: housing histories, family culture and capital gains from home transactions. It is agreed that extreme deprivations in housing conditions in early lives, a strong family culture of mutual help as well as unprecedented capital gains, all contribute towards explaining the complex nature of home ownership growth. In conclusion the book suggests that with China regaining sovereignty after July 1997, the social organization of home ownership will be further complicated by more internal migrations from other parts of China, making housing problems even more acute.
Part 1. Theory and Method. 1. Introduction. 2. Socio-Political Change, Economic Restructuring and the Housing Question. 3. Housing Studies, the Social Organization of Housing and Home Ownership. 4. Towards a Theoretical Framework. Part 2. Housing History, Family and the Middle Class. 5. Housing Histories as Narratives of Social Change. 6. Family Support, Culture and Home Ownership. 7. The Middle Class and Home Ownership: Capital Gains and Class Formation. Part 3. Conclusion and Discussion. 8. Economic Downturn and the Crisis of Home Ownership.
Biography
Lee James
’...this is an important book for those seeking to understand the dynamics and significance of housing policy in Hong Kong and to contribute to theoretical debates about home ownership.’ Journal of Housing and the Built Environment ’This book makes a distinctive contribution to the burgeoning literature on Hong Kong housing...a valuable ethnographic study of owner occupation in Hong Kong. The ideas, issues and empirical materials - both statistical and ethnographic - in the text are too rich and varied to do them justice in a short book review...This book is therefore a pinoeering study that deserves recognition...’ Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie (Journal of Economic and Social Geography)
