People’s ‘assets are disappearing’: Midland Realty chairman sounds the alarm as he urges removal of all Hong Kong property cooling measures

‘As property and stock prices are falling together, Hong Kong people’s assets are disappearing,’ Midland’s Freddie Wong says

Hong Kong-listed agency is minimising its investments to ‘protect its capital and life’ in the current market

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Hong Kong property transactions fell to their lowest level in 33 years in 2023, as sentiment was hit by a deluge of poor economic news and high interest rates. Photo: Sun Yeung

Published: 6:30pm, 16 Feb 2024

Hong Kong should do away with property sector cooling measures altogether as declines in real estate values and the stock market are putting Hongkongers’ assets at risk, said the chairman of Midland Realty.

Many unfavourable factors have emerged in the city’s property market, including an increase in the number of homes with negative equity, a high inventory of new flats, fewer transactions and a slump in property prices, Freddie Wong Kin-yip, the Hong Kong-listed property agency’s chairman, said on Friday.

“As property and stock prices are falling together, Hong Kong people’s assets are disappearing,” he said.

“Now is the time to remove all kinds of property cooling measures to revitalise the market, and to assist the public in purchasing homes.”

Wong’s comments come amid speculation that Paul Chan Mo-po, Hong Kong’s finance chief, could relax property market curbs further during his budget speech on February 28, after Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, the city’s leader, rolled back some curbs in his policy address last year.

Lee halved the homebuyers’ stamp duty for non-permanent residents and for additional properties. The move brought down both these duties to 7.5 per cent from the previous 15 per cent.