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Mr. Shangkong | Do we need to make property prices 'politically correct'?

There’s nothing wrong about anyone’s interest in popularity, in a society or in a company, but if you focus too much or even get addicted to it, there may be some side effects.

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Hong Kong Victoria Harbour. Photo: George Chen/SCMP

Let’s talk about property prices.

I am not a property industry expert but as a writer and reader, honestly speaking, I can tell nowadays in both Hong Kong and Mainland China, anything related to property prices has become more and more a political issue than simply a supply-and-demand market matter.

Analysts at Credit Suisse apparently agree with me on this view.

“While we believe it is politically correct for the (Hong Kong) government to be seen as introducing short-term measures to tame the property market, we believe measures would not have much impact on property demand,” said the bank’s research analysts Cusson Leung and Joyce Kwock in a recent report for the bank’s clients.

Politically correct? How correct can politics be these days in Hong Kong and Mainland China?

Local media in Hong Kong often describe Leung Chun-ying, a property consultant-turned politician and now the city’s chief executive, as a person who cares about his reputation and popularity among Hong Kong people the most.

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