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The lance description says:
a lance requires two hands to wield when you aren't mounted.
Note that the lance lacks the two handed property but still need 2 hands to wield.
The Hexblade warlock's Hex Warrior feature description (Xanathar's Guide to Everything, p. 55) says:
Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with and that lacks the two-handed property.
Can I use the Hex Warrior feature with a lance?
In D&D 5e, a rule means what it says and no more (unless the DM rules otherwise, which they are always entitled to do). Per the Hex Warrior description in the question:
Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with and that lacks the two-handed property.
A lance lacks the two-handed property, and qualifies for this requirement, even though you must wield it in two hands when not mounted.
Jeremy Crawford has ruled similarly in the related situation of the monk wielding a quarterstaff in two hands, despite weapons with the two-handed property being prohibited from the category of monk weapons:
Yep! The prohibition is against a weapon with the two-handed property, not against using a weapon with two hands.
Crawford is clear here in his intent: wielding a weapon with the two-handed property and wielding a weapon in two hands are not functionally equivalent in the rules.
The DM, of course, is always free to rule otherwise, particularly in situations like this where it may make sense to do so.
As you have pointed out, the Hex Warrior class feature of a Hexblade Warlock requires the weapon to lack the two-handed property.
From Xanathar's Guide to Everything, pg. 55:
Additionally, whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with and that lacks the two-handed property.
The lance does not have the two-handed property, which according to RAW, would make this a valid choice.
However, the lance does have the "Special" property, which says (PHB, pg. 148):
Lance. You have disadvantage when you use a lance to attack a target within 5 feet of you. Also, a lance requires two hands to wield when you aren't mounted.
Although this weapon appears to function as a two-handed weapon, since it lacks that property, we cannot know what the designers were thinking when they made this choice, so as it stands, it is a one-handed weapon that must be used with two hands unless you're mounted.
Although I will say that, although it may count as a valid weapon RAW, it would be reasonable for a DM to rule that you can only use your Hex Warrior class feature (i.e. can attack using CHA) when mounted, otherwise you would have to use STR to make your attack rolls with it when not mounted.
We don’t know, and really this is a call for your DM.
As you say, the rules, as written, don’t include the two-handed property on the lance (even when not mounted, if you want to be really technical). They easily could have included it; it’s not at all clear why they didn’t. Something like
Name Cost Damage Weight Properties Lance 10 gp 1d12 piercing 6 lb. Reach, special, two-handed Special Weapons
Lance: You have disadvantage when you use a lance to attack a target within 5 feet of you. Also, a lance loses the two-handed property while mounted.
would be very clear and explicit about what the weapon is; we would still not be 100% certain unless Hex Warrior addressed it directly, but it would give much stronger evidence.
The fact that they didn’t do that is... not really a whole lot of help either way. Player’s Handbook was written first, after all, so they may not have realized the need to be so specific. But given how things are, we just don’t know whether or not they intended Hex Warrior to work with lances.
Personally, were I your DM, I would say you could choose a lance, but the lance wouldn’t receive any of its benefits from Hex Warrior if you weren’t mounted.
