Banking chief David Eldon yesterday said he saw no signs of a bubble forming in the property market.
The outgoing chairman of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp, who in February last year warned that the city's property sector was at risk as speculators re-entered the market, declared the situation 'much healthier today'.
'It's because I don't see the level of speculation that caused me concern when I was commenting last year,' Mr Eldon said.
In February, he saw prices being driven up by speculators rather than end-users. 'Today, I don't see that happening,' he said.
He also predicted another 0.5 percentage point rise in United States interest rates in the first half, although the outlook for the second half was more uncertain.
The US Federal Reserve would need to review key economic indicators before deciding the direction of interest rates in the second half, he said.
'If consumer spending is not picking up and if they want to push the economy up, then maybe they'll try to bring down the interest rates,' he said.
