Bankers join call for more cheap flats
More business leaders, including property tycoons, have joined a call for the government to resume building Home Ownership Scheme flats and provide more housing to help prospective homeowners.
'Looking at the income of the younger generation in Hong Kong, it's impossible for them to purchase a property,' Vincent Cheng Hoi-chuen, chairman of HSBC Bank (China), said yesterday. 'If the government does not do something, society may be divided and public discontentment will rise.'
Cheng said relaunching the sale of government-subsidised HOS flats could help low-income families onto the property ladder. The government should also increase housing supply for higher-income groups, particularly the middle-class, he said.
Hang Seng Bank chief executive Margaret Leung Ko May-yee agreed there was an insufficient housing supply and the government should make available more property, ranging from HOS to private flats. She said the housing market and the economy would benefit from a long-term plan.
Their comments came a day after a surprise call from New World Development managing director Henry Cheng Kar-shun for more HOS flats amid rising property prices.
Vincent Lo Hong-shui, chairman of building materials and construction firm Shui On Group, also supported the idea. But he said the number of HOS flats should be restricted because too many could cause a property market collapse.
'I think property prices are a bit overpriced now. Of course, it may not be the problem of the developers. There is insufficient land supply as well,' the property tycoon said.
The group's subsidiary, Shui On Building Contractors, has built a lot of public housing and is approved by the Housing Authority to tender for certain design-and-build and complex projects.
Executive Council convenor Leung Chun-ying said the government would closely monitor the property market, as well as the public's demand and purchasing power. 'As for when and whether to build HOS flats again, I believe the government would closely monitor the situation and make an announcement at a suitable time,' Leung said.
A Housing Department spokesman yesterday echoed Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah's remarks two weeks ago. He said it was a prudent and important decision to scrap the HOS scheme and it would not re-enter the market easily.
The government stopped building and selling HOS flats in 2002 amid pressure from private developers. Five years later, the Housing Authority started selling some 16,600 surplus HOS flats in phases. Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, chairman of the authority's subsidised housing committee, said in a television interview that it would discuss this month whether it would put the remaining 4,000 HOS flats on sale this year.
The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong and the Federation of Trade Unions welcomed Cheng's call. 'We'll strengthen this opinion,' DAB lawmaker Ip Kwok-him said.
The DAB suggested the number of new HOS flats put up for sale be capped at 1,000 a year, while the FTU suggested 5,000 to 6,000.
But Liberal Party chairwoman Miriam Lau Kin-yee said the government should not take too many steps at a time, citing measures announced last month including an increase in irregular land sales and a requirement for developers to build small and medium-size flats on certain lots.
