Hong Kong's mass-market residential property prices continue to soar after the Lunar New Year, as widely predicted, then we may soon be asking: is it time to panic? We have seen the territory's big banks repeatedly turn the screws on mortgage lending over the past 21/2 years in a bid to bring the market under control.
But, whatever restrictions have been brought in, Hong Kong's army of speculators has sooner or later come marching back as strongly as before.
It has not taken long for investor confidence to be renewed and fresh tactics drawn up to get around banks' increasingly tough lending requirements.
The measures taken by banks to limit the volume of new mortgage lending must be praised for managing to keep the speculative price bubble from bursting.
But how much further can the banks go? The limits already in place are hugely unpopular with genuine first-time buyers and becoming a growing socio-political problem.
Mass residential prices ended 1993 up 18 per cent, according to official year-end government figures announced earlier this week. The market was boosted by a buying spree in December.