Leung under fire on housing vow
Lawmakers accused Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying of abandoning his pledge to restrict flat sales to local buyers after his housing chief yesterday appeared to play down the idea - just the latest official to do so.
Several legislators said they were alarmed when Secretary for Transport and Housing Anthony Cheung Bing-leung (pictured) seemed to imply in a Legislative Council meeting that Leung's controversial 'Hong Kong property for Hong Kong residents' would apply to publicly funded flats.
'We will ascertain the public policy objectives of the relevant public housing providers and explore with them ways to better meet the home ownership needs of Hong Kong residents,' Cheung said in response to a question about the policy.
Cheung's more limited description of the government's plans spurred Civic Party chairwoman Miriam Lau Kin-yee to accuse the government of 'continuously backtracking' from the ban on sales to non-locals.
'We have always focused the idea on the private market. Why do you suddenly say today it is related to public housing?,' she said. 'Has the policy already been aborted? Or was it just used by Leung to woo people when running for CE?'
The policy drew headlines in January when Leung included it in his campaign manifesto. He had said that he would insert causes into the land leases of certain sites to bar non-residents from buying finished flats there.
Leung's housing policies, however, have drawn considerable concern from developers, who worry that they would damage the city's property market.
Leung has since backed away from the ban on non-local buyer, saying that be believed such restrictions would only be necessary 'when the market is overheated'.
Other government officials, including Executive Council member Barry Cheung Chun-yuen, who is also chairman of the Urban Renewal Authority, have also expressed reservations about the plan.
Democrat Lee Wing-tat pressed Anthony Cheung to clarify the government's plan.
'I don't wish to see so many people twisting the manifesto,' Lee said. 'Is it because developers have persuaded Beijing to drop the policy?'
Cheung for his part denied that the policy had been abandoned. He said 'some measures' would be implemented to protect residents' interests, without mentioning Leung's original idea of adding a clause to the land lease.
'If necessary, we will take appropriate measures to ensure a stable ... development of the property market and to strive to safeguard the opportunity for Hong Kong residents to purchase their own homes,' he said.
Mainland buyers accounted for 10.6 per cent of private homes sales in the first quarter of this year, according to an estimate by Centaline Property.
If the count is limited to new flats, mainlanders were involved in 31 per cent of transactions.
Meanwhile, Cheung said he would work with the Housing Society to sort out details of the rent-and-buy 'My Home Purchase Plan' to avoid any delay in its implementation.
