Since the generation of our grandparents or even before that purchasing a home has become the goal and dream of most Hong Kong citizens. Shelter as a basic necessity has evolved monstrously into an unattainable dream, and of those who can afford a down payment, many end up paying a large part of their monthly salary to mortgages for 20 some years. Thanks to the high land price policy, an artifact and a reminiscence of the colonial era, land price is arbitrarily set at an astronomical level because land is the only resource in the densely populated Hong Kong and premium of land sales provides an important revenue to the Hong Kong government. For an estimate of one plus million home owners in Hong Kong, the inflated properties' price has boosted their net worth and many have made a fortune themselves through real estate trading.
However, the surge of properties price has systematically divided the population into the haves and the have-nots. As the poor in Hong Kong struggles with end meets without a minimum wage protection, the rich continues to fly above the rest through real estate trading and the belief that the price is not going to fall. The notorious cage living is an example of the deprivation that exists in one of the most modern cities in the world. About 100,000 poverty-stricken residents live one by one in a cage made of wooden planks and wire mesh of about 3.7m2, an area large enough for only a mattress and a few possessions. The common belief, and also one of the core values in Hong Kong, that one can become rich if enough effort is devoted has shattered completely. One can work very hard at the bottom of the paradigm and still fail to move up the rug of the social ladder. The value of a property as an investment has overshadowed its function as a home, and that's just one of the many dysfunctions in Hong Kong and one that arguably has the biggest impact on the stability of the society.
