A study of the impact of tenure status on sense of belonging in lower-income group: a comparison between PRHtenants and HOS owners

Abstract

Home ownership has been recognised by most of the literatures as the preferable tenure compared with the renters. It has been the housing policy of the Hong Kong Government to promote home ownership to increase the sense of belonging of the Hong Kong people. This paper attempted to explore if home-owning would have impact on one’s sense of belonging in the low-income group by making comparison of the sense of belonging between the PRH tenants and the HOS owners. The results of the survey revealed that the HOS owners did have a higher sense of belonging than the PRH tenants. Nevertheless, home ownership is not the main contribution. There are other factors affecting one’s sense of belonging. In the unique political situation of Hong Kong, the analysis shows that ‘family’ is the most significant element in anchoring the sense of belonging of the low-income group. However, the findings also confirmed that home ownership would bring societal benefits in fostering a sense of belonging among the public as well as to bring neighbourhood stability through homeowners’ social participation and attachment to the local community. Both the PRH tenants and HOS owners indicated home-owing being their preferred housing tenure. Despite that there are many respondents viewed that the societal benefits from home ownership may also be achieved in the public rental housing estates, they agreed that the Government should offer subsidies to the Hong Kong people to assist them in acquiring home ownership in the form of HOS. It is justified that the Hong Kong Government will re-launch the HOS in the near future to realise the aspiration of home ownership of the low-income people and the young generation in view of the incredibly high housing prices which are far beyond their housing affordability. It is also observed that the public rental housing estates did offer a stable community to the PRH tenants who rated an admirable score of sense of belonging to Hong Kong. To promote sense of belonging, provision of more housing rental flats to low-income people is strongly recommended.