Two out of three Hongkongers need money from their family to buy their own home with an average of HK$1.86 million in financial support, while waiting times for public housing has ballooned to a 22-year high of nearly six years, according to a survey.
Citibank commissioned the University of Hong Kong Social Sciences Research Centre to conduct the survey in September, interviewing more than 500 respondents between 21 and 60 by phone on residential property ownership in the third quarter of 2021.
It found that 67 percent of respondents who have bought flats in the past 10 years had relied on financial support from their family, which was 15 percentage points higher from 10 years ago.
On average, they borrowed HK$1.86 million from their family members to become homeowners, up significantly from HK$500,000 a decade before.
Respondents also considered HK$5.8 million to be the average price of a property that can meet their accommodation needs, more than double the price of HK$2.7 million estimated 10 years ago.
Respondents aged 21 to 24 were most interested in owning a home, however the average age of first-time buyers was found to be 31.
Only 4 percent thought now is a good time to buy a house and 13 percent expressed interest in buying a home, both down from the previous quarter.
"The survey results showed that local citizens were having a wait-and-see toward the property market in the third quarter of 2021," said Citi Hong Kong head of retail bank Josephine Lee Kwai-chong.
Lee said the bank recommends young people interested in owning a home to start reviewing their asset allocation as soon as possible, and seek an appropriate mortgage plan to fulfill their dream of homeownership.
Meanwhile, the average waiting time of 5.9 years for public housing is almost double the target set by the Housing Authority, which aims for three years to provide housing to low-income families.
Among them, the average waiting time for elderly one-person applicants was 3.8 years. The waiting time for both general and elderly applicants increased by 0.1 year over year.
In the third quarter of 2021, about 2,800 general applicants were housed in public rental housing while 153,700 are still waiting.
Federation of Public Housing Estates executive director Anthony Chiu Kwok-wai expects the waiting time for public rental housing to exceed the six-year mark next year, as people are moving into the newly established large-scale public housing estates like Queen's Hill in Fan Ling and Wo Tin Estate in Tuen Mun.
Secretary for Transport and Housing Frank Chan Fan has said major improvements to the waiting time for public housing would only materialize in five years or more.
The average waiting time for public housing units is expected to be shortened in 2027 at the earliest, as the government has found about 350 hectares of land that can offer around 330,000 public housing units in the next decade.
