ABSTRACT

Owing to the extreme scarcity of land and housing, coupled with the potential for capital gains in property ownership, people opted rationally for home ownership. Following the Asian economic downturn, the government is seeking to establish legitimacy through a fundamental overhaul of the public sector. The proposal to corporatize the Housing Department by means of hiving off the entire housing management function to the private sector is one example. People’s early housing trajectories, thus, provide the historical basis for the growth of home ownership. Family values, entrepreneurial capacity and consumption culture have enabled some families to amass substantial capital gains through home ownership, resulting in an uplifting of social status and life chances. The state, in order to promote home ownership, would minimize intervention and allow the housing market the maximum freedom to exercise its distributive function in meeting housing demand. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.