Housing woes in East Asia: Are youth hostels the answer for Hong Kong? 

Why don't you guys just buy a home in Guangdong and commute daily to Hong Kong for work? With high speed rail way, I think you could live as far as 200km from Hong Kong and with Hong Kong salary paying for the high speed rail should not be too expensive. People commute cross border all the time(eg. Singapore-Malaysia, USA-Mexico) so why is this option not popular? This seem like a really easy way to solve the high cost of housing.

@@btlim4316 you raised a good point. It is because commute daily between guangdong and hong kong core business area needs more than two hour one way transport including go through immigration . If there is any delay / cancellation in train, which means 3 hours are required to go back to work. It is impossible for normal hongkongers who work from 9 to 7 with slight OT work to afford this time cost!

@@hoyanlee5555 Do you know how long it takes to cross the border from Tijuana in Mexico to San Diego, USA? This is the busiest border crossing in the world. With a global entry card, its 10 minutes or less. Without one its 2 to 4 hours. Global entry card is a pre screened card issued by the USA government to make crossing border faster. Hong Kong and Guangdong can do the same with a prescreened program so that there is no need for immigration. Should be even easier since its the same country. The issues that you brought up are valid cons, but they look like problems that could be solved and easier to be solved compared to building more condos.

@@hoyanlee5555 i did some research into this and what I suggested already exists. The high speed rail connects Kowloon West to Shenzhen and takes less than 20 minutes. Also there is a program called e-channel that allows speedy immigration. So seems like buying a house in Shenzhen and commuting is indeed a very realistic option. Were you aware that this option is available?

Exactly. Stop picking sides between China vs Hong Kong. . In 2003 Hong Kong Government first requested to Mainland for better economic integration when SARS hit and businesses in Hong Kong went in limbo.

Please move to HK and come back and whine how bad Sg is.

SG does not allow subdivided flats like those tiny ones in HK. Even a rented HDB common room with at least 9 sqm in size offers a more dignified living for a single Singaporean. For the vast majority of Singaporeans, the monthly repayments for HDB flats' mortgage loan account for 25% or less of our monthly income. And for some of us, little or no cash is needed since most of the repayments can be made with Central Provident Fund (CPF)

HK is part of china. So much land

can move to Johor. There are a lot of homes in Johor needing buyers.

You can't use MPF to buy house in hong kong

Singapore government is too smart to be like HK...u an idiot

Almost all Singaporeans lived in their own public or private homes. Rentals are mostly by most Foreigners n unmarried PR working in SG who have to rent.

If Singaporean doesnt know know how lucky they are by looking at Malaysia, then they just dont know.

@@CattleFarmer667 Some Singaporeans envy Malaysians for working in SG to earn SGD and after converting to 3.5X ringgit, it allows them to buy terrace houses or other types of landed properties in Msia

singapore is becoming hongkong slowly..

ok boomer, how much you got your hdb for? and what was your salary at the time u got your hdb?

I mean, some place is better when compared to somewhere. Unless you're at the bottom of the world.

99 years is enough for an ordinary person's life time - if you live beyond that, good for you!

I see you also want the Government to be responsible for your Ancestors 😄😄

😂

you've never been to HK haven't you. You might as well ask why there's water everywhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The ENTIRE HK is a downtown, and then there is downtown within downtown. It is one of the most expensive place to live at in the world. Do you know what "commute a bit" means in HK? You jump on the metro for an hour and you can go from one side of the city to the other. Even the "rural" area are extremely expensive to buy. The land taxes are extremely high. Blaming it on young generation is just ignorant.

Rent maybe, but Shenzhen is one of the most expensive cities in China to buy. But then you probably spend 150rmb a day making the return trip to HK and back. Pretty much eats away most of the cost benefit.

Far from the truth. SG does not allow subdivided flats like those tiny ones in HK. Even a rented HDB common room with at least 9 sqm in size offers a more dignified living for a single Singaporean as compared to some of the Hongkongers who are living in subdivided flats. For the vast majority of Singaporeans, the monthly repayments for HDB flats' mortgage loan account for 25% or less of our monthly income. And for some of us, little or no cash is needed since most of the repayments can be made with Central Provident Fund (CPF)

Ya okay. I guess you're lucky living in your Mom's Basement

@@robocop581 I believe the root cause is the sucking HK culture: the worst possible combination of the inherent (thousands of years of) Chinese selfishness and hypocrisy, plus the Western capitalist greed, and, in the recent decades, an even more evil factor added in (you know what I'm talking about).

HK pays worker in financial sectors really well so it will continuedly attracts people. It's not so great for people in other sectors

Funny u make such an ignorant conclusion, many of us live an amazing life in hk thank you very much

here is what i learned, a good portion of sg population have grown too old, too entitled and don't know math

Actually SG HDB concept was based on HK years ago... as time passed, HK slow prioritize Private property developer for revenue while SG continue to focus on citizen home ownership and affordability

@@Ersanba Yes, that's true. Our HDB pioneer, Mr Liu Thai Ker, said that he had made working trips to HK decades ago to learn from their public housing model

@@cityvibes54321 ?Liu Thai Ker came in much later. Definitely not a pioneer.

HDB owners are glorified renters

shutup wumao

Didn't the housing crisis come about due to the tax system after china took back HK?

I believe the root cause is the sucking HK culture: the worst possible combination of the inherent (thousands of years of) Chinese selfishness and hypocrisy, plus the Western capitalist mentality, and, in the recent decades, an even more evil factor added in (you know what I'm talking about).

I believe the root cause is the sucking HK culture: the worst possible combination of the inherent (thousands of years of) Chinese selfishness and hypocrisy, plus the Western capitalist greed, and, in more recent decades, an even more evil factor added in (you know what I'm talking about).

You’re kidding

Ignorant comment. Try again

@martindawn934 Leader of the Opposition and Workers Party Secretary General Pritam Singh was charged on March 19 with two counts of lying to a Parliamentary Committee, two years after the police opened investigations into his conduct before the Committee of Priveleges.

she could easily spend more on travels, eat out, or medical bills. Maybe she needs to support her parents.

@@leanlifer Free Healthcare and medicine in HK. If she's traveling then she shouldn't complain about her low savings rate. Anyone that lives a YOLO lifestyle deserves no sympathy

To cover food ( and transport and utilities) only 4500? you eat animal feed for that price. Any less than 10k/month for healthy and quality food is unrealistic.

@@gyulakocsis1269 You obviously have never lived in HK. One can easily eat with HK$100 a day which is plenty. That's only $3K a month. If she cooks at home and buys food from the wet market it's a $70 day budget which is more than enough.

@@robocop581 you obviously bad at guessing, I've been living here since 2017. Well, I suppose one can sustain themselves by feeding mass produced veggies from mainland bought at local wet markets and hormone fed chicken from welcome at 70/day, if they lower your standards particularly.

Drunk again?

@@45641560456405640563 Mate. I'm not as keen on alcohol as you might be!