July 3, 2018

HONG KONG -- Some Hong Kong officials and lawmakers are encouraging younger residents to consider living across the mainland China border so that they can escape the territory’s sky-high apartment prices and find more job opportunities. It is not an easy sell but some pro-China business leaders say resistance to the idea will eventually crumble.

The government has seized upon a Beijing plan to integrate the former British colony into the Pearl River Delta to create the Greater Bay Area, a region comprising nine cities in China's Guangdong province, plus Hong Kong and Macau, that would have the equivalent of the fifth-largest economy in the world by 2030 and a population of nearly 70 million. Hong Kong's population is currently about 7.4 million.

Moving to one of those other cities would mean that Hong Kong’s millennial generation, many of whom have been priced out of Hong Kong’s housing market, could afford to buy their own homes or rent more than a shoe box. They would also have a wider range of jobs to choose from.

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