Hong Kong’s young adults are being pushed off the housing ladder, with the proportion of subsidised homeowners aged 30 to 39 nearly halving to 16 per cent over the past two decades, and a mid-sized private flat now costing more than 18 years of an average household’s combined income, a study shows.

The “Hong Kong Economic Policy Green Paper 2026”, released by the University of Hong Kong Business School on Wednesday, highlighted a long-term shift in Hong Kong’s housing landscape.

Overall home ownership rose from 34 to 54.1 per cent between 1985 and 2002, driven by gains in both private and public housing. During that period, private renters fell from 23.2 to 12.7 per cent, while public tenants fell from 42.7 to 33.2 per cent.

But the trend reversed from 2002 to 2023, with overall ownership dipping to 50.1 per cent – public to 16.5 per cent and private to 33.6 per cent.

The data showed the 30-to-39 age group was particularly in dire straits, with subsidised housing ownership falling from 30.1 per cent in 1993 to 16.1 per cent in 2023, and private ownership from 30.7 to 23.4 per cent.

Over the same period, the proportion living with parents rose from 25.1 to 40.5 per cent, while private renters increased from 14.1 to 20 per cent.