Hong Kong and Sydney

I find that it will be quite interesting to compare Australia and Hong Kong accounting for the city development. In fact, Hong Kong is a much smaller and condenser place than Australia, so it is quite not fair if we compare the ratio of land usage and stuff like population congestion ratio, so I will compare Hong Kong with Sydney, though Sydney is still a bigger city than Hong Kong.

As a resident who have lived in Hong Kong for 17 years before coming to Australia, Kensington in fact, I always think that Sydney is a better place as its weather, air quality, amount of vegetation and traffic are all better than Hong Kong. This is largely due to the land amount. Hong Kong is a small country; the suburban housing ratio is much lower than Sydney. According to NSW State and Regional Indicators published in 2010, there are around 70% residents live in detached houses, which means there are only 30% live in flats and semi-detached townhouse.¹ In contract, there are more than 45% population lives in social housing, which are rental flats provided by the government.2 Most HK people live to high rise flat and Sydney people prefer low rise buildings. The air quality will make a big difference considering the amount of tall buildings in two places.

Population to land ratio lays a great impact to the quality of living. Concerning Australia is encountering a dramatic population increase comparing to other countries. In 2012, it is recorded 1.8% population growth, which is 3 times more than Hong Kong that is recorded as 0.5% growth in 2013. Therefore, it is a need for Australia to consider the way to manage this substantially increasing population and prohibit the urban sprawl by means of reasonable city design with respect to sustainability.

Reference:

1. 1338.1 - NSW State and Regional Indicators, Sep 2010  

http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/1338.1Main+Features5Sep+2010

2. HOUSING IN HONG KONG: AN EVALUATION INTO AFFORDABILITY AND SOCIAL HOUSING SIGNIFICANCE

http://www.thebuildingfuturesgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Student-Ambassador-Reports-Gardner.pdf