Monitor | Quicker way to solve housing problem than a building binge
The government would be better off creating affordable rental flats for the poor and putting a tax on vacant investment properties
Yesterday Monitor argued that Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's plan to double the number of homes built in Hong Kong over the next five years is likely to backfire.
Given the three-year lead time on developments, I warned that the extra housing would reach the market just as interest rates were going up and the property prices turning down.
As a result, there is a real danger that Leung's well-meaning housing policy will transform what would otherwise be a normal cyclical downturn in the property market into a deep and protracted slump.
Since then several readers have taken me to task. "That's all very clever," they said (or words to that effect). "But it's too easy just to sit there and criticise CY. If you think you've got a better idea, tell us what would you do in his shoes."
Fair enough.
The first thing I would have done is to make sure I understood what problem I was trying to deal with.