CY Leung's popularity dives after first policy address

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's popularity plunged shortly after he delivered his maiden policy address on Wednesday, according to polls by the University of Hong Kong's public opinion programme.

The public's dissatisfaction rate with Leung rose 15 percentage points, from 24 per cent in an instant survey on the day of the address to 39 per cent in follow-up polls on Thursday and Friday.

Almost half of the respondents thought his measures to boost housing, the key area of his policy blueprint, were ineffective.

The number of people satisfied with his performance fell from 36 per cent in the snap survey to 27 per cent in Thursday's and Friday's polls.

This is still higher than the 19 per cent set by Donald Tsang Yam-kuen in 2009, but Leung's net satisfaction rate - the difference between the two - fell to minus 12 percentage points, the fifth lowest for a chief executive.

The surveys, released yesterday, found 40 per cent of respondents considered his housing measures would be ineffective.

Since Leung's speech to Legco, home sellers have marked up prices, with property agents quoted as saying that prices for large residential sites had risen by about 5 per cent.

Professor Eddie Hui Chi-man, of Polytechnic University's department of building and real estate, said he believed Leung's policy address failed to meet the expectations of some Hongkongers probably because it focused on mid-term measures to boost land supply for housing.

"Some people might want to see quick results instead," he said. But Hui said it took time to increase home supply.

Political analyst Ma Ngok, an associate professor in the department of government and administration at Chinese University, said: "Dissatisfaction grew … mainly due to the government's lack of effective measures to address the people's needs."

The university's follow-up surveys on Thursday and Friday showed 27 per cent of 530 respondents were satisfied with the address, a fall of 9 percentage points from the snap survey.

A total of 44 per cent said the effect of the housing and land supply policies on tackling housing problems would be "small".

Leung's policy address recorded a rating of 48.2 out of 100, less than the 56.1 scored by his predecessor Tsang in 2011.

Public opinion programme director Dr Robert Chung Ting-yiu said: "After some initial discussions, people's appraisal of this year's policy address has dropped remarkably."

Speaking on a youth federation's on-line forum, Leung said: "Electing the chief executive by universal suffrage in 2017 can solve the mandate problem, but we have to find a way to improve the political system. Our legislature, unlike other regions which only have two to three political parties, is composed of 70 legislators from different parties. The government finds it difficult to engage them in discussions."

Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah said the government would adapt when needed to ensure the stable development of the property market in response to the recent surge in real estate transactions.