QUOTE OF THE MONTH award goes to a 'well-placed government source' who says we need no longer worry about a glut of housing as he has in his hands a report that finally reveals all and proves the glut will soon be absorbed.
I can well understand why this official does not want his name revealed. Nor did I in my schooldays when I had not done my homework.
The difference is that when I presented my homework late, I did not try to make it up to the teacher with claims of having made a marvellous new discovery.
Mr Well-Placed-Source does so, however, when he said that in the past, there were no detailed figures to back up property market forecasts.
'With detailed figures, there are a lot of things we can do now,' he told our reporter, and for that preposterous claim of having achieved a first, he rises to the top for Quote of the Month award.
Listen, Mr Source, every year your Lands Department publishes a comprehensive Ratings and Valuation survey that lists the floor area of the stock, completions, authorisations, commencements and take-up of residential, office, retail, industrial and all other forms of property in the public and private sector. It is a thick book. It is in fact the Bible of the Hong Kong property market. It has it all.
Aside from this Bible, every month several government departments publish detailed monthly and quarterly figures on a wide range of other property data, including prices and rents broken down by sector and location, construction activity, mortgages, take-up, credit position and the list just goes on and on. It is by far the most comprehensive statistical coverage of property to be seen anywhere in Asia.