长沙市政府历史地址:香港穷人住房状况恶劣成政府难题

香港穷人住房状况恶劣成政府难题 评论(20) 香港一幢旧式简易楼房上月发生的火灾导致四人死亡，此事彰显了香港这个700万人口的城市在向市民提供可负担住房方面所面临的挑战，也使香港政府解决这一问题的压力骤然加大。

Lam Thuy Vo/The Wall Street Journal过去几年，香港创纪录的高房价导致低收入家庭负担得起的居住面积越来越小，只得住进分隔出租屋。杨莲春一家便住在这样的“笼屋”里。这场火灾发生在香港九龙地区的一幢八层建筑内，这幢楼房内的单元房大多被分隔成了数个单间对外出租，最小只有9平米，这是香港老旧城区的典型做法。香港甚至还有比这种出租房更小的“笼屋”，那里不到3平方米的狭小空间内最多要塞下三张出租床。

过去几年，由于创纪录的高房价导致低收入家庭能负担得起的居住面积越来越小，对这种分隔出租住房的需求大幅增长。但居住环境的拥挤正在造成公共安全等方面的风险。

上周五，香港特区行政长官曾荫权（Donald Tsang）在回应日益加大的公众压力时重申，他保证10月份时会对香港的住房和土地使用政策做出重大修改。

曾荫权还受到来自北京方面的压力：中国负责香港事务的最高官员今年六月份时表示，香港政府应该解决其低收入家庭的住房问题。

自2008年末以来，香港的平均房价已跃升了76%。香港政府今年说，为确保房地产市场稳定，未来10年它需要每年新增加约20,000套单元式私人住宅。

杨莲春（音）与丈夫和两个孩子居住在香港九龙深水埗一间14平米的分隔出租屋内，房间内一个炉灶、一张桌子、一台冰箱和一张双层床占据了屋子的大部分空间，只有一个很小的窗口对外通风。看着自己的房间，杨莲春说，这不是人住的地方。

视频：亚洲视点：香港穷人的住房难题香港昂贵的房价迫使当地贫穷的居民住进存在安全隐患的拆分公寓。《华尔街日报》的Jake Lee和Peter Stein对此及亚洲地区近日来的其它热点话题进行了讨论。杨莲春几年前从中国内地移居香港，一家人租这间房每月大约要花4,000港元，占全家每月收入中的很大一部分。

她说，在寻找足够住房方面遇到的困难使自己变成了一个社会活跃人士。杨莲春最近代表一个要求获得可负担住房的民众草根运动出席了一个与香港政府高官举行的会议。

由于香港的住房需求如此火爆，房东们纷纷借机从中渔利。虽然将一套单元房分隔成几部分对外出租在香港并不违法，但这种做法必须符合建筑和消防方面的法规。而据检查人员说，一些房东将建筑的火灾逃生通道也做为居住空间出租出去了，从而使房屋承租人的生命和财产安全面临着威胁。

走进一个香港四口之家的14平米住宅过去几年，香港创纪录的高房价导致低收入家庭负担得起的居住面积越来越小，只得住进分隔出租屋。杨莲春一家便住在这样的“笼屋”里。《华尔街日报》的记者在杨莲春的家中采访了她。上月那场火在整幢建筑内蔓延时，一些租户找不到逃生道路，火灾幸存者抱怨说，楼房的紧急出口被锁住了。

本周一在九龙重要购物区内的重庆大厦又发生了一场火灾，幸无人员死亡。这座大楼内不仅有商铺和酒店，也有被分隔出租的单元房。

一些分析师说，让人们更能买得起房的最佳方法是增加住房用地供应量。据官方数据，香港指定为住房用途的土地比例不到7%。香港土地总面积为1,108平方公里，其中林地、草地和湿地占67%。

香港大学（University of Hong Kong）房地产及建设系讲座教授邹广荣（Chau Kwong-wing）说，香港不缺地，我们对土地使用的规划没能赶上社会的变化。

《地产霸权》（Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong）一书的作者潘慧娴（Alice Poon）说，政府限制土地使用以维持高房价，这样政府在卖地时就能获得更多收入。她说，政府在财政状况方面对卖地收入的过分依赖是香港土地和住房政策的根源问题。潘慧娴曾担任香港一家房地产开发公司的高管。

曾荫权在上周五承认了这个问题。他对议员们说，我一直认为我们必须首先要处理好市场需求和土地供应，只有这样才可长远解决住屋问题。

几十年来，住房一直是香港一个重大的公共政策挑战。香港人口密集，大多都是内地移民及其后代。20世纪50年代初的移民潮促使政府建立了世界最完善的一套公租房管理系统。

约半数香港居民住的是公租房，租金低得多，但只有收入低于一定水平的永久居民才有资格申请，等待时间可能长达几年。

令供应问题更为复杂的是港元与美元挂钩造成的低利率。去年，香港按揭利率跌至不到1%，这进一步助推房价飙升。

自2009年开始，香港政府出台了一系列措施减缓房价涨幅，比如提高最低首付要求、降低按揭贷款成数以及加税等来抑制投机。

但分析师和议员们说，这些措施充其量可能只会令房地产销售暂时放缓。香港科技大学（Hong Kong University of Science and Technology）经济学教授雷鼎鸣（Francis Lui）说，投机者和开发商只是房屋问题的很小一部分，政府缺少对支持和开发住宅用地的投入才是问题的根源。

有迹象显示房价正趋于稳定，当地银行已经开始上调按揭利率以弥补贷款规定更严格带来的损失。巴克莱资本（Barclays Capital）亚洲房地产部门主管和分析师劳伦斯（Andrew Lawrence）说，他预计香港的按揭利率到2012年底将升至4%到4.5%，目前为超过2%。

他说，到2012年底，房价可能会下跌至多30%，不过，虽然这会是很大幅度的调整，但对一个自1983年以来房价每年平均上涨18%的市场来说，这只是微不足道的小挫折。 Hong Kong Confronts Dire Housing Situation For Its Poor A fire last month in a rundown tenement that left four people dead highlighted the challenge of providing affordable housing in this city of seven million─and turned up the pressure on the government to fix the problem.

The blaze swept through an eight-story building in the city's Kowloon section that consisted mainly of apartments subdivided into rental units as small as 100 square feet, a typical arrangement in older city districts. Even smaller 'cage' or 'coffin' units have as many as three beds stacked in a 30-square-foot space.

Demand for subdivided flats has surged in the last few years as record-high home prices have squeezed low-income families into smaller quarters. But the crowding is posing public-safety and other risks.

On Friday, responding to mounting public pressure, Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang reiterated a pledge to announce in October a major overhaul of the city's housing and land-use policy.

Mr. Tsang is also under pressure from Beijing: The top Chinese official in charge of Hong Kong affairs said in June that the city's government should address its low-income housing problems.

Average home prices in Hong Kong have jumped 76% since the end of 2008. The government said this year it needed to add about 20,000 private residential flats a year for the next decade to ensure a stable property market.

'This is no place for humans,' said Yang Lianchun, scanning the 150-square-foot subdivided unit she shares with her husband and two young children in the Sham Shui Po district in Kowloon. A stove, desk, refrigerator and bunk bed take up most of the space. One tiny window provides ventilation.

Ms. Yang moved to Hong Kong several years ago from mainland China. Her family pays about 4,000 Hong Kong dollars, or about US$500, a month in rent, the bulk of their income.

She said the difficulty of finding adequate housing turned her into an activist. She recently represented a grass-roots campaign for affordable housing in a meeting with senior government officials.

With demand for housing so hot, landlords are scrambling to take advantage. Subdivided apartments aren't illegal in Hong Kong, but they are subject to structural and fire-safety regulations. Yet some landlords have turned fire escape routes into parts of their rental space, surveyors say, threatening tenants' safety.

When last month's fire ripped through the building, some tenants couldn't find a way out and survivors complained of locked emergency exits.

Another fire on Monday at the Chungking Mansions, a complex of shops, hostels and partitioned flats in Kowloon's key shopping district, resulted in no deaths.

The best way to make housing more affordable, say some analysts, is to increase the land supply designated for housing. Less than 7% of Hong Kong's land is designated for residential use, according to official data. Woodlands, grasslands and wetlands constitute 67% of the city's 1,108 square kilometers.

'Hong Kong isn't short of land,' said Chau Kwong-wing, chair professor of real estate and construction at the University of Hong Kong. 'Our land-use design has failed to catch up with the changes in society.'

The government has restricted land use to keep prices high so that it can collect more revenue when it sells tracts, said Alice Poon, a former executive at a Hong Kong real estate developer and author of 'Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong.' The government's 'over-reliance on land-sale revenue for its fiscal health is the root problem of its land and housing policies,' she said.

Mr. Tsang acknowledged the problem on Friday. 'I have always believed we must first tackle…market demand and land supply,' he told lawmakers. 'This is the only way to resolve our housing problem in the long run.'

Housing has been a major public-policy challenge for decades in Hong Kong, a densely populated city of mostly mainland Chinese immigrants and their descendants. The influx of migrants in the early 1950s prompted the government to develop one of the world's most comprehensive public rental-housing systems.

About half of Hong Kong's residents live in public rental apartments, which enjoy much lower rents. But eligibility is restricted to permanent residents under a certain income level, however, and the waiting list can be as long as a few years.

Compounding the supply problem are low interest rates stemming from the Hong Kong dollar's peg to the U.S. dollar. Last year, mortgage rates in Hong Kong dipped below 1%, adding fuel to the home-price surge.

Since 2009 the Hong Kong government has introduced a series of measures to slow home-price growth, such as raising the minimum down-payment requirements, lowering loan-to-value ratios for mortgages and imposing an additional tax to curb speculation.

But analysts and lawmakers say the measures, at best, might bring only a temporary lull in property sales. 'Speculators and developers are only a small part of the housing issue,' said Francis Lui, professor of economics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. 'The lack of government resources for identifying and developing residential sites is the ultimate root of the problem.'

There are some signs that prices are stabilizing, as local banks have begun to raise their mortgage rates to compensate for the tighter lending rules. Andrew Lawrence, analyst and head of Asia's property sector at Barclays Capital, said he expects that Hong Kong's mortgage rates, now more than 2%, will rise to 4% to 4.5% by the end of 2012.

He said housing prices could fall by up to 30% by the end of 2012. But while that would be a big correction, he said, it would be only a minor blip for a market that has risen by 18% a year on average since 1983.

POLLY HUI