Housing policy, work-residence mismatch and poverty concentration

•The joint effects of new town and public housing exist in Hong Kong.•In inner city region, job opportunities outweigh the public housing lock-up effect.•Private housing residents in new towns prefer to work in the same district.•Poorer people cluster in developing new town as private renters.

Spatial work-residence mismatch and poverty concentration are two important problems faced by many metropolitan residents. Governments usually develop new towns and supply public housing to solve these problems. The new findings indicate that such joint effects really do exist. The Job opportunity effect in inner city regions would have greater influence on its residents' work-residence matching than the public housing lock-up effect. Public housing residents in developing new towns have difficulties finding jobs in nearby areas, and that poorer people appear to cluster in these areas as private renters. These new findings would provide valuable implications for future policy making.