IN spite of sky-rocketing property prices, I, being an owner and occupier of a flat, have not benefited in any way. On the contrary, like other owner/occupiers and the community at large, I have suffered heavily in financial terms from the spiralling cost of living as a consequence of high inflation, an inflation generated by the property market upheaval. Therefore, the problem should not just be viewed from one perspective. Focus should be centred on the effect rather than the cause. Everyone is feeling the pinch as a consequence of the high cost of living, which has led to an erosion of the standard of living. This has brought about feelings of discontent and that discontent could undermine the stability of society. This unreasonable and unacceptable situation has been brought about by some very unethical and deceptive practices. As pointed out by Legislators and other community leaders - the development of land has been delayed; the marketing of completed buildings is staggered, and the sale of flat units is withheld and restricted to ''Internal Sales''. This last method, ''Internal Sales'' is the most vicious. In some cases, only about 10 per cent of the units supposedly on sale are actually open to the public, creating an overwhelming demand over supply. While statistics indicate that more than 60 per cent of new flats remain unoccupied, an equally large number of old flats remain vacant - as many as 60,000. Complaints of the shortage of land and the clamour for more land are not only misleading, but also deceitful. Such complaints are intended to divert attention from the practices of organised hoarding and manipulation. There is plenty of undeveloped land around in the hands of developers. In recent annual general meetings, Mr Li Ka-shing said that his company, Cheung Kong, had a land reserve enough for development up to year 2000, and Mr P. S. Kwok of Sun Hung Kai said that his company had a land reserve of more than 15 million square feet, enough for development in the next five years. Therefore, there is neither a shortage of lands nor of flats. The crux of the problem is the organised manipulation and hoarding of both land and flats. The extraordinary and ludicrous property market in Hong Kong has no parallel anywhere else in the world. The Government has neglected and defaulted in failing to take proper and effective measures to avert the crisis. Measures taken so far have proved tobe a failure. No measure will be effective unless based on the principle that residential flats are an essential of life, and that hoarding and speculation are prohibited. Thus, penalties should be imposed on developers for delaying the development of land beyond the stipulated time. ''Internal Sales'' of flats should be banned. Each and every flat available and ready for sale must be open to the public. Tax should be levied on buy and sell transactions undertaken within short periods. Last but not least, the Government should substantially increase its efforts to build more large public housing projects, so as to neutralise organised manipulation and hoarding. In view of the intense speculation and hoarding activities, it would be sensible to assume that there is a lot of corrupt money, possibly drug money, being laundered through property transactions. This is an area where the Independent Commission Against Corruption should step in. PHILIP LEE Mid-Levels