Hong Kong's sky-high property prices are unmatched the world over, but there are people who still find them affordable.
Many complain that wealthy mainlanders have pushed up the city's housing prices. However, statistics show that mainlanders only accounted for 30 per cent of luxury property transactions last year; the remainder was snapped up by locals.
In a recent press report, Polytechnic University president Timothy Tong Wai-cheung said local property prices were so high that even he couldn't afford to enter the market, adding that the city's greatest weakness was its inability to rein in housing prices. To illustrate his point, Tong said the average price of a Hong Kong flat of approximately 700 sq ft was equivalent to that of a house 10 times that size in the United States.
As a respected figure in academia, Tong's words carry a lot of weight, and therefore he must be careful about what he says. It's a fact that local university presidents are paid more than their counterparts overseas.
Tong receives a monthly salary of at least HK$450,000, so there is no reason he can't afford a property in Hong Kong. The prices are already unbearably high, and what he said will only fuel the growing anti-rich populist sentiment.
Tong is more than qualified to buy a local luxury property costing HK$10 million. To say that buying an average property is beyond his means gives the impression that the city's property market is out of control to the point of collapse.
I respect Tong immensely, but I do expect him to understand that a teacher's influence is often lasting. What he said could deepen anti-rich sentiment among young people. He should have reminded them that they are the makers of their own fate and encouraged them to work hard for a better future. Sadly, he failed in his duty here.