The Public and Social Policy Research Centre (PSPRC) has constructed an OUHK HOS Price Index to provide an indicative reference for the price trends of Home Ownership Scheme flats on the secondary market. The initiative aimed to make up for the lack of a price index dedicated to subsidized housing in the context of the Government’s recent adjustment of the public/private split of housing supply from 60:40 to 70:30.

Led by Dean of the School of Arts and Social Sciences-cum-PSPRC Director Prof. Charles Kwong, the research team consisted of PSPRC Deputy Director-cum-Associate Professor Dr Michael Ng, PSPRC Research Fellow-cum-Assistant Professor Dr Arbitor Ma, and Honorary Assistant Professor Dr Roger Lo. The HOS Price Index is the ratio of the total market value of the constituent estates in the current month to that in the base month, where the constituent estates are the 50 HOS estates with the highest transaction volume in the past 15 years, while their market prices are calculated based on the hedonic pricing model.
 

The team selected January 2013 as the base period and compared the trends of the HOS Price Index and the Centa-City Index (CCI) reflecting secondary private home prices. The results demonstrated that while prices in both the private and subsidized markets increased, the HOS secondary market exhibited a much sharper price hike. In cumulative terms, from January 2013 to June 2020, the HOS Price Index escalated by 116.3%, whereas the CCI rose by 51.4%. The study also revealed an increase in interest rate sensitivity in the HOS secondary market similar to the private market. Prof. Kwong says the research team will update the OUHK HOS Price Index on a monthly basis. He hopes that the index will provide an objective indicator to help the Government as well as members of the public make better informed decisions on housing matters.