Affordable and Sustainable Housing at Speed

Rose is a multidisciplinary strategist with over 15 years of experience shaping real estate and urban development narratives across the United States and Asia Pacific. As part of the Thought Leadership and Programmes team at ULI Asia Pacific, she leads industry dialogue on sustainability, resilience, and placemaking.

Rose is a co-author of ULI Emerging Trends in Real Estate® Asia Pacific and the ULI Asia Pacific Home Attainability Report, delivering data-driven insights and best-practice recommendations for developers, policymakers, and community stakeholders.

A registered architect in both Victoria and California, and a LEED AP BD+C, she combines technical expertise with a strong strategic lens.

Jo Hayes is Chief Executive Officer of Habitat for Humanity Hong Kong, part of the global housing organisation working to ensure everyone has a safe, decent, and affordable place to live. She leads the organisation’s strategy, partnerships, and impact in Hong Kong, advancing housing solutions that improve living conditions and strengthen communities.

With nearly 30 years of international experience across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, including roles with the British Council, BBC Worldwide, and The Women’s Foundation, Jo brings extensive expertise in strategy, governance, organisational leadership, and stakeholder engagement.

As CEO of Habitat for Humanity Hong Kong, Jo is a strong advocate for the role of housing as a foundation for health, economic opportunity, and social mobility. She works with community organisations, corporate partners, and policy makers to address housing vulnerability and promote housing as a critical component of sustainable and inclusive urban development.

A Hong Kong Jockey Club Chicago Booth Executive MBA Scholar, Jo brings analytical rigour, financial discipline, and systems thinking to complex social and organisational challenges. She is known for applying evidence-based decision-making to strategy, governance, and organisational growth. Originally from the UK, she has lived and worked across Asia and Europe and has been based in Hong Kong since 2013.

My Sustainability Goals for 2026:
1. Improve housing quality and living conditions for vulnerable households
Housing should be recognised as a sustainability issue, not just a social issue. I would like to see tangible progress in reducing the number of Hong Kong residents living in inadequate housing conditions and greater investment in healthy, safe, and climate resilient homes.

2. Accelerate low-carbon housing development and retrofitting
Hong Kong needs to increase the speed and scale of low-carbon construction and building upgrades. This includes reducing embodied carbon in new developments and improving the energy efficiency of existing housing stock.

3. Strengthen cross-sector collaboration to address housing attainability
No single sector can solve Hong Kong’s housing challenges alone. I would like to see stronger partnerships between government, developers, financiers, construction firms, and nonprofits to deliver affordable and sustainable housing solutions at scale.

Dr Mckey Ho is a structural engineer with over 30 years of experience in building structural design, construction supervision, and quality management. He currently serves as Senior Structural Engineer at the Hong Kong Housing Authority. Over the past 3 years, he has been responsible for research and development in sustainable construction, carbon footprint reduction, and ceiling price batch procurement of Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) modules. Prior to this, he served for 8 years as the Head of the Materials & Components Team, where he oversaw surveillance testing of materials and contributed to the development of product certification schemes.

Ryan is the Vice President and Executive Director of Public Policy Institute at Our Hong Kong Foundation. He leads the Foundation’s think tank to advise the government and private sector organisations on public policy and strategic development. Before joining OHKF, he was an economist at JLL and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. He holds a Master of Science degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and is a Chartered Surveyor. He is also an Independent Non-Executive Director at China Merchants Land Limited.

Ryan is active in public service and is a member of the Advisory Committee on the Northern Metropolis, the Land and Development Advisory Committee, the Town Planning Board, the Tourism Strategy Committee, the Estate Agents Authority, and the Hong Kong Maritime and Port Development Board. He is also a Vice President of the China Real Estate Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong and International Chapter, and a board member of the Hong Kong Proptech Association.

Kelvin S.K. Wong is a Professor of Real Estate at the University of Hong Kong, where he leads the Real Estate Lab and serves as Executive Associate Dean of the Faculty of Architecture. As a real estate economist, Kelvin focuses on analyzing the behaviors of developers, investors, occupiers, and agents in markets characterized by inefficiencies. He is renowned for co-inventing Hong Kong’s repeat-sales property price index—the first tradable housing derivative in Asia. Ranked globally for his leadership in real estate academia, he has received numerous awards such as the Senior Fulbright Scholar, Homer Hoyt Institute’s Post-Doctoral Honoree, and the University of Cambridge’s Doris-Zimmern Award. He also serves on the Engineering Panel of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, helping to shape the direction of research funding across Hong Kong’s universities. Kelvin’s ongoing efforts strive to improve market understanding and inform policy development in real estate, ultimately benefiting both the industry and society.