‘A day late and a dollar short’ is one way of summing up the government’s latest efforts to stop the Hong Kong property juggernaut in its tracks.
The measures announced by Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying on Thursday, promise 65,000 new residential flats in the next three to four years, in a bid to make housing more affordable in a city where, according to Centaline Property Agency, prices have risen more than 12 per cent this year, and almost 90 per cent since the end of 2008.
Leung was widely expected to frame substantive housing policies as part of campaign pledges, but his measures were widely seen as falling short of addressing the underlying problem.
“They could do more but they chose not to,” Sylvia Wong, an analyst with UOB-Kay Hian told SCMP.com.
She said the measures were largely cosmetic.
“The government wants to be seen to be doing something but for some reason they’ve chosen to do just the minimum,” Wong said.
