OpinionDevelopers feel the heat of Leung's cooling measures
Administration sticks with punitive tax system as property prices remain stubbornly high
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, who took office a year ago, appears to be playing hardball with developers as he tries to deliver on his election promise to increase the supply of flats and bring prices down to a reasonable level.
Last week, his administration unveiled two policies that include initiatives mainly aimed at increasing the supply of private and government-subsidised flats and exerting downward pressure on prices.
On Thursday, Secretary for Transport and Housing Anthony Cheung Bing-leung announced an extension of the pre-sale period for private residential developments from 20 months to 30 months, while a batch of 2,100 Home Ownership Scheme subsidised flats will be put on sale 24 months before completion, instead of the usual 15-month pre-sale period.
The first part of those measures will help release a potential 15,000 private flats for pre-sale, which should help push prices lower.
On Friday, Secretary for Development Paul Chan Mo-po said the government had earmarked three sites in Shek Mun, Sha Tin - originally allotted for private residential purposes - for public rental housing after seeing a softening of demand in the private market.
The three sites would have provided 200 new flats. Chan said the government needed them to help it meet the target of building at least 100,000 public housing flats in the five years from 2018.
Due to the change, the nine sites to be released by the government for tender in the next three months will yield 2,500 private units, down 20 per cent from the previous quarter.