Your Relatively Well-Off Customer Profile

Stephen Chung

Executive Director

Zeppelin Real Estate Analysis Limited

March 2003 

Your humble author has recently been flipping the pages of the latest published 2001 Census statistics and tables for some research data and has accidentally observed the following, i.e. a brief profile of the (relatively) well-off strata. While professing this not being something of pinpoint accuracy, it may be handy for marketing people, real estate agents included:  

A)     The more educated the customer the higher the chance of his / her earning being higher = despite all the stories we have heard about people who rise from rags to riches and without much of an education, well, they are not the norm. Of the 210,000 people who earn HK$40K or more per month (this being the highest category used), around 66% of them have university degrees, i.e. 140,000 of them who in turn constitutes around 25% of the population with university degrees. Percentages earning HK$40K or more for the other education attained categories are as follows: tertiary education (but not university degrees) 13%, matriculated (Form 7 graduated) 6%, secondary (Form 5 graduated) 2%+, and the rest (primary, kindergarten, and no schooling) less than 1%. 

B)     Between 30 and 50 years old = Of the 210,000 people earning HK$40K or more per month, around 80% or 168,000 of them are middle-aged, and of these 168,000, 110,000 or so of them have university degrees. A detail look reveals those 40 years old or more number more than those below 40 years old.

C)    Live on Hong Kong Island = Of the 2,000,000+ households in Hong Kong, around 1M reside in the New Territories, some 600,000 plus live in Kowloon, and the rest of around 400,000 families live on Hong Kong Island. Using the highest household income category of HK$60K or more per month, 7% of New Territories¡¦ families have achieved that, 6% of Kowloon¡¦s families, and 18% of Hong Kong Island¡¦s families.

D)    Look for households with 2, 4 or 5 family members = Of the 180,000 or so households earning HK$60K or more per month (being the highest category), and using the number of household members category which ranges from 1 to 6 or more, households with 2, 4 or 5 people constitute the bulk, collectively at 66%, of these 180,000 or so most well-off (in earning terms) households.

E)     Look for families with 2 to 3 members working = it relates only to so-called nuclei / nuclear families. Of the 1,400,000 such families, around 130,000 of them have a household income of HK$60K or more per month, and of these, 70% of them have 2 to 3 members working. 

F)     Do not neglect some of the families living in public rental or assisted sale housing = The average household income per month in Hong Kong is around HK$18K, and there are some 160,000 public rental housing families earning HK$20K or more per month, and of these, some 20,000+ families earn HK$40K or more per month. They could have substantial purchasing power. Also, 40,000 or so families living in public assisted sale housing also earn HK$40K or more per month.  

By and large, the above may be good for forming a brief overall view and please bear in mind the statistics were based in 2001 when we had the last full census done. For definitions on some of the terms, please refer to the published census documents.  

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