Land use, housing preferences and income poverty: In the context of a fast rising market

Although the public housing programme and the development of new towns are important (and interrelated) land use planning policies, many people hold the belief that these policies actually aggravate the problem of poverty concentration in several areas. This paper, in this light, analyzes their relationships with household income poverty in two consecutive five-year periods (2001–2006 and 2006–2011) in Hong Kong. The findings indicate that low-income households are more likely to cluster in the new towns, rather than in the inner-city regions, when property price is surging; and that the public housing programme does not show a significant relationship with household income poverty in both study periods. In addition to the preferences of low-income households in general, the preferences of the “sandwiched households” are specifically explored as well. These households are found to be susceptible to property price fluctuations in different regions, and therefore tend to cluster in the new towns. Not regarded as “poor” households under the 2001–2006 poverty line, the “sandwiched households” were (and still are) the most vulnerable, yet the most overlooked, population group in view of surging housing price and median household income. We suggest that the geographical distribution of newly-completed flats should be considered as a crucial factor affecting low-income households’ preferences. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd