To boost birth rate, Hong Kong needs to deliver quality housing

According to the chief executive, Hong Kong experienced a 10 per cent rise in the birth rate in 2024, a year after the bonus was introduced. It was the year of the dragon, after all, traditionally a year for more babies to be born. But, by 2025, births had fallen by 15 per cent to 31,100 – almost half the 59,900 in 2015.

Perhaps it’s time the government stopped using the fact our low birth rate is part of the “global challenge” in developed economies as a convenient excuse and instead looked inwards to understand the obstacles couples here face.

One thing the government must answer is whether it is willing to build larger homes to make living spaces big enough for families. Officials are well aware that some of the most vulnerable people living in subdivided flats are those with children. How hard is it to understand that if homes remain painfully unaffordable and pitifully small, it’s very difficult to persuade couples to have children?

The “wisdom” is abundant. Whether the government is willing to “collect” it is another matter. The Hong Kong Future Economy Institute recently released a report titled “Smaller and Smaller”, which found that the average floor area of newly completed units was about three-quarters the size of a flat built in 1995.

The shrinkage is evident. Public housing units have turned from family flats to micro units; subsidised housing has shrunk from family-sized homes to “starter” units unfit for families.