Title
Policy blunder of the century threatens Hong Kong's economic future
Document Type
Book chapter
Source Publication
The first Tung Chee-hwa administration : the first five years of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Publication Date
2002
First Page
175
Last Page
199
Publisher
The Chinese University Press
Abstract
8 December 1997 was a fateful day for Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Housing Authority announced a scheme, which it called the Tenant Purchase Scheme, whereby sitting tenants in selected blocks in its heavily subsidized housing estates were given the opportunity to buy at deep discounts the units in which they were currently living. Because the scheme allowed the richer tenants to buy their own units at the same attractive discounts (the discounts were subsequently reduced in 1998) this was obviously against the spirit of the existing policy of reducing and ultimately eliminating the subsidy given to the richer tenants (Ho 1997). By reducing the incentive of the richer tenants to move out of public housing it would lengthen the time for people in the queue to be assigned public rental flats.
Funding Information
Support from the RCC Grant Committee (LU3008/00H) is gratefully acknowledged.
Publisher Statement
Copyright © The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002
Additional Information
ISBN of the source publication: 962996015x
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Ho, L. S. (2002). Policy blunder of the century threatens Hong Kong's economic future. In S. K. Lau (Ed.), The first Tung Chee-hwa administration: The first five years of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (pp. 175-200). Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press.
