A note on narrative investigation on personal histories drawn from the public media domain: for Housing Studies students

A note on narrative investigation on personal histories drawn from the public media domain: for Housing Studies students

 

As a Housing Studies student in Hong Kong learning the subject of dissertation project, I would like to conduct a narrative research using secondary data analysis with data source from the Hong Kong public media. Please produce 3 brief cases on "a personal story of a middle class resident in Mainland China or Hong Kong, how the deteriorating housing market affects the fortune and career of the resident"; each narrative of the case is about 350 words. Then, illustrate how to conduct a narrative analysis on these three cases.

The following are three illustrative, source-based case narratives for a Housing Studies dissertation. They are reconstructed from public-media reports rather than presented as original interviews. Therefore, you should identify them as secondary-data narrative cases, preserve the sources’ original wording where quoted, and avoid claiming facts that the reports do not establish.

Case 1: Stephanie Cheung—property investment becomes financial pressure

Stephanie Cheung, a 40-year-old Hong Kong resident, purchased a small two-bedroom apartment of approximately 450 square feet in April 2021. She paid about HK$7.7 million for the property, viewing it primarily as an investment and a means of protecting her family’s financial future. At the time, Hong Kong’s property market appeared strong. By the summer of 2021, the apartment had increased in value by approximately 6%, reinforcing the belief that property ownership was a relatively secure route to wealth accumulation.

However, the market changed rapidly. As economic uncertainty continued and interest rates increased, the value of Cheung’s apartment fell by around 6%. Her financial position was affected not only by the reduction in the property’s market value but also by the increase in mortgage costs. The monthly interest payment rose by approximately HK$2,400. Although the flat generated rental income of HK$16,300 per month, this was insufficient to cover the mortgage payments. The property therefore changed from an asset generating expected wealth into a source of continuing financial pressure.

Cheung and her family were living in a larger rented home, meaning that she had both rental expenditure for the family residence and mortgage-related obligations connected with the investment property. Selling the apartment could reduce the burden, but doing so during a falling market would mean accepting a financial loss. Her stated aim was to sell the apartment “with the least loss and in the shortest time possible.” This language conveys urgency, anxiety and a loss of confidence in property as a dependable investment.

The housing downturn also affected her broader sense of economic security. Cheung’s experience illustrates how a middle-class household can be exposed to market risk through mortgage borrowing, floating interest rates and expectations of capital appreciation. Her career is not reported to have been lost, but her investment decision constrained household finances and may have reduced her capacity to make future career, consumption or family decisions. The story therefore links housing-market deterioration to changing perceptions of wealth, risk and personal fortune.

Case 2: Zhang—paper wealth declines but life continues

Zhang, a 35-year-old Hong Kong homeowner, purchased a 760-square-foot second-hand apartment at Lohas Park in Tseung Kwan O in late 2019. He bought the property at a price below the prevailing market level, apparently believing that the purchase represented reasonable value in Hong Kong’s exceptionally expensive housing market. At the time, home ownership could be understood not merely as acquiring shelter, but also as securing an important part of a middle-class household’s accumulated wealth.

Several years later, the value of Zhang’s apartment had fallen by approximately 10% from the price he paid. The decline was part of a wider reduction in prices at Lohas Park: apartments in the development were reportedly selling at around HK$13,113 per square foot, approximately 26% below their October 2021 peak. The market decline therefore threatened both recent purchasers and longer-term owners whose housing wealth had been built on the expectation of rising prices.

Nevertheless, Zhang did not describe himself as being in immediate financial difficulty. He explained that the depreciation had not yet been realised in cash and that its impact was therefore “not too severe.” This distinction between an unrealised paper loss and an actual cash loss is important. Zhang could continue living in the apartment without selling it, so the fall in market value did not immediately reduce his monthly income or require him to leave his home.

His response also reveals a particular form of middle-class resilience. Rather than treating the declining property value as an immediate personal catastrophe, Zhang maintained a long-term perspective. In August, he purchased a second apartment for rental at The Coast Line II in Yau Tong, taking advantage of lower prices and developer discounts. This decision suggests that the housing downturn affected different members of the middle class unevenly. A homeowner with sufficient income, borrowing capacity and confidence could interpret falling prices as an investment opportunity, whereas highly leveraged households might experience the same market as a threat.

Zhang’s career is not described as being directly damaged by the housing downturn. Instead, the market influenced his investment strategy and financial identity. His story demonstrates that housing deterioration does not produce one universal experience: it may reduce wealth on paper while simultaneously creating opportunities for individuals with stronger financial resources.

Case 3: Blake Xu—Mainland property wealth and declining confidence

Blake Xu, a 33-year-old businessman in Mainland China, represents a middle-class household whose financial security was closely connected to the property boom. During the period of rapid growth in China’s housing market, Xu and his family accumulated several real-estate properties. Property ownership was not simply a housing arrangement; it formed part of the family’s investment strategy and their expectations about social and economic advancement.

For a period, this strategy appeared successful. Rising property prices created a sense that the family possessed substantial wealth and that this wealth would continue to expand. Xu had recently sold one apartment and invested almost half of the proceeds in the stock market. His wife was also expecting their first child. These events suggest a household making decisions on the basis of confidence: property wealth appeared to provide the financial foundation for investment, family formation and future planning.

The deterioration of China’s property market disrupted this confidence. The media account presents Xu’s experience within a broader story of a new generation of middle-class households becoming increasingly nervous about the economy and their financial future. The central issue was not necessarily that Xu immediately lost his business or became unable to meet his daily expenses. Rather, the assumed reliability of property as a store of wealth weakened. Once property prices stopped rising, the family’s previous decisions became more uncertain. Selling an apartment no longer guaranteed a profitable reinvestment, and investing the proceeds in shares exposed the family to further market volatility.

The connection between housing and career is especially significant in Xu’s narrative. As a businessman, his confidence and willingness to invest were likely connected to the perceived value of his property assets. A decline in housing wealth could therefore affect risk-taking, business expansion, hiring, consumption and family decisions, even if no direct job loss was reported. The housing downturn transformed property from a symbol of progress into a source of anxiety.

Xu’s story illustrates a psychological and behavioural consequence of housing-market deterioration: the weakening of middle-class confidence. Property losses can influence career decisions indirectly by encouraging caution, reducing entrepreneurial ambition and increasing the desire to preserve cash.

How to conduct narrative analysis

1. Define the narrative-analysis purpose

Your study should not merely ask whether property prices increased or decreased. A suitable narrative purpose would be:

To examine how middle-class residents narrate the effects of housing-market deterioration on financial fortune, career choices, family planning and perceptions of social security.

Possible research questions include:

1.    How do residents describe the relationship between home ownership and personal fortune?

2.    How does housing-market deterioration change their career and investment decisions?

3.    What meanings do residents attach to debt, loss, security and middle-class identity?

4.    How do the narratives differ between financially resilient and financially vulnerable residents?

2. Treat media reports as narrative documents

The unit of analysis is not simply the individual sentence or economic statistic. It is the personal story as constructed by the media report.

For each article, record:

Analytical item	Case 1	Case 2	Case 3
Resident	Stephanie Cheung	Zhang	Blake Xu
Location	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	Mainland China
Housing position	Investment property and family renter	Homeowner and later investor	Multiple-property household
Main market problem	Falling value and rising mortgage interest	Declining property value	Loss of confidence in property wealth
Financial effect	Rental income insufficient for mortgage	Unrealised paper loss	Reduced certainty about accumulated wealth
Career effect	Indirect financial constraint	No direct harm reported	Possible reduction in business risk-taking
Dominant emotion	Urgency and anxiety	Calm but cautious	Nervousness and insecurity
Narrative outcome	Attempt to exit with minimum loss	Continues investing	Confidence in the future weakens

3. Identify narrative structure

Narrative analysis examines how a story unfolds. You can divide each case into five stages:

1.    Initial situation: What was the resident’s housing and financial position before the downturn?

2.    Turning point: What event changed the situation?

3.    Interpretation: How did the resident explain or understand the change?

4.    Response: Did the resident sell, hold, borrow, invest, relocate or reduce risk?

5.    Outcome: What happened to wealth, work, family plans and future expectations?

For example, Case 1 can be structured as:

• Initial situation: Cheung bought an investment flat during a rising market.
• Turning point: Prices fell and mortgage interest increased.
• Interpretation: The property became financially burdensome.
• Response: She considered selling quickly.
• Outcome: Her expected investment gain became a potential loss.

This structure allows you to analyse housing as a process of changing meaning rather than merely as a financial variable.

4. Code the stories

Begin with descriptive codes close to the text:

• “property as investment”
• “expected capital gain”
• “falling market value”
• “mortgage stress”
• “unrealised loss”
• “holding versus selling”
• “career risk”
• “family financial security”
• “middle-class anxiety”
• “confidence in the future”

Then group them into broader themes:

Descriptive codes	Higher-level theme	Possible interpretation
Capital gain, property investment, accumulated assets	Housing as wealth strategy	Housing is treated as an investment and status resource
Mortgage increase, insufficient rent, debt	Financial exposure	Borrowing makes households vulnerable to market and interest-rate changes
Holding, selling, buying another flat	Strategic responses	Residents respond according to liquidity and financial capacity
Anxiety, urgency, caution	Emotional consequences	Market decline affects confidence and future expectations
Business investment, career planning, family formation	Housing–life-course connection	Property wealth shapes wider personal and professional decisions

5. Compare narrative positions

The three residents occupy different positions within the housing market:

• Cheung is a leveraged investor facing immediate cash-flow pressure.
• Zhang is a comparatively resilient homeowner who can tolerate an unrealised loss.
• Xu is a businessman whose confidence is affected by the weakening of property-based wealth.

This comparison suggests that the consequences of a deteriorating housing market are mediated by:

• the level of mortgage debt;
• whether the resident must sell;
• rental income and employment income;
• the number of properties owned;
• access to savings and alternative investments;
• expectations about future prices;
• family and career responsibilities.

6. Analyse language and identity

Pay attention to emotionally and morally significant expressions. For instance:

• “with the least loss and in the shortest time possible” presents Cheung as pressured and defensive.
• “the impact is not too severe” presents Zhang as financially capable of postponing the loss.
• “losing its confidence” presents the Mainland middle class as psychologically affected, not only economically affected.

You can ask:

• Does the resident describe the property as a home, investment, burden or opportunity?
• Is the resident portrayed as responsible, unlucky, strategic or anxious?
• Does the media attribute the problem to personal decisions, interest rates, government policy or structural market forces?
• Whose voice is included, and whose voice is absent?

7. Consider the media as a storyteller

Because this is secondary-data research, the article is not a transparent record of reality. It is a constructed account shaped by:

• the journalist’s selection of interviewees;
• the headline and opening paragraph;
• quotations chosen for publication;
• economic statistics used to frame the story;
• the newspaper’s political and commercial orientation;
• the omission of other household experiences.

Accordingly, distinguish among three levels:

1.    Resident’s account: what the resident says or is reported to say.

2.    Journalist’s account: how the article organises and interprets the story.

3.    Researcher’s interpretation: your analytical explanation of housing, wealth and career effects.

8. Address validity and ethics

Use triangulation by comparing media interviews with official and institutional sources, such as Hong Kong Monetary Authority mortgage statistics, Rating and Valuation Department price data, Census and Statistics Department household data, and reputable housing-market research.

You should also:

• retain the original publication date and URL;
• distinguish direct quotations from your paraphrases;
• avoid inventing missing demographic or career information;
• note that one media case cannot represent all middle-class residents;
• anonymise individuals if your institution requires it;
• analyse media framing rather than treating the article as an independently verified life history.

A concise methodological statement could be:

This study adopts a qualitative narrative-analysis approach to examine three publicly reported personal housing stories from Hong Kong and Mainland China. The cases are selected purposively because they illustrate contrasting relationships between housing-market deterioration, household wealth and career-related decision-making. The analysis combines narrative-structure analysis, thematic coding and cross-case comparison, while recognising that media reports are constructed representations rather than complete biographical accounts.

 

Is it appropriate to employ a few academic theories, e.g. housing studies-related, sociology-related, and social psychology-related, etc., to conduct the narrative analysis for this kind of narrative research?

Yes. Employing a small number of carefully selected theories would be appropriate and would strengthen the narrative analysis. The theories should not be used merely to decorate the literature review; each should help you interpret a specific dimension of the residents’ stories, such as housing wealth, class identity, emotional responses, career decisions or perceived insecurity.

Recommended theoretical strategy

For a small dissertation based on three media cases, I recommend using:

1.    One main housing theory to explain the structural role of housing.

2.    One sociological theory to interpret class, inequality and life-course effects.

3.    One social-psychological theory to examine emotions, risk perception and decision-making.

This is usually more manageable than applying five or six theories equally. A suitable combination would be:

• Housing asset-based welfare or housing financialisation.
• Bourdieu’s theory of capital and social reproduction.
• Social identity theory, status anxiety or prospect theory.

The theories can be integrated into one conceptual framework rather than analysed separately.

1. Housing asset-based welfare

Housing asset-based welfare is probably the most directly relevant housing-studies theory. It treats owner-occupied and investment housing as an important source of household wealth, security and welfare. In this perspective, households are encouraged to rely partly on property ownership rather than exclusively on salaries, pensions or public welfare. Housing becomes a store of wealth that may support consumption, retirement, education or future investment.

The theory is useful for analysing:

• Why residents purchase property beyond their immediate housing needs.
• How home ownership becomes associated with financial security.
• Why declining prices threaten more than shelter.
• How mortgage debt exposes households to market and interest-rate risks.
• Why housing losses influence career and family decisions.

Application to your cases:

• Stephanie Cheung: Her investment flat was expected to generate rental income and capital appreciation. Rising interest payments and falling prices undermined the welfare function of the property.
• Zhang: The falling value of his home represented an unrealised loss, but his stronger financial position allowed him to tolerate it and purchase another property.
• Blake Xu: Property accumulation had become part of the family’s wealth strategy, so a weaker market reduced confidence in business and future planning.

A useful analytical question would be:

How does the resident’s story reveal the transformation of housing from a place of residence into a financial asset?

The theory also has a critical dimension. Housing does not produce security equally for all households. Its benefits depend on purchase timing, location, debt level, income and access to other assets. Housing wealth can therefore increase inequalities between owners and renters and between different groups of owners.

2. Housing financialisation

Housing financialisation is another strong option, particularly if your dissertation focuses on investment, mortgage debt and market-based definitions of personal success. It refers broadly to the growing influence of financial practices, credit, investment expectations and profit-making motives in housing.

This theory helps you examine how:

• Homes are treated as investment vehicles.
• Mortgage borrowing connects households to wider financial markets.
• Residents evaluate their homes through prices and returns.
• Interest-rate changes enter everyday family life.
• Career decisions become connected to property wealth.

For example, Cheung’s story can be interpreted as a process of financialisation. The apartment was not only a home; it was an investment expected to produce rent and appreciation. When the market declined, the consequences were experienced as monthly financial pressure. Her personal story therefore connects an apparently private problem to wider market processes.

Housing financialisation is especially useful if your research question uses terms such as:

• property investment;
• household debt;
• mortgage vulnerability;
• housing as an asset;
• market insecurity;
• middle-class financialisation.

However, you should define the concept carefully. A short dissertation should not attempt to analyse the entire financial system. Focus on how financial logic appears in the residents’ narratives.

3. Bourdieu’s theory of capital

Bourdieu’s framework can provide a sociological explanation of middle-class position and unequal resources. You could analyse three forms of capital:

• Economic capital: income, property value, savings and borrowing capacity.
• Cultural capital: education, financial knowledge and familiarity with property markets.
• Social capital: family support, professional networks and access to advice or credit.

Housing is particularly important because it can convert economic capital into social status and perceived security. It may also be transmitted across generations. A household owning several properties has a different set of opportunities from a household renting privately, even if both have similar employment income.

This theory helps explain the contrast between Zhang and Cheung. Both are connected to Hong Kong’s declining housing market, but their responses differ. Zhang appears able to tolerate a paper loss and buy another property, whereas Cheung faces immediate cash-flow pressure. Their different responses may reflect differences in economic capital, liquidity and investment capacity.

Bourdieu also encourages you to analyse middle-class identity. A resident may narrate home ownership as evidence of being responsible, successful or socially secure. When property prices decline, the resident may experience not only financial loss but also a threat to status and self-image.

Possible research question:

How do residents use housing ownership and property wealth to construct or defend a middle-class identity?

You should avoid claiming that a person’s entire class position can be established from a newspaper article. Instead, write that the article represents or constructs the resident as middle class through references to property ownership, investment, employment, family responsibility and financial expectations.

4. Social identity theory

Social identity theory is useful for analysing how residents understand themselves as members of a social group. In your study, relevant identities may include:

• homeowner;
• property investor;
• middle-class family member;
• businessperson;
• financially responsible adult;
• economically successful citizen.

A housing-market decline can threaten these identities. A person who previously understood himself or herself as a successful property owner may begin to feel insecure when the property loses value. This does not necessarily mean poverty. It may mean that the individual’s expected social position has become uncertain.

Case 3 is particularly suitable for this approach. Xu’s story concerns declining confidence among Mainland China’s middle class. Property wealth had supported expectations about business, family formation and the future. When that wealth became less secure, his identity as a successful and confident middle-class businessman was also unsettled.

Useful questions include:

• What kind of person does the resident present himself or herself as?
• What does property ownership appear to symbolise?
• Does the resident describe the market decline as personal failure or structural bad luck?
• Which social group does the resident appear to fear leaving?
• Does the narrative show confidence, shame, anxiety, resilience or resignation?

5. Prospect theory and risk perception

A social-psychological perspective can help analyse why residents respond differently to similar market conditions. Prospect theory distinguishes between gains and losses and suggests that people may respond more strongly to perceived losses than to equivalent gains.

This is relevant to:

• homeowners who purchased near the market peak;
• residents who are reluctant to sell at a loss;
• people who distinguish between actual and paper losses;
• investors who become more cautious after a downturn;
• households that continue to hold property because selling would make the loss real.

Application:

• Cheung perceives the combination of falling value and rising mortgage payments as an immediate loss.
• Zhang frames the loss as unrealised and therefore tolerable.
• Xu experiences a decline in confidence even before a complete financial collapse occurs.

The theory allows you to analyse the language of loss:

• “least loss” indicates an effort to minimise a realised financial loss.
• “not too severe” indicates the psychological importance of postponing or reframing the loss.
• “losing confidence” indicates that perceived insecurity may precede measurable financial hardship.

Do not use prospect theory to diagnose the residents’ psychology. Since the data are media reports rather than interviews or experiments, use cautious language such as “the narrative suggests,” “the account represents,” or “the reported response may indicate.”

A suitable integrated framework

You could organise the framework as follows:

Housing-market deterioration→ Declining housing wealth and rising financial exposure→ Threat to welfare, class identity and future expectations→ Career, investment and family responses

The three theoretical perspectives would operate at different levels:

Analytical level	Theory	Main question
Structural housing level	Housing asset-based welfare	What role was housing expected to play in financial security?
Social inequality level	Bourdieu’s capital theory	Why did residents have different capacities to absorb the downturn?
Psychological and narrative level	Social identity or prospect theory	How did residents interpret loss, risk and threats to their identity?

This arrangement prevents theoretical confusion. Each theory answers a different question.

Illustrative analysis

Consider the following simplified narrative extract from Case 1:

Cheung bought the flat as an investment when prices were rising. Later, the property value fell and the mortgage became more expensive. Rental income was insufficient to cover the payments, so she wanted to sell with the least loss possible.

A multi-theoretical analysis could be written as follows:

• Housing asset-based welfare: The apartment was expected to provide financial returns and security, but the declining market weakened its welfare function.
• Financialisation: The home was treated as an income-generating asset and was connected to mortgage finance and interest-rate changes.
• Bourdieu: The case reveals the importance of economic capital and liquidity. Property ownership alone did not guarantee security because debt reduced the resident’s effective control over the asset.
• Prospect theory: The desire to sell with the “least loss” indicates an attempt to manage a perceived loss and prevent further deterioration.
• Narrative analysis: The story moves from optimism, through a turning point, to financial pressure and attempted exit. This structure constructs the housing downturn as a reversal of expected middle-class progress.

Recommended dissertation design

For your project, I would recommend the following design:

Main theory

Use housing asset-based welfare as the central theory because it is directly related to the role of housing in household wealth and security.

Supporting theory

Use Bourdieu’s capital theory to explain why the three residents experience and respond to the downturn differently.

Optional social-psychological lens

Use either social identity theory or prospect theory, but not necessarily both. Choose social identity theory if your emphasis is on middle-class status and confidence. Choose prospect theory if your emphasis is on loss, risk and investment decisions.

A focused framework could therefore be stated as:

This study uses housing asset-based welfare as its principal theoretical perspective, supported by Bourdieu’s theory of capital and social identity theory. The framework examines how deteriorating housing markets undermine expected housing-based security, affect households with different levels of economic capital, and challenge residents’ middle-class identities and future expectations.

Important limitation

The theories should be used to interpret the narratives, not to prove general causal relationships. Three media cases cannot demonstrate that housing-market deterioration directly causes career change across Hong Kong or Mainland China. They can show how particular residents understand and narrate the relationship between housing, fortune and career.

You should also distinguish between reported career effects and inferred career effects. If a source says that a resident lost a job, changed occupation or closed a business, you may analyse that reported effect. If the source only describes anxiety or reduced investment, state that the career implication is indirect or potential rather than confirmed.

 A collection of blog notes on using chatgpt for research purpose.