Leung Chun-ying says his focus is on increasing housing and land supply, despite home prices hitting record low
TONY.CHEUNG@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 08 December, 2015, 12:36pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 08 December, 2015, 12:36pm
Leung Chun-ying delivered his comments prior to this morning’s Executive Council meeting. Photo: Sam Tsang
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has made it clear that his administration will not ease current purchase restrictions to support the property market, saying it’s not government’s job to “guarantee that property prices will not drop”.
Leung’s comment came a day after Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah only said that the government would closely monitor trends like property prices and trade volumes, and Tsang declined to say whether the stamp duty measures would be relaxed.
The chief executive said that as the city’s property prices were starting to increase, “some people asked if the government would relax its [stamp duty measures], and the answer is no.”
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“The government has no responsibility in guaranteeing that property prices would only go up, and not the other way round. Our responsibility is to address the public’s housing problem by increasing housing and land supply,” he said.
The chief executive reiterated that Hong Kong’s housing shortage was caused by a combination of factors, namely inadequate housing and land supply as well as “external speculation and investment demands.”
The stamp duty measures had been helpful in curbing such external demands and the government would not ease them, he added.
The city’s property market was especially vulnerable now, with home sales hitting a record low for the year last month, and home prices dropping in October for the first time in three years.
On Monday, Tsang warned that a potential interest rate increase by the US Federal Reserve next week would be the city’s next biggest economic concern.
He also highlighted the consequences stemming from the US central bank’s action, with local asset prices likely to fluctuate on higher borrowing costs.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/economy/article/1888271/hong-kong-chief-executive-says-not-governments-job-regulate
