The Housing Boom and the Rise of Localism in Hong Kong: Evidence from the Legislative Council Election in 2016

Abstract

Localist parties have become an emerging force in Hong Kong's political landscape. What has caused the rise of localism in the city? Extant studies focus on cultural and social factors. In this article, we propose a political economy explanation: global and regional economic factors have caused a housing boom in Hong Kong since the mid-2000s and produced impactful redistributive consequences. While homeowners benefit tremendously from the hike in asset prices, non-homeowners stand to lose. Their divergent economic interests then translate into political preferences; homeowners support political parties that favour the status quo, while non-homeowners tend to support those that challenge it. Using a newly available public opinion survey, we find preliminary evidence in support of our argument. In particular, homeowners are less likely to identify with localist parties and tend to vote for pro-establishment ones. High-income earners, however, are more likely to vote for localist parties.

The rise and ongoing legacy of localism as collective identity in Hong Kong: Resinicisation anxieties and punishment of political dissent in the post-colonial era

“…Young people feel pessimistic over owning their own flat given skyrocketing real estate prices, and the 'post-80s' generation often expresses a bleak outlook on their own future sense of socio-economic agency (Wong and Wan, 2018). A related challenge is the growing presence of subdivided units (sometimes colloquially referred to as 'cage homes') (Wee and Kwan, 2020).…”

Post-Materialism and Political Grievances: Implications for Protest Participation in Hong Kong

“…Nonetheless, we are not arguing that economic grievances play no roles in Hong Kong’s protests. Wong and Wan (2018) argued that the housing boom since the mid-2000s has benefited homeowners and harmed non-homeowners. Many high-income earners are unable to afford an apartment, so they have become “income rich, asset poor.” Given the housing crisis, they found that high-income individuals were more inclined to support the political opposition.…”

Does Loyalty Discourage Exit? Evidence from Post-2020 Hong Kong

“…We also include a variable, BNO , that is assigned a value of “1” if the respondent reports holding a BNO passport or having a close relative who is a BNO holder and “0” otherwise. Wong and Wan (2018) point out that in Hong Kong wealth is a strong predictor of political attitudes in addition to income. For this reason, we also include a variable, Homeowner , which is assigned a value of “1” if the respondent owns either wholly or partially a property and “0” otherwise.…”

“…As more Hong Kong people came to believe that Beijing’s political interest was at odds with theirs, an anti-China sentiment simmered in the city (Ma, 2015). Localism gradually emerged as a nascent yet powerful force in party politics and social movement (Kaeding, 2017; Veg, 2017; Wong and Wan, 2018). Some localist groups openly advocated self-determination and independence.…”