'Secretary for Development Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor yesterday defended the government's land sale system after developers said supply was inadequate.'
SCMP, April 20
We have a difficulty here. We have a buildings department, a census and statistics department, a lands department, a ratings and valuation department, a land registry, a transport and housing bureau and a housing authority and they all like to publish figures on housing supply.
Trouble is they mostly don't talk to each other before they do it. I can cite five sources for figures on residential completions and rarely have I seen them agree. Where accuracy of data is concerned, you would think these people had learned their trade up in Beijing at the National Statistics Bureau.
And I don't expect things to change. This is government after all. If one department proves right then another has proved wrong and government is never wrong. It just wouldn't do.
I think Carrie Lam's basic reason for obstinacy here is that she thinks developers are not telling her the truth about supply, that they just want a return to the good old days when a certain beknighted individual in the most senior ranks of government was known as the Secretary for Developers' Profits.
It's a widely held view in government. Put up a piece of land for auction and the developers will collude at the auction to avoid competition between themselves. The public purse will then be shortchanged on the price.